eMusic Review 0
In 1979 — a decade and a half after "As Tears Go By" made her famous — former or present Jagger girlfriend, Stones songwriter, heroin addict, anorexia victim, homeless actress and descendent of Austrian aristocracy Marianne Faithfull returned from the abyss with Broken English, which at its very best was one of the most uncompromised mergers of punk, disco and reggae ever concocted. That "very best" mainly means two songs: The cryptic album-opening title track, supposedly inspired by the Baader-Meinhof Gang though one could easily hear it for three decades without picking up on that (what you always figured was "It's just a mugwump/ not even a car wash" turns out to be "It's just an old war/ not even a cold war"!) and the near-seven-minute closer "Why D'ya Do It," simply one of the most viciously ball-breaking spurned-woman tirades ever recorded: "Why'd ya do what ya said? Why'd ya do what ya did?" repeated obsessively, with increasing nastiness, through a throat scarred by laryngitis and white powder, climaxing with unmentionable male and female body parts named outright in a frighteningly pissed-off manner, as louder-and-louder axe jolts curdle into concentric rhythm. In 1979, the closest musical comparison was, oh, maybe… read more »
