Diamonds & Rust (song)
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"Diamonds & Rust" was a 1975 song written and performed by Joan Baez, which is said to describe her affair with Bob Dylan ten years prior. In the song, Baez recounts an out-of-the-blue phone call from an old lover, which sends her a decade back in time, to a seedy hotel in Greenwich Village. She recalls giving him a pair of cuff links, and summarizes that memories bring "diamonds and rust" (time both turns dirty charcoal into beautiful diamonds and shiny metal into ugly rust).
The song, which provided a top-forty hit for Baez on the U.S. pop singles chart, is regarded by a number of critics, as well as Baez' fans as one of her best compositions. It served as the title song on Baez' gold-selling Diamonds & Rust album in 1975. The song was later covered by Judas Priest, and appears on some remasters of the Rocka Rolla, and Unleashed in the East albums. It was later re-recorded for Sin After Sin and remains a staple of their live concert performance. It was also covered by Blackmore's Night, on their album Ghost of a Rose.
On her live 1995 recording Ring Them Bells, Baez performed the song as a duet with Mary Chapin Carpenter.
[edit] Trivia
Dylan is never specifically named in the song, but Baez has admitted in her memoir, as well as a number of interviews that he is inspiration for the song.,
[edit] References
- Baez, Joan. 1987. And a Voice to Sing With: A Memoir. Century Hutchinson, London. ISBN 0-7126-1827-
