Marianne Faithfull's "Dreamin' My Dreams" Celebrates It's 40th Anniversary This Year
Marianne Faithfull disappeared for a while after the drug and alcohol fueled non stop party that was the late 60's had subsided. She finally releases her first album of the 70's in it's second half of the decade. 1976's "Dreamin' My Dreams" was not a huge success, and would two years later be revamped and repackaged as "Faithless", and although it never made it's mark on the charts, it has lived on to be a cult classic and fan favorite. Marketed at the time as a Country album, "Dreamin' My Dreams" plays more like a Country covers album, with Folk, Rock, Contemporary and of course Country influences. Marianne Faithfull always exhibits exquisite song selections, and this album is no exception.
The album did have one minor hit in it's title track, a song made famous the year before by several artists, and has many times since been covered. Marianne Faithfull's version of "Dreamin' My Dreams" shows off our Rebelles new voice, one acquired from the previously mentioned party daze. Gone is her sweet and tenderly angelic voice, and in replace is her bittersweet and toughly fragile voice. Her new found sound is a perfect fit for this aching ballad. Check out a live performance below!
She seemed to have a penchant for Allen Reynolds penned tunes, as this was one of four songs written by the genius lyricist on her album. These other songs have a bit more pep to their step, like "Somebody Loves You", "Wrong Road Again" and "All I Wanna Do In Life". She keeps the cover songs coming, from the quirky "Vanilla O'Lay", a Jackie DeShannon tune, to the rocking "Sweet Little Sixteen", one of Chuck Berry's signatures. Almost an ode to peer appreciation, Marianne Faithfull spends a quarter of her album singing the songs of Waylon Jennings and his wife Jessi Colter, a fellow Rebelle. The songs "This Time" and the albums title track were both successes for Waylon, and "I'm Looking For Blue Eyes" and "I'm Not Lisa" belonged to Jessi, who had a huge success the year prior with the previously mentioned. Marianne's new found voice again provides a perfect achy frailty to the song, helping to authenticate it as her own.
Also covered on the album are "Fairy Tale Hero" and "The Way You Want Me to Be", two bitterly sweet Folk influenced song. Lastly, the album is not all covers. Marianne Faithfull takes a crack at songwriting with "Lady Madelaine", with stellar results. As inspiring as it is depressing, "Lady Madelaine" perfectly points listeners in the right direction of what to expect from the future Faithfull.
Marianne Faithfull is a 4
level rebelle, meaning she has contributed her unique brand of music to
the world 4 decades in a row to the anniversary of this year. That is an
incredible accolade many other artists cannot account for. In addition
to her albums released in 1966 and 1976, she made a soundtrack contribution
in 1986, and a collaboration with Oxbow in 1996.
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