break
Click on the song titles above for lyrics and songwriting credits

Marianne returned in 1987, finally clean, with a collection of classic pop, blues and art songs on the critically lauded Strange Weather that in its own way had as big an impact on her career as Broken English eight years earlier: she had once again delivered a classic album that redefined her persona. The album was produced by the late Hal Willner who had that mystic ability to perceive and appreciate people’s individuality, helping them own it and expand upon it. Marianne had worked with him on one of his idiosyncratic covers albums, the Kurt Weill tribute Lost In the Stars, “and I knew that this was going to be one of the greatest friends of my life. One of those friendships where no rules apply”. Together they listened to hours of potential material and her final choice of covers including ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ and ‘Love, Life and Money’ allowed her to “identify with the songs as though they were my own work”. Strange Weather was dedicated to her lover and friend, Howard Tose, who took his own life when both were in recovery. He is commemorated in the title track, written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, which came out of the marathon phone conversations Marianne had with them about him. Marianne’s ongoing sense of alienation was perfectly captured on the ghostly ‘A Stranger On Earth’, and her first hit ‘As Tears Go By’ was reprised as a torch song, more poignant and redemptive than her 60’s interpretation.