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00:00With a career spanning six decades and collaborations with the likes of P.J. Harvey and David Bowie,
00:05Marianne Faithfull cemented her status as one of the UK's most versatile singer-songwriters.
00:11Born in London in 1946, she dropped out of school after meeting the Rolling Stones.
00:18I was learning. It was exactly the period I would have been in university.
00:24But instead of going to university, I went down to Pete Townshend's recording sessions,
00:31or Paul McCartney's recording sessions, or the Rolling Stones' recording sessions,
00:35and they were my friends. And that was my university, and those were my masters.
00:41In 1964, Faithfull launched her career with the single As Tears Go By, which reached the UK Top
00:47Ten. The song was co-authored by the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, with whom
00:52she famously had a four-year relationship. But after hitting chart success, Faithfull
01:02fell victim to drug addiction after the relationship ended and spent years living
01:06on the streets of London. It was a struggle she would ultimately overcome. Faithfull started to
01:14turn her life around in the mid-70s and bounced back to prominence in 1979 with her synth-driven
01:19album Broken English, which earned her a Grammy nomination. A reversal of fortune that was no
01:25mean feat. I didn't get here on charm, I can tell you. This is not what made Marianne Faithfull.
01:35Hopefully there is a little charm left. But what would you say to a 17-year-old who wants to...
01:41I don't give advice. That's what I don't do. That's rule one. Do not give advice. My advice
01:47is very, very simple. Don't take heroin and don't smoke crack.
01:52She went on to release more than a dozen albums. Alongside her career in music, Faithfull also
01:58tasted success as an actress, taking on roles including Ophelia in Tony Richardson's Hamlet
02:04and playing herself in Jean-Luc Godard's 1966 film Made in the USA. After rebounding from a
02:10string of health issues in recent years, including a broken hip and Covid, Faithfull has died aged
02:1678.