Joan Baez is known mainly for her interpretation of other people’s songs as well as covering traditional tunes, yet her most well-known song is one she wrote, “Diamonds and Rust.” Written in the mid-1970s, it is a meditation on her relationship with Bob Dylan, a relationship in the news again because of the biopic, A Complete Unknown.
The two first met in the early 1960’s at a time when Joan Baez had already attained stardom and all of them have large and influential folk music world looked up to her. She took to a scruffy newcomer, who first hit the City as a musician backing up others with his guitar and harmonica. Soon enough, that vagabond began writing his own songs and it was those lyrics that first grabbed Baez’s attention. She began to bring him on stage at her own sold-out concerts as an unannounced guest, often to the chagrin of her audience. Soon enough, they fell in love and became the crown prince and princess of the folk world.
Baez was a political activist and championed many of Dylan’s early songs that shared her cause. It was that activism and their impact on younger audiences that led the pair to perform a duet at the March on Washington. Only Dylan was not an activist and felt out of place at that event. And he may have immersed himself in the streams that flowed from Woody Guthrie, but he was never simply a folkie. After all, when he left high school in Hibbing, Minnesota, he vowed to be the next Little Richard.
Dylan had a singular focus: his music. He was an artist who put his art above all else, which sounds wonderful unless you are a person close to him. Ask all the people upset and disappointed by his going electric (or singing gospel music or recording the Great American songbook or releasing a Christmas album or remaking his songs on every concert tour).
And he hurt Joan Baez. She didn’t understand his selfishness, his refusal to get involved politically. In 1964, Dylan took off on a tour of England where he had rapturous fans. He invited Baez along and she expected her would return the favor of introducing her to his audience. Only he never did. You can see the best and worst of Dylan in DA Pennebaker’s film, “Don’t Look Back.”
The two stayed in contact. Baez had recorded some of his songs and released a double record set of his songs. While writing the songs for “Blood on the Tracks,” Dylan called up Baez and read her the lyrics for “Lilly, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.” When he put together the traveling circus that became the Rolling Thunder Revue, Dylan asked Joan Baez to join the fun and she played a prominent role on the stage and in the crazy movie he made during that tour (“Renaldo and Clara”).
Both in their 80s now, Baez and Dylan have spoken tenderly of each other, respecting their talents and acknowledging the relationship they once had. There is a price that Bob Dylan had to pay to write and perform the songs he has and the break up with Baez is a cost they both bore.
#Songoftheday #spreadinghappiness #joanbaez #bobdylan #diamondsandrust
YouTube: https://youtu.be/IrVD0bP_ybg?si=FS6rbVqOWtsWHxzQ
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4O0sGJdqpHMaWz7KoVd7tb?si=8e4877e5dd714d45