Description
Cast Your Fate To The Wind: The Complete UK Decca Recordings is the first ever CD boxset of Marianne's Decca recordings - The set features all four original albums Marianne Faithfull, Come My Way, North Country Maid and Loveinamist reproduced on miniature facsimile LPs, as well as a further two discs of non-album singles B-sides and rarities
The set has been remastered from the original tapes by the Grammy nominated Andrew Batt who also wrote detailed sleevenotes which Marianne contributed to before her passing in January 2025. The liner notes are reproduced in a luxury 76 page book featuring many rare and unpublished photographs, and the boxset includes five art cards.
Disc 1 features her first pop long player Marianne Faithfull. The album was produced by Mike Leander one of the key musical forces behind the British 60s pop scene, and features a mix of popular cover versions, folk revival standards, French pop and songs written specifically for Marianne including two of her biggest hits on both sides of the Atlantic; namely her Jagger / Richards penned debut single 'As Tears Go By', and 'Come And Stay With Me' by Jackie DeShannon.
Released on the same day as her eponymous pop LP, Disc 2 features Come My Way, a folk album based around tracks from the American folk revival that Marianne had been performing in local folk clubs before she was signed. The album was produced and arranged by Jon Mark who is joined on acoustic guitar by Big Jim Sullivan, one of the most in-demand and versatile studio musicians of the 60s, alongside John Paul Jones (later of Led Zeppelin) on bass. On tracks like 'Mary Ann' and 'House Of The Rising Sun', the trio achieve a frequently perfect blend of the folk revival sound infused with some unexpected jazz flourishes.
Disc 3 features Marianne's third Decca album North Country Maid. Where Marianne's first folk album had largely been compiled from music of the American folk revival, its follow up, released in April 1966 was built around songs from the British Isles. Rightly hailed as Marianne's finest LP of the 60s, North Country Maid conclusively established her as an artist with a unique stylistic approach, and many of its songs (such as 'Scarborough Fair') were not yet the established folk/pop standards they would soon become. Featuring emotive interpretations of songs by contemporary folk writers like Cyril Tawney's 'Sally Free And Easy', Bert Jansch's 'Green Are Your Eyes' and Ewan MacColl's 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face', the album also includes traditional material such as the title track and 'She Moved Thru' The Fair', which is one of the few songs Marianne performed throughout her life; it even appears on her final release, the 2025 E.P. Burning Moonlight.
Disc 4 includes Marianne's fourth and final Decca album Loveinamist. The release was a hybrid comprised of earlier hit singles 'Yesterday' and 'This Little Bird' alongside tracks released on her US only album Faithfull Forever 7 months earlier, and new recordings in the folk-pop style that defined her signature sound. The album features a clutch of impressive interpretations from the songwriters that suited her best, including a string laden 'Counting' by Bob Lind, a stoic 'Reason To Believe' by Tim Hardin, gorgeous folk-pop ballad 'With You In Mind' by Jackie DeShannon, and the baroque psychedelia of Donovan's 'In The Night Time'.
Discs 5 and 6 group together all Marianne's non-album singles, B-sides and rarities released in the UK alongside four previously unreleased recordings. These include 'A Strange World', the pop track earmarked by her discoverer Andrew Loog Oldham as the follow up to 'As Tears Go By' but abandoned in favour of Marianne's choice of Bob Dylan's 'Blowin' In The Wind' (also included), a haunting acapella version of 'She Moved Thru The Fair' from the North Country Maid sessions, an outtake from Loveinamist that gives this set its title, and an alternative version of Donovan's trippy 'Good Guy' also from Loveinamist. The compilation also includes a couple of Marianne's early compositions 'Oh Look Around You' and 'I'd Like To Dial Your Number' that appeared on the B-sides of her UK singles, alongside more well-known releases like her only UK EP Go Away From My World (featuring 'The Most Of What Is Least' written for her by Donovan), and a series of singles including 'Summer Nights' (included here in its original 7" version as well as the more well-known recording that appeared on her greatest hits), 'Tomorrow's Calling' and her superlative cover of The Ronettes' 'Is This What I Get For Loving You?' The collection closes with Marianne's final Decca release 'Something Better' which signified the end of an era in more ways than one, even though it would be the self-penned lyrics to the B-side, 'Sister Morphine', that became a defining artistic statement, and one that eventually led Marianne to her next musical quantum leap.
