She looked so fine at first, but left looking just like a ghost...

The first official pictures of Marianne and Mick as a couple:

A classic and well-known Marianne shot indeed, but one of my faves. From the filming of The Girl On The Motorcycle (1968):

M & M attend a ballet, 1967:

Home alone - Frail Marianne returns from Australia after her coma:

Mick visiting Marianne in hospital after her overdose:

Headed to court:

Early 70's, when she lived on a wall in Soho:

Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger began dating in late 1966, at a time when one could argue Marianne looked most "fine" (year of the well-known photos of her, glassy-eyed and corset-clad). They first met, however, almost two years prior, at the party where Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham famously told 17-year-old ex-convent school alum Marianne that she simply had to be a star. Mick and Keith even wrote her a little ditty to record, "As Tears Go By", the tune that singlehandedly launched her career. They officially broke up in 1970, although I think they still saw one another off and on in early '71. It was that same year that Jagger and the band made off for France to escape Britain's harsh taxes, and on May 12, Mick wed diminutive Nicaraguan brunette Bianca Pérez-Mora Macías in St. Tropez. Very quick, aren't we, Mick?

1967 was a good year for the couple, despite their infamous drug bust at Redlands (which, at the time, they seemed almost amused by). They were young and breath-takingly gorgeous, rich, idolized and in love. It was 1968, the year work began on Donald Cammell's notorious masterpiece that was to destroy many a psyche - Performance - that trouble began to brew. While Mick was always able to 'dapple' with drugs, Marianne (and Keith, Anita and Brian) was on her way to becoming a full fledged cocaine addict. During the uncomfortable filming of the aforementioned film (due to Mick and Anita's on and off camera affair), Keith may have fumed outside in his Bentley with Spanish Tony, but Marianne was sent to Ireland, where Mick had a country estate, as she was in delicate condition - pregnant with Mick's baby. They were going to call her Corrina; sadly, Marianne miscarried, which devastated both parents-to-be.

On December 11 of 1968, the Rolling Stones taped the Rock N' Roll Circus, a show featuring themselves as headliners, plus the Who, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, and other esteemed guests. Marianne was part of the act as well, and in a painstaking performance, she sits in her signature docile, glassy-eyed manner, radiating ethereal beauty (the fact that she still looked unfathomably gorgeous even with short hair is so enviable), and sings a song called "Something Better". It is a profound moment considering all that was going on in her life at the time.

1969 was not the best of times, either. Mick was involved in yet another affair, this time with the African American singer Marsha Hunt ("Brown Sugar" inspiration). It was also a year of further drug-related court appearances. But, of course, the most dramatic event in the Stones circle was the death of Mr. Brian Jones, which had an agonizing effect on Marianne. She seemed to feel quite sorry for him and the way he was sort of 'disposed of' by Mick and Keith. In fact, Marianne mentions in her book that she one day overheard Mick talking to (I think it was) Allen Klein about "what to do" with her, and Klein essentially tells him he must get rid of her because she was a liability to Mick and the band. So, in that way, I think Marianne felt a closeness with Brian, even if he was a complete arsehole. She often had bizarre lucid dreams that she was to suffer the same fate as he did.

Mick and Marianne, both enjoying acting as well as pop stardom (though Marianne's singing career had stalled at that point), decided to shoot a movie together - Ned Kelly - to be filmed in Australia. When they arrived to begin work on the movie, Marianne attempted suicide by swallowing a lethal number of Tuinals and was rushed to the emergency room and went into a coma that lasted six days. Her role as Ned Kelly (played by Mick)'s sister was promptly given to someone else. In any event, the movie turned out to be poorly received by critics and was pretty much dismissed.

Marianne left Mick in 1970, running off with Mario Schifano, Anita's old boyfriend, but that was a short-lived affair. It's funny that all the headlines back then were, "MARIANNE: NOT FAITHFUL" and silly, overly dramatic things of that nature, when Mick had many instances of infidelity himself (they both did - Mario was not Marianne's first lover while in a relationship with Mick). When I think of all the bed-hopping they did in that circle, it amazes me. While many feelings were hurt all around, it didn't seem regarded as that big a deal. Needless to say it was the swinging sixties and most of the Stones and their cohorts were pretty fucked up on drugs, but sheesh, I know I couldn't live like that, despite how glamorous it may have seemed.

Marianne lost custody of her five-year-old son Nicholas in 1970 as well, a crushing blow that made Eva (Mary's mum) attempt suicide. Despite being addicted to drugs (her love affair with heroin began in earnest after reading Naked Lunch), Marianne was also anorexic for the last year of the 60's, and she did look quite destroyed. Blessed with big tits, her five foot five inch frame looked otherwise emaciated, and she probably only weighed 90-95 pounds. The Bob Dylan lyric from "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" reminds me of Marianne completely. "...Who looked so fine at first but left looking just like a ghost." Heartwrenching, isn't it?

Super Guru?

Marianne and Mick going to Euston Station bound for Bangor, August 25, 1967:

Note Marianne at the very far left, laughing:

Mick (Center) and Marianne (Right) attend the Maharishi's lecture (SUCH a rare pic, scanned by me from Rock N' Roll Babylon):
Listening to Maharishi's speech on August 24 at the London Hilton:
August 25:

In London, after returning from Bangor:

Mia Farrow and Maharishi Yogi, 1968:

Dear Prudence (brunette on the left), 1968, in Rishikesh, India:

Mia in Rishikesh:

Donovan in Rishikesh:

Paul and Jane:

August 27, 1967; in Bangor, the day Brian Epstein died:

During March 17, 1968; Patti's 24th birthday

Class of '68:

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is an interesting character of the 1960's. Another man full of paradox, he died just last year after spreading his teachings of peace and meditation for decades - and requiring quite a lot of money for it, too. He was introduced to the Beatles in 1967; Patti Boyd Harrison heard he was giving lectures in London in late August and told George and the guys about it, thinking they would fancy attending given their interest in the Eastern world. She was right. The Beatles were very impressed with the Maharishi and were thrilled when he invited them up to North Wales for further study. Even Mick and Marianne accompanied them on the train to Bangor (on their August 25 trip to the station, Marianne is carrying incense). They were met with screaming fans when they arrived, and Maharishi assumed they were for him. On August 27, Brian Epstein, the Bealtes infamous and influential manager and friend, died of an overdose.

On February 15, 1968, the Beatles and their ladies--Jane Asher, Cynthia Lennon, Pattie Boyd and Maureen Cox--as well as Mike Love, Donovan, Pattie's little sister Jenny Boyd, and Mia and Prudence Farrow, made for Rishikesh, India to study meditation with Maharishi. Ringo and Maureen left after only a day, supposedly longing for "egg and chips". Paul and Jane lasted longer, but eventually left as well. The Harrisons and Lennons stayed until April 16.

It was during this trip, however, that the Beatles became disillusioned with their great guru. It was alleged that Maharishi had made a pass at Mia Farrow (some reports say "made a pass" and others claim attempted rape, so who really knows?). An allegation came years later from another young woman who says she and Maharishi had a sexual relationship. Feeling betrayed, they all left India. It wasn't all bad, thouh, as the Beatles wrote most of the White Album from this experience, especially the tunes "Sexy Sadie" (inspired by the carnal allegations of Maharishi) and "Dear Prudence", for Prudence Farrow who apparently would stay in her room quite a lot during their trip.

Maharishi Yogi died in February of 2008, at 91 years old (?), at an estimated worth of 2 billion euros and a following of over 5 million people. His association with the Beatles, though brief, in '67-'68 was the catalyst for his worldwide fame and eventual fortune (he would charge roughly 1,300 euros per person for a standard introduction to transcendental meditation course). He stayed in the finest hotels, and lived in a 200-room mansion (!!!!). For a man that advertised the denouncement of worldly posessions and materialism, he sure lived the good life.

Despite his questionable ethics, an interview with Yoko Ono in March, 2008 reads (following info from Wikipedia): "If Lennon were alive today, says Yoko Ono, he probably would have reconciled with Maharishi. "John would have been the first one now, if he had been here, to recognize and acknowledge what Maharishi has done for the world and appreciate it," she says. Cynthia Lennon believed that Alex Mardas invented a story about sexual impropriety to undermine the Maharishi's influence on the Beatles. George Harrison, years later, commented on the contretemps, saying, "Now, historically, there's the story that something went on that shouldn't have done—but nothing did." Paul McCartney, in his biography, likewise says that he does not believe the allegations and also attributes them to Mardas. Farrow's autobiography is ambiguous about the incident: she describes "panicking" and fleeing after the Maharishi put his arms around her in a dark cave, immediately after a private meditation session, and that "at my level of consciousness, if Jesus Christ Himself had embraced me, I would have misinterpreted it."