Marianne Faithfull is still suffering from memory and lung problems, six months after battling coronavirus.
Marianne Faithfull
The 73-year-old singer was hospitalised for more than three weeks in April after contracting the virus and though she’s still feeling the effects, she’s confident she’ll recover fully in time and is proud to have been able to make her new record, ‘She Walks In Beauty’, over the last few months.
She told Mojo magazine: “I really hurt my lungs. This, after smoking most of my life and having emphysema.
"And my short-term memory is affected.
“But I'm told that when you have coronavirus as badly as I did, that happens.
"But your memory comes back, and mine is coming back. And my lungs are coming back too. I've made a beautiful record."
As she was unable to meet with her "f****** genius" collaborators, Marianne recorded seven tracks for 'She Walks In Beauty' at her London home before Warren Ellis added arrangements.
She issued him and other featured artists including Brian Eno, Nick Cave and Vincent Segal with just one demand, which she claimed came from her late friend and former producer Hal Willner, who died of coronavirus in April.
She said: "His death broke my heart. And I so wanted to talk to Hal, to ask advice and play him tracks. And in a way, we did talk, and his message was - no synth pads."
In 2018, Marianne opened up about her health issues, revealing she struggles to write because of chronic joint pain.
The singer shared: "I've got this terrible arthritis. It's in my left shoulder, arm and hand. I recovered from all those awful things, like the broken back and the hip and bone infection. That was bad enough - then I got this arthritis.
"My mother had it too, so it's genetic, I think. I'm left-handed. That makes it hard for me to write or type. It's awful, man - but I get through."
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