Listening to Marianne Faithfull’s 1964 hit “As Tears Go By” and then her 1979 track “Why’d Ya Do It?” is as bracing as a bucket of ice water in the face. The former is a perfect little burst of sunshiny folk pop penned by the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards that finds the then 17-year-old Faithfull cooing in an innocent voice about the oncoming “evening of the day.” The latter is a vitriolic indictment of a cheating lover in which Faithfull’s ravished voice delivers a stream of obscenities over punky reggae rock. The raw lyrics caused the track to be banned in Australia and, allegedly, a walkout by women on her record label’s production line.

Looking back at Faithfull’s life during those 15 years, it’s no surprise that the English singer/songwriter’s vocals and musical style changed. During that tumultuous period, she survived a long-running romance with Jagger, a highly publicized drug bust at Richards’ home and a descent into heroin addiction. She also co-wrote “Sister Morphine” with Jagger/Richards, releasing it two years before it appeared on Sticky Fingers.

Thankfully, Faithfull, who performs Friday at the Henry Miller Library’s annual benefit concert, pulled herself together in the late ’70s and released the critically acclaimed 1979 album Broken English, which featured the searing “Why’d Ya Do It?” From fellow substance survivor Carrie Fisher’s home in Los Angeles, Faithfull describes what prompted her comeback in a voice that’s both regal and debauched. “I needed something in my life,” she says. “I couldn’t go on like that. I was just taking drugs and getting lost. And I loved singing. And I loved recording.”

The lyrics of “Why’d Ya Do It?” were written by English poet Heathcote Williams, who hoped to have Tina Turner sing it until Faithfull convinced him she’d be a good fit with the song’s subject matter. “I’m not in anyway puritanical,” she says. “Also, I have a deep experience with sexual jealousy. Lots of women have. Everybody does. But to put it in those terms is quite radical. I just knew I could do it. I love it. I still do it.”

Since her stunning late ’70s comeback, Faithfull has put out a well-received collection of standards (1987’s Strange Weather) and a revealing autobiography (1994’s Faithfull). She has also spent the last few years collaborating with a crop of contemporary musicians including Beck, Billy Corgan and PJ Harvey.

Released in the United States this past March, Faithfull’s latest CD, Easy Come, Easy Go, finds the singer reinterpreting standards like Billie Holiday’s “Solitude” and the works of contemporary artists including Morrissey and the freak folk act Espers with the help of hipster heavyweights Sean Lennon, Rufus Wainwright and Chan Marshall. On a version of The Decemberists’ “The Crane Wife 3,” the deep voice of Australian folksinger Nick Cave hovers under Faithfull’s vocals like a shadow. Even more intriguing is a take on Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home,” in which the chorus finds her voice warmly entangled with another one of rock music’s most battle-scarred warriors: Keith Richards.

Faithfull says that while Easy Come, Easy Go’s producer Hal Willner chose most of the guest musicians on the CD, she knew she really wanted to get her longtime pal Richards in the studio with her. “I wanted Keith very much for ‘Sing Me Back Home,’ because he taught me the song in the ’60s,” she says. “He used to sing it with Gram Parsons.”

MARIANNE FAITHFULL performs at the Henry Miller Library’s annual benefit concert 7:30pm Friday, Oct. 9, at Henry Miller Library, a quarter-mile south of Nepenthe on Highway 1, Big Sur. $100. 667-2574.