The singer, who died on Thursday at 78, spent decades in the spotlight exercising a very specific and subversive power.

Marianne Faithfull, an icon of 1960s British rock whose career went on to stretch seven decades, is dead at 78. Faithfull died “peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family,” a spokesperson told the BBC.

British singer and actor Marianne Faithfull, best known for her hit song "As Tears Go By", has died at the age of 78, a spokesperson said on Thursday. The singer got her first break in 1964, after being discovered by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham.