Pay it Forward: Jehnny Beth on Marianne Faithfull

After contributing a version of Why’d Ya Do It to Broken English, the film about Marianne Faithfull’s life, Jehnny Beth reflects on the singer’s guiding spirit.

My entry [to Marianne] was Broken English. I knew of her, like everybody, through the Rolling Stones, but I don’t think that’s the right door to get to know her. It’s a door that limits her. So she was a figure I knew of, but I didn’t know the extent of her talent or importance. When I played Broken English, I was transcended by the first synth notes – like a question. It grabs your attention, like: listen to me. The whole record felt so important, in sound, in intention, and I was like, who is this person? To this day, I still have a poster of Broken English in my kitchen, next to Iggy Pop.

She was sharp like a knife, and true. She’s one of those characters who will not lie, you know? I’m very attracted to that aspect in certain artists; I think I share it with them. It’s one of the reasons, for me, why we do art and music. She’s one of those singers who understands the importance of words, and so I’m not surprised she lived a lot in France, because that’s something that is very important in our culture. When she sings, the words carry a lot of meaning. It’s almost the way she projects them. She makes them complete, you know?

The movie shows her in the later stage of life. It’s not a movie where you mostly see her when she’s young and beautiful, and that doesn’t take away any of her strength. That’s one of the powers of her personality. It was incredible to hear Warren [Ellis] talk about his relationship with her. I always love to witness this connection between musicians. We’re family, you know? Between them – Marianne and Warren – there was this sort of bond and kindness and sense of humour, which you see in the movie. 

She said that Broken English was her at her truest, which is interesting, because you can spend a lifetime hiding, pretending to be there. For me, Marianne is the artist of the present. She is where she is, and she gives you the present. The fact she said Broken English was when she felt she was finally there really spoke to me, because you can explore different genres and ideas, but if the artist isn’t there in the present, there’s almost no point.

One of the first songs I wrote with Savages was I Am Here, which was taken from Michaux’s concept of what it means to write something that’s truly here and not worried about the future or tainted by the past. When I wrote my second solo record You Heartbreaker, You, it was after an absence of many years, where I was fooling everybody about it, including myself. And then I had a sort of… people talk about out-of-body experiences, but I had an inside-body experience. I was on stage, and suddenly I was back in my body. I knew straight away which record I wanted to make. I was there, you know? Like Marianne.