40年前,她刚踏进歌坛,人美声甜,唱着“甲壳虫”、“滚石”的时代曲,前途似乎充满期盼,流行世界的又一位可人儿做着大明星的梦,1964年,她才18岁。4年之后,她又在银幕上找到自己继续造梦的天地,与阿兰·德龙(Alain Delon)合作了她的处女电影:《皮革下的裸露》(Girl on a Motorcycle)——她着一件黑色的皮质夹克,是名副其实的冷美人、铁女子。胆大如她,毫不忌讳的裸体演出让喜欢她的人发现她甜美清纯的外表下是狂野和不羁,她的情人,是“滚石乐队”的坏小子——贾格尔(Mick Jagger),不断在上世纪60年代掀起音乐的浪潮。而整个60年代对于她,却如此美妙,她的名字——玛芮安妮·菲丝弗(Marianne Faithfull)本该被更多人记得,但毒品败坏了她的名声,毁掉了她光明的星途,也损害了她的歌喉,从天堂到地狱,10多年的时间,她人间蒸发。
等到她重获新生,当初的甜与美都凝固在记忆里了,唤醒记忆的却是她苍凉与嘶哑的歌声,这是另一个玛芮安妮,音乐故事中少有的奇迹,原来只有科幻电影才可以出现的生命再造,在现实中也同样可以出现。
玛芮安妮·菲丝弗的新专辑《Before the Poison》,继续两年前专辑《Kissin Time》与著名摇滚乐手合作的方式,《Before the Poison》出现的合作伙伴是更为另类一些的PJ Harvey与Nick Cave,《Kissin Time》沾染的电子音效与HIP HOP曲调是她与音乐潮流的一次短暂爱情,而《Before the Poison》则是她自己对前尘往事的一次回归,PJ Harvey时不时点起一团火气,却又马上被Nick Cave低沉的钢琴声扑灭,最动听的歌叫“Crazy Love”:
Crazy Love is All Around Me
Love is Crazy Love is Kind
But I Know Somehow You'll Find Me
Love is Crazy Love is Blind
“爱是疯狂爱是盲目”早就不是今天才有的新鲜告白,但藉着玛芮安妮·菲丝弗的歌喉又添上新鲜的色彩,在情感由浓转淡的几十年后,那疯狂之爱的另一半又身处何种境地?会是她爱过恨过的贾格尔吗?会是……谜底其实已经不再重要,那疯狂之爱的男主角已是镜花水月,在另一首歌里,她这样唱:
It's not A Love Song
It's the Last Song For You
你已经不再是爱,你仅仅是一段记忆。被青春那趟盲目的列车带到无名的地方,失落然后消失,再见变成永别——昨天的泪水已经在空气里凝结,化做今天的一场雨水,洗去玻璃上的尘土,让视野可以清晰地去见证明日之地。
今天的玛芮安妮·菲丝弗也已经不是过去那个只会唱别人歌曲的豆蔻少女,历炼过磨难,才更懂得要用音乐讲述自己的故事与心情,无论《Before the Poison》,还是《Kissin Time》,大部分歌词都出自她自己的手笔,歌词不依靠另类偏锋获取石破天惊的效果,都是些淡淡的心情小品,这样的平白与简单,一旦经过她独特凄美的嗓音润色,便有了化腐朽为神奇的惊人效果,同样的歌若是换成他人演绎,也许就会大打折扣——玛芮安妮这种于平淡中呈现的奇妙化合作用也是她重生以后所有唱片的共同特质,算来时间也接近20年,在音乐的世界自成她独特的风格,不会大红大紫,却历久如新。
《Before the Poison》的封套上,一个女孩躺在她的腿上,显露出玛芮安妮·菲丝弗母性的一面,提醒歌迷她不再是那个人靓歌甜的青春少女,同时,这也是对自己青春的一种怀念。
Few stars of the 60s have reinvented themselves as successfully as Marianne Faithfull. Coaxed into a singing career by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham in 1964, she had a big hit in both Britain and the U.S. with her debut single, the Jagger/Richards composition As Tears Go By (which prefaced the Stones own version by a full year). Considerably more successful in her native land than the States, she had a series of hits in the mid-60s that set her high, fragile voice against delicate orchestral pop arrangements: Summer Night, This Little Bird, and Jackie De Shannons Come and Stay with Me. Not a songwriter at the outset of her career, she owes more of her fame as a 60s icon to her extraordinary beauty and her long-running romance with Mick Jagger, although she offered a taste of things to come with her compelling 1969 single Sister Morphine, which she co-wrote (and which the Stones released themselves on Sticky Fingers later).
In the 70s, Faithfull split up with Jagger, developed a serious drug habit, and recorded rarely, with generally dismal results. This occurred until late 1979, when she pulled off an astonishing comeback with Broken English. Displaying a croaking, cutting voice that had lowered a good octave since the mid-60s, Faithfull had also begun to write much of her own material, and addressed sex and despair with wrenching realism. After allowing herself to be framed as a demure chanteuse by songwriters and arrangers throughout most of her career, Faithfull had found her own voice, and suddenly sounded more relevant and contemporary than most of the stars she had rubbed shoulders with in the 60s. Faithfulls recordings in the 80s and 90s were sporadic and erratic, but generally quite interesting; Strange Weather, a Hal Willner-produced 1987 collection of standards and contemporary compositions that spanned several decades for its sources, was her greatest triumph of the decade. In 1994, she published her self-titled autobiography; the biography As Tears Go By by Mark Hodkinson is an objective and thorough account of her life and times.
Faithfull returned to recording in 2002 with Kissin Time, an eclectic collection of songwriting collaborations with Beck, Damon Albarn, Billy Corgan, Jon Brion, and Jarvis Cocker among others. In 2004, Before the Poison was released in the U.K., making its entrance into the U.S. market in early 2005. This album continued in the vein of its predecessor, with songwriting and production contributions from PJ Harvey, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Brion, and Albarn, but with far more consistent results.