Chords for Close Up - Marianne Faithfull 1/5

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_ _ _ _ [Gbm] _ _ [A] _ _
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_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [N] I met Andrew Oldham at a party.
He asked me if I'd like to make a record because he thought
I had a face and it could sell.
And what did you think?
I thought this is fine, perhaps
I have, let's sell it. _
The world can do what it likes to me, people [B] can do what they like
to me, lovers can do what they like to me, anybody can do what they like to me, my [Bb] head's
cool.
_ [G] _ One does need help. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ You have to be [Ab] very honest about it with yourself, you have to
admit that you're on the junk heap.
_ _ _ When she [Gbm] was 18 years old, Marianne Faithfull became
one of British music's biggest stars.
_ Five years later, she had nothing.
In a career
that has spanned 30 years, she's often been a victim of the mythology that's grown around
her.
It's only now that she feels able to tell her story. _
_ _ _ _ I'm [B] very insecure about this
_ [Gbm] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [A] _ Ask me [D] a question.
I'll [A] always be [E] used [A] only in an [D] iconic way, as [E] a symbol.
A symbol of
despair, [Dbm] a symbol of [A] destruction, a symbol [D] of evil, [E] a symbol of survival.
And that is
[Cm] a tradition in pop [G] music [Gbm] with women, that you [E] _
make them up, [Ab] you make them fulfil a fantasy
[N] and I was absolutely determined not to do that. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ I find it very difficult to do this
sort of thing, because I feel it's not safe _ to _ _ _ show people, _ really, _ _ it's not safe.
To
show your sensitive side?
To show anything.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ I mean it's the same old thing, you must have
heard it a million times.
The way I choose to show my feelings is through [E] my [A] songs.
Oh, _ _ _ _ [E] doctor please. _ _
_ _ _ [A] Oh, _ _ _
_ _ [Em] doctor [E] _ please. _
_ _ _ [A] I drink and I take drugs.
[E] I love sex and I move around a [Em] lot.
[A] I had my first baby at 14.
[Em] And [Bm] yes, I [D] guess I do [A] have [E] vagabond ways. _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ She [Gb] really has [E] always seemed the quintessentially _ English girl, which [A] she isn't at all.
She sort of
comes from [Gb] this sort of almost gothic [E] background. _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Gb] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
[Bb] The daughter of, you know, the wonderfully
eccentric _ Glynne Faithfull, [B] and the mother of a baroness of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whose
title sort of went back to the Crusades.
My father _ _ was _ _ _ _ in _ _ _ _ MI6. _ _
He was a spy.
He had the very, _
an amazing ability to speak any European language, French, German, Russian, Czech, anything,
_ without an accent.
He had an ear.
He really could be dropped behind enemy lines anywhere _ _ and pass.
[D] _ My [Gbm] mother was a [G] dancer in the Max Reinhardt Company in Berlin [E] until the Nazis marched into Vienna. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] My father was an _ idealist who in fact, once my poor mother got to England, thinking she was
marrying major faithful English gent, _ _ _ he immediately, more or less after I was born, whipped her off
to start a commune in Oxfordshire, _ which is his life's work.
[B] _ _ My [Abm] father wanted nothing less but to change
[E] the world.
[A] _ _ To me, they were just, _ _ [D] _ _ [B] they were enchanting.
_ [E] _ But they loathed [A] each other.
So the quicker
they got [Fm] away from each other, the better, [G] really.
I could see that.
[Bbm] _ _
[G] When her parents finally [E] divorced, Marianne and [Db] her mother moved to a small house in [Gbm] Reading.
Her mother [D] insisted that she went to St Joseph's, the local convent [G] school. _
_ _ [N] Convent was not pleasant because [Eb] I wasn't a Catholic or anyone.
I wasn't there.
[Bm] I was, my father was an
atheist [E] and I was totally, [Eb] _ wasn't my thing at all.
And they, that changed me.
[N] And they changed me.
By the time I was ten, I was a Catholic.
_ _ And I was [Eb] a Catholic until I was seventeen, but by that time,
I was already beginning to get very messed up in my mind. _
It was alright.
Because it was so long ago
and nice and young.
_ _ But you're not a Catholic now?
No.
_ _ [G] Marianne was immediately marked out as a _ scarlet woman.
I mean, she was _ just naturally very beautiful.
You know, had absolutely natural blonde hair, gorgeous figure.
You know, this was about the age of eleven.
So for some reason, the nuns always thought that she was bad.
She was unbelievably innocent.
I know this is hard to _ believe, but [Db] she tried so hard to be good [A] and virtuous.
And she just failed miserably because of the way she [Am] looked.
_ _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ We [B] used to go and sing down by the river.
[Dm] We all had guitars.
[D] _ And I remember that was the [Am] first time I heard
[E] Marianne sing the House of [C] the Rising Sun, which is still one of her favorites.
And [E] we used to sing, you know, in harmony and sing duets.
_ It was a completely [Am] _
wholesome, _ _ [Gm] _ fun, beautiful time.
_ I must have been sixteen.
_ _ _ _ _ In fact, I was sixteen.
_ Every boy's dream, basically.
I was invited by _ one of my mates from Leighton Park _ to a Valentine Ball at Cambridge University.
_ [Eb] And this guy _ with little glasses, _ _ wearing a Mexican shirt and a waistcoat and jeans, really cool jeans _ and boots, _
came up to me _ _ and _ asked me to dance.
_ And it was Joff.
Well, I mean, we just went to a ding and _ _ started talking. _ _
And, you know, nobody could separate us for days, practically.
Ah, _ it was magic.
It was like a whole [Dm] doorway opened up into a world _ [G] that I [D] didn't know.
_ _ _ He [Em] smoked pot. _
He was [A] that hip.
_ He knew _ Burroughs.
He knew Alan.
That's how I met Alan Ginsberg.
And he knew Paul McCartney and he knew Jane Asher.
[G] He knew everybody.
_ _ _ Through John Dunbar, Marianne met many of the key players of the [D] 60s music scene.
Among them [Gm] was Andrew [G] Oldham, manager of the Rolling Stones.
[D] It was [Cm] incredible.
I was just [Eb] standing there and there was John and there was [B] Andrew Oldham.
And they weren't [Eb] talking to me and he was saying, _ Andrew [N] said to him, can she sing?
And he said, I don't know.
And they talked about me like this.
And then they said, can you sing?
And I said, I don't know.
You know, it was incredible.
No one ever, I didn't know what was happening.
_ _ _ _ Andrew Oldham's theory of pop is based on [E]
image.
_ And _ [Eb] he at once saw Marianne as an angel with big tits.
He didn't care really whether she could sing or not, actually.
And he told Mick and Keith, write a song for this girl that has sort of images of like high convent walls.
It was the first song that Mick and I had ever written.
After our first album, Andrew Oldham locked us in the kitchen and said, don't come out _ until you've got a song.
We thought, oh, what a great game.
You know, we'll just piss around, have something to eat, have a drink and say, sorry, we haven't got anything.
But somewhere in the middle of that night, [A] we wrote, as tears go by.
[G] This week, I have the [E] great pleasure to introduce a very beautiful young girl who's only recently made a name for [Bm] herself.
_ [C] Marianne Faithfull.
It is [D] the evening of [F] the _ day.
[G] _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ I [D] sit and watch the children [F] _ _ play.
[G] _ _ _ _ _ [F] Smiling [C] _ [G] faces. _