The ballad of Lucy Jordan - Marianne Faithfull

'The ballad of Lucy Jordan' was originally written by American poet and songwriter Shel Silverstein and recorded by Dr. Hook.

Faithfull recorded her cover version of the song on her 1979 album 'Broken English'. It was released as a single in November 1979. Faithfull later commented that the story she intended to put across in the song was that Lucy climbs to the roof top but gets taken away by 'the man who reached and offered her his hand' in an ambulance to a mental hospital, and that the final lines ('At the age of thirty-seven she knew she'd found forever / As she rode along through Paris with the warm wind in her hair...') are actually in her imagination at the hospital. Funny, I always thought the line meant she was dead.

My collection: 7" single no. 1338
Found: Record Exchange, London, October 17, 1991
Cost: 60p
Tracks: 'The ballad of Lucy Jordan' / 'Brain drain'