Blazing Away (Live)

*Blazing Away* is a classic live album. Marianne Faithfull re-established herself with *Broken English* in 1979 and never looked back — until this album. With its stellar collection of backing musicians — Marc Ribot, Fernando Saunders, Dr. John and the Band’s Garth Hudson — *Blazing Away* is the ultimate retrospective. The songs have grown with Faithfull. “As Tears Go By” sounds like a much older woman looking back on the follies of youth; Faithfull’s voice is so fantastically chapped. John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” and Shel Silverstein’s “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” become her own with even more fire than their studio counterparts. “Guilt,” “Broken English” and the pornographic “Why d’Ya Do It?” sound like the last desperate scrapings of a mad woman. “When I Find My Life” and “Times Square” are remarkably resilient. The one studio track, “Blazing Away,” is the sound of wisdom being handed down with the Zen-like refrain of “things change.” The entire album is a devastating performance.