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4. “Sister Morphine”
Though most people associate this song with the Rolling Stones since it appears on their 1971 classic “Sticky Fingers,” most of the lyrics were actually written by Faithfull. (The fact that she was not credited on “Sticky Fingers” and was only acknowledged as a contributor in 1994, after a lengthy legal battle, did not help that misconception.) Though she wrote it before she was in the throes of heroin addiction, as a kind of character study about a man given morphine in a hospital after an accident, she wrote in her 1994 memoir, “Faithfull,” that it ended up becoming an eerie precursor to her eventual struggles. “You have to be very careful what you write,” she noted, “because it’s a gateway, and whatever it is you’ve summoned up may come through.”
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5. “Times Square”
Here’s a hidden gem in Faithfull’s catalog, from her lesser known 1983 LP “A Child’s Adventure.” The album’s producer Barry Reynolds wrote this haunting tune and released his own version a year earlier, but Faithfull really makes the song her own. Atop a bed of airy synthesizers, she delivers one of the most bracing vocal performances of her career — and that’s saying something.
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6. “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan”
Written by Shel Silverstein and first recorded by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” became one of Faithfull’s signature songs when she recorded it for “Broken English” — and even more so when it appeared in the hit 1991 movie “Thelma & Louise.” Though Faithfull’s own life experience was quite different from the titular housewife’s, she tells her story with a quivering pathos and empathy.
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7. “Give My Love to London”
A clear highlight of the final period of Faithfull’s career is her 2014 album “Give My Love to London,” which included this stomping tune that Faithfull co-wrote with Steve Earle. Earle plays guitar on the track, along with the Clash’s Mick Jones; the album also features contributions from Warren Ellis, who would become a close and prolific collaborator of Faithfull’s in her later years.
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8. “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams”
“Strange Weather,” from 1987, was the first album that Faithfull recorded after kicking her long heroin addiction, and it represented a new chapter in her artistry. In a departure from her more rock-oriented work, Faithfull here reinvents herself — quite convincingly — as a dark cabaret singer, offering eerie, expertly interpreted renditions of old pop standards. (Which is to say that this is a cover of the 1930s traditional, not the Green Day song.)
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9. “She”
This sorrowful ballad, anchored by Faithfull’s wrenching vocal performance, is a highlight from “A Secret Life,” the moody 1995 album that she made in collaboration with David Lynch’s favorite composer, the great Angelo Badalamenti.
