Considered the most accomplished interpretive folksinger of the 1960s, Joan Baez has influenced nearly every aspect of popular music in a career that is still going strong. In 1975, Joan wrote “Diamonds & Rust” which is said to describe her relationship 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). Dylan is never specifically named in the song, but Baez has admitted in her memoir as well as in a number of interviews that he is the inspiration for the song. 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 by Baez’ fans, as one of her best compositions.

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Joan Baez homepage.