What was taught by Marianne Faithfull about Broken Heart

It disturbed me that Faithfull was sometimes reduced to be handled as a “muse” rolling stones since time with the band, however generative, is a small footnoter in his own artistic career. (Specifically, he had to fight stones for years in court to get a legal writing credit for “sister morphine,” which he wrote with jagger and Keith RichardsAnd released as a single a few years before the band recorded its own version The fingers are sticky). In recent years he has also dealt with a number of health problems, including hepatitis and breast cancer. I wondered if Faithfull had ever hated all that, remembering that he had gone through so much. Or must continue to be strong.

When Faithfull received the phone that day, he looked satisfied, comfortable. He was in his place in Paris and surrounded by beauty. In his beautiful accent, he described how the balcony was filled with excitement at the time: roses, olive trees, winter jasmine, tons of geranium. Hopefully, he added, he could get out and plant his own ingredients once he stood up again. Meanwhile he has read, watching television, and chatting on the phone.

Sometimes it is difficult to be fully connected to the artist by telephone, but Faithfull is funny and sharp, full of humor and crowing stories. He was more enlightening when we started talking about music, especially his collaboration with multi-hyphenate like Utley, the first time he met in the early 2000s. We chatted for a moment about his work with him for many years, and the conversation turned to how he read all the novels of Aldous Huxley and Charles Dickens lately, an experience he called “Original Gas.”

After we finished talking about his work with Utley, I gathered the courage to ask the last thing I wanted to know: “What is your medicine for a broken heart?”

He laughed. “The thing to do with a broken heart is listening to country music, because this is all about broken hearts. Without stopping, “he said. “Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, all. Come on, listen to country music, and it will make you cry and cry. “He also recommends reading Roland Barthes and gardening.” That will do it, it will heal a broken heart. “

“Another thing about heartbreak, of course, takes time,” he continued. “Make yourself a very tasty drink and listen to country music no later than. If you are still drinking? “I said yes. “Good. Well, press the tequila bottle, listen to country music.”

After we said goodbye and hung up the phone, I felt the wave of the first promise I had for some time. Of course that’s the answerI thought. The method that has been tested by Faithfull is very good because it maintains the various powers of conflicting emotional sadness. That can be followed up. When your heart is torn, it’s not a bad thing to give to reflect on the mantra, which is the place where Country music enters. The words -Roland Barthes will scratch your brain. Gardening meets the purpose of meditation, and tequila (or other equivalent drinks, alcohol or vice versa) becomes a source of poisoning.

I immediately tested Faithfull’s advice. A few weeks after my conversation with him, I foolishly tried again to do it with this person. We set a date and agreed to meet at a bar. That night I took a trip home from the office, passing a collapsed apartment that I shared with two roommates, and started walking to our meeting place. My phone ping. There he is. Naturally, he could not work tonight.

I turned around, went to my apartment, and walked with difficulty to the backyard covered with weeds as high as hips and stubborn bamboo trees. I queued “weird” Patsy Cline on my loud speaker’s speaker and started to dig a hole with my naked hands, one big enough to plant a pepper tree that we had given by someone a few days before. When I lifted the ground on the ground, feeling sediment through my fingers, I began to feel the weight in my heart. Besides, I was relieved to know that the pain did not empty – but I knew what I really needed at that time were some tequila.