a poem about marianne faithfull, by patti smith

'I was born in Hampstead. My mother wasn’t screaming so they didn’t believe she was in labor. Later I went to convent school. Later I rode in leather. Later I took some sleeping pills. I needed to lose…'
M.F.

there is a sweetness
in your little girl mouth
and the pearls you hold
in the palm of your hand
everytime you extend that hand
you break down you fantasize
you are circumsized
agonized
scourged
crowned
crucified
pierced four times
your sacred heart bleeds
drips and drips down
women weep at your feet
twelve men turn you
twelve men desire you
(ammonia clouds your armpits)
a starfish quivers in your belly
and the arrows shake out
shake out shake out
and the muscles in your heart ache
a fish slaps back your face
you roll you roll over
in the sanctuary yards
in a coarse black dress
bless your hot virgin mouth
you would be Judas
and Christ himself
you would be Mary Magdalene
the only woman
who made our savior weep
yet you would pull mandrax in
like the sacred wafer
leave me for eternal sleep
But no. I wont let you go.
I wont let you go.no.
wont let the honey drain
from your sweet sweet box
wont let the crowds blush and gasp
while you carry your cross
wont let the flower girls fan you
hind a big black hearse
wont let the pearls
crumble crumble
from your little girl mouth

wild horses

music i'm obsessed with right now

albums:

loaded - the velvet underground

not that i haven't always been totally obsessed with this album, but it's really grown on me a lot and i've been listening to oh sweet nuthin' and new age almost nonstop lately.

darklands - the jesus and mary chain
i love basically everything the jesus and mary chain does, and this album is lovely. pretty sure nobody else reconciles my love of feedback with my love of sixties style harmonies like they do

secondhand daylight - magazine
magazine is actually amazing and criminally underrated. both this and their debut real life are part of that rare breed of albums that don't have a bad song on them

phrazes for the young - julian casablancas

i was desperate to see him when he comes to melbourne in may but it's at the palace theatre which is all seated, therefore totally lame. i guess i'll just have to wait until the strokes drop their new album and tour accordingly :(

________________________________

songs:

thirteen - big star (still in mourning over alex chilton)

my time outside the womb - titus andronicus

love like blood - killing joke

laura - girls

come and stay with me - marianne faithfull

i don't love anyone - belle & sebastian

he's gone - vivian girls (wish i could find an mp3 copy of the chantels original)

_______________________

vinyl i bought today:

so - peter gabriel ($7)

puppet on a string 4" - sandie shaw ($3)

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nice quotes i have found recently

"the individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. if you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. but no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."
- friedrich nietzche

"there's an awful lot of white, british kids who have never really gone hungry, always had a roof to live under, but at the same time are desperately unhappy. it's not total poverty, just a poverty of ideas."
- richie edwards

"when you’re a teenager and in your early twenties it seems desperately eternal and excruciatingly painful. whereas as you grow older you realise that most things are excruciatingly painful and that is the human condition. most of us continue to survive because we’re convinced that somewhere along the line, with grit and determination and perseverance, we will end up in some magical union with somebody. it’s a fallacy, of course, but it’s a form of religion. you have to believe. there is a light that never goes out and it’s called hope."
- morrissey

________________________

be my baby

women i wish i looked like

brigitte bardot

________________

marianne faithfull

edie sedgwick

anna karina

nico

________________

so clearly a beautiful, troubled sixties waif look would be great.

shiny hair, that's my life ambition

i'm going to grow my hair out, for real this time.

and by that i mean, i made a kind of pathetic attempt to grow it into a louise brooks bob last year which failed miserably when i just got sick of having hair that was really fucking weird looking as it was growing out. but this time, i'm going to stick with it. it's been more than a year with my current hair, after all. these photos will be the motivation that keeps me going. i have a plan. starting with this ~

phase one ~ the jean. imagine that this is my hair right now, except thicker and a bit longer. the growing out process is only just beginning at this point. i need the shorter hair at the back of my head to catch up to the hair at the bottom so it will eventually be all the same length, but i don't want it to turn into a mullet, so i will get my hair trimmed every six weeks just at the back. every so often i will wield the scissors myself at home to manipulate the hair at the front into a position which will become a fringe once it is at the bob stage. if all goes according to plan, it will ultimately become this ~

phase two ~ the lulu. once i've gotten over the "is it a pixie or a bob ?" hurdle, it will more or less be smooth sailing for my hair. louise brooks's hair was razored at the back and tapered down to a longer length at the front, which is ideal for my plan to just allow my hair to grow while the short hair on top catches up. hopefully my hair will look like this come formal time, which is in six months, because i really don't want the totally bizarre-looking mop that is typical of growing out a short cut. once my bob has reached a suitable length, i'll cut it all to one length so it will look like this ~

phase three ~ the debbie. this would imo be pretty much the best hair ever if it was slightly longer, had a blunt fringe and didn't have debbie's trademark black stripe down the back [but hey, she made it work]. by this point my hair will be adequate but it won't quite be quite up-do material yet so i'll have to keep going until i get to a length that is approximately the same as this ~

phase four ~ the kate. this haircut is probably the closest to perfect i've ever seen - and since it's unlikely platinum blonde would suit my pallid-but-freckly complexion, the closest to perfect colour for me that i've seen, too. i guess time will tell whether or not i decide to grow my hair any longer, but if i do, the ideal result would be something like this ~

phase five ~ the marianne. the fabulousness of her hair in this photo speaks for itself, really. lovely. here's hoping that it will be me within three years. wish me luck.

currently listening to:

oh my god ~ mark ronson ft. lily allen

people are strange ~ echo & the bunnymen

when i fall in love ~ sandra dee

watching the detectives ~ elvis costello

she is strung out on a tv dream

in an attempt to make this blog less barren, every so often i'll post one of my current or all-time style icons along with a little inspiration. today, it's marianne faithfull.
blessed with the face and voice of an angel but indulging in some less-than-angelic behaviour throughout her life, marianne spent her youth drinking, smoking, abusing various drugs and sleeping with some or all of the rolling stones. but whatever vagabond ways she had or still has, back in the day marianne had breathtaking style.
the uninitiated should listen to the album broken english in its entirety, watch the youtube video of ms faithfull's ethereal rendition of as tears go by, or catch marianne [albeit much older and croakier] as marie antoinette's mother in the 2006 film marie antoinette. but for now let's enjoy some of marianne faithfull's most stylish moments of the sixties and seventies.

currently listening to:

tristes apprets, pales flambeaux ~ jean phillipe rameau / w. christie

hate to say i told you so ~ the hives

you came, you saw, you conquered ~ the ronettes

life is a pigsty ~ morrissey