Marianne Faithfull – Come My Way

Marianne’s folk debut Come My Way has been remastered from the original tapes by the Grammy nominated Andrew Batt who also provides detailed sleeve notes which Marianne contributed to before her passing in January 2025.

Released on the same day as her eponymous pop LP, Come My Way is based around tracks from the American folk revival and the album came about because Marianne wanted to record an LP based on the songs she had been performing in local folk clubs before she was signed. The album was produced and arranged by Jon Mark who would become an important figure in Marianne’s early career, he is joined on acoustic guitar by Big Jim Sullivan, one of the most in-demand and versatile studio musicians of the 60s, alongside John Paul Jones (later of Led Zeppelin) on bass.

On tracks like ‘Mary Ann’ and ‘House Of The Rising Sun’, the trio achieve a frequently perfect blend of the folk revival sound infused with some unexpected jazz flourishes. Other musical highlights include the title track that was specially written for the project with Jon Mark, ‘Spanish Is A Loving Tongue’ by the cowboy poet Charles Badger Clark and Marianne’s interpretation of the traditional songs ‘Once I Had A Sweetheart’ and ‘Fare Thee Well’ – the latter more than a match for Joan Baez’s recording. The album’s spoken word recordings of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jaberwock’ and ‘Full Fathom Five’ from Shakespeare’s The Tempest came out of Marianne’s work with the Prospect Theatre, a local theatrical group that she performed with before her recording career.

Format – LP