Don't Say It In Russian

Marianne Faithfull : Broken English

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On November 2 , 1979 Marianne Faithfull released Broken English, her comeback album and the one she calls her masterpiece.

 If Faithfull had lived every English schoolgirl's dream during the 1960's, when she was a film star, an international singing star ( thanks to the UK#9 "As Tears Go By") and Mick Jagger's lover, her 70's were a nightmare. She lost custody of her son, became a heroin addict, lived on the streets and nearly lost her voice to laryngitis. For some reason musician Barry Reynolds thought Faithfull would make an interesting songwriting partner and their collaboration produced "Broken English", about female terrorist Ulrike Meinhof, and "Why D'Ya Do It?", her new album's best remembered songs.

The album was produced by Mark Mundy. She told Record "I don't think I could have handled Broken English without a producer. You can't imagine what it was like. There I am with no respect at all within the music business. ... So I found somebody who wanted the break, and that was Mark Mundy. He wanted to be a record producer, and he had some great ideas." 

Among the great ideas was to update Faithfull's sound by using synthesizers and keyboards. Stevie Winwood actually plays on some of the tracks. Faithfull's cover of Shel Silverstein's "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" was the first single, peaking at UK#48. It would later appear on the soundtrack to Thelma and Louise.

  

Rolling Stone's Greil Marcus was among the critics who took note of the "stunning"  new album:

Faithfull sings as if she means to get every needle, every junkie panic, every empty pill bottle and every filthy room into her voice—as if she spent the last ten years of oblivion trying to kill the face that first brought her to our attention. The voice is a croak, a scratch, all breaks and yelps and constrictions. Though her voice seems perverse, it soon becomes clear that it is also the voice of a woman who is comfortable with what she sounds like.

Robert Christgau gave the album a grade of A-, writing:

A punk-disco fusion so uncompromised it will scare away fans of both genres, which share a taste for nasty girls that rarely extends to females past thirty with rat's-nest hair and last night's makeup on. The raw dance music isn't exactly original, and sometimes the offhandedness of the lyrics can be annoying, but I like this even when it's pro forma and/or sloppy, or maybe because it's pro forma and/or sloppy, like Dylan when he's good. "Why'd ya spit on my snatch?" indeed--the music's harshest account of a woman fending with the world.

1978: A Few We Missed

The Rumour : Frozen Years

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I can't post everything worth hearing from 1978 in a single year. This is my attempt at a make good. Let's begin with Graham Parker's Rumour, who  signed their own deal with Stiff Records and recorded the unfairly forgotten Frogs Sprouts Clogs and Krauts.

"Till It Shines" is a deep cut from Stranger in Town, a massive hit album from Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, which also featured  "Hollywood Nights", "Still the Same", "Old Time Rick + Roll" , "Feel Like a Number" and "We've Got Tonite".

In 1978, six years before they became a funk band, Scritti Politti released the debut single "Skank Bloc Bologna" on their own St. Pancras label. It's a grower. In fact, John Peel liked it enough to play it on his show which ed to a record contract with Rough Trade in 1979.

One of the reasons 1979's Broken English would be such a wonderful surprise is because two  years earlier, Marianne Faithfull attempted to record a country album. Originally called Dreaming My Dreams, it was re-released in 1978 as Faithless. Her cover of Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" is the most listenable track on the album. 

Let's end on a good note. Nick Gilder hit US#1 with "Hot Child In The City" but that wasn't the only catchy tune on City Nights. "Here Comes the Night" is an ear worm that just missed the US Top 40.