As tears go by.....

A favorite of mine through the years has been Marianne Faithfull, who seduced me as a teen with As Tears Go By (written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham) before descending into drugs (in the early 1970s, after her break-up with Mick Jagger, she spent two years living on the streets in London's Soho, a drug addict and an anorexic), only to resurface in 1979 with her very fine Broken English album. Much like Ronnie Spector, Faithfull has the respect of other musicians, collaborating over the years with the likes of Pink Floyd, Garth Hudson, Dr. John, Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris, Joe Jackson, Blur, Beck, Billy Corgan, Dave Stewart and PJ Harvey. At 61, the voice is completely different, even an acquired taste, but I'm still a fan.

Well, according to the Canadian music site ChartAttack, after a recent battle with breast cancer, she's about to release Easy Come, Easy Go, her 22nd album. I had no idea!

Marianne Faithfull enlisted an impressive group of people to contribute to her 22nd album, a collection of wide-ranging covers titled Easy Come, Easy Go. The album, which will be released by Naive Records on Dec. 9, was recorded at New York City's Sear Sound by producer Hal Willner (Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams) last December. The band backing Faithfull featured Marc Ribot, Greg Cohen, Rob Burger, Barry Reynolds and the Dirty Three's Jim White. But Faithfull's vocal collaborators were even more impressive: Sean Lennon on Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's "Salvation" and Judee Sill's "The Phoenix," Chan Marshall and Lennon on Neko Case's "Hold On, Hold On," Nick Cave on The Decemberists' "The Crane Wife 3," Rufus Wainwright on Espers' "Children Of Stone," Teddy Thompson on Brian Eno's "How Many Worlds," Antony Hegarty on Smokey Robinson And The Miracles' "Ooh Baby Baby," Keith Richards on Merle Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home," Jarvis Cocker on Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's West Side Story tune, "Somewhere (A Place For Us)," and Kate and Anna McGarrigle on the traditional "Flandyke Shore." Here are the songs, with their original artists in parentheses, on Easy Come, Easy Go: Disc one: "Down From Dover" (Dolly Parton) "Hold On, Hold On" (Neko Case) "Solitude" (Billie Holiday) "The Crane Wife 3" (The Decemberists) "Easy Come, Easy Go" (Bessie Smith) "Children Of Stone" (Espers) "How Many Worlds" (Brian Eno) "In Germany Before The War" (Randy Newman) "Ooh Baby Baby" (Smokey Robinson And The Miracles) "Sing Me Back Home" (Merle Haggard) Disc two: "Salvation" (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) "Black Coffee" (Sarah Vaughn) "The Phoenix" (Judee Sill) "Dear God Please Help Me" (Morrissey) "Kimbie" (Jackson C. Frank) "Many A Mile To Freedom" (Traffic) "Somewhere (A Place For Us)" (Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim) "Flandyke Shore" (traditional) "Children Of Stone," "Down From Dover" and "Ooh Baby Baby" can be previewed on Faithfull's MySpace page. - complete article