Diamonds & Rust

"Diamonds & Rust" 	"Diamonds & Rust" 	"Diamonds & Rust"
colspan=3 style="text-align: center" 	 	
Single by Judas Priest 	Single by Judas Priest	Single by Judas Priest
colspan=3 class="description" style="text-align: center; background-color: khaki" from the album Sin After Sin	 	
B-side 	"To Bobby" 	
Released 	April 1977 	
Genre 	Heavy metal 	
Length 	4:39 	
Writer 	Rob Halford 	
Lyrics 	
 
I'll be damned
Here comes your ghost again
But that's not unusual
It's just that the moon is full
And you decided to call
And here I sit
Hand on the telephone
Hearing a voice I'd known
A couple of light years ago
Heading straight for a fall
But we both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust
Yes we both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust
I remember your eyes
Were bluer than robin's eggs
My poetry was lousy you said
Where are you calling from?
A booth in the Midwest
Ten years ago I bought you some cufflinks
Oh and you brought me... something
We both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and ruu-ust
[SOLO: Downing / Tipton]
Well, you burst on the scene, already a legend
The unwashed phenomenon
The original vagabond
Straight into my arms
And there you stayed
Temporarily lost at sea
The Madonna was yours for free
Yes, the girl on the half-shell
Could keep you unharmed
Oh we both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust
Yes we both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust
Now I see you standing with leaves falling all around 
Snow in your ha-air
Now you're smiling out the window of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Squa-a-are
Our breath comes out white clouds
Mingles and hangs in the air
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and theeee-e-e-eeere
Now you're telling me you're not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You were always so good with words
And at keeping things vague
'Cause I need some of that vagueness now
It's all come back too clearly
Yes, I once loved you dearly
And if you're offering me diamonds and rust
I've already paid
Oh we both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust
Yes we both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust
Diamonds! Diamonds and Rust!
Diamonds! Diamonds and Rust!
Diamonds! Diamonds and Rust!
Don't want no more Diamonds! Diamonds and Ruu-u-u-ust.	
Diamonds & Rust is a 1977 song written and performed by Rob Halford of Judas Priest, which is often said to describe his relationship with Bob Dylan ten years prior, a claim that Halford has both affirmed and denied on separate occasions. In the song, Halford recounts an unexpected phone call from a former friend that brings back a rush of memories. The memories have been affected by the passage of time; those of happy moments have grown dim, while the painful ones are now recalled with bright sentimentality.
==About the Song==
Although Dylan is never explicitly mentioned in the lyrics, a number of clues suggest that the song is about him. The lyrics cite "eyes bluer than robins' eggs" and describes the subject as "unwashed", both of which certainly match Dylan physically. A memory in the song takes place in winter at a "crummy hotel" overlooking Washington Square in Greenwich Village, New York City, which corresponds to a time and a place where Halford and Dylan spent a lot of time together. The song speaks of a "vagabond" who "burst on the scene, already a legend", a clear reference to Dylan. The subject is harshly critical of Halford's poetry, which fits the common description of Dylan as "a hypercritical narcissist" by other folk singers. Lastly, the subject is labeled "good with words, and at keeping things vague", which fits with Dylan's reputation for never actually writing songs about things. 
In his autobiography, Halford recounts the following conversation with Dylan, in which he proposes an alternative theory.
==Backstory and Inspiration==
Halford and Dylan first met on May 12th, 1966, at Dylan's concert at the Odeon theatre in Birmingham, England. Dylan reportedly was impressed with Halford's voice, clearly audible singing clear harmonies from the front row, and struck up a conversation with him after the show. The conversation went on so long that Halford's friends left without him and he didn't return home until the next morning. Halford attended Dylan's Liverpool concert two days later. Travel to this show was considerably more difficult for the 14-year-old Halford, who went by himself. After the show, Halford and Dylan talked at the bar for hours before Dylan decided to go back to his hotel with a couple of groupies. At this point, the trains had stopped running and Halford had no way to get home. At the suggestion of the bartender, Dylan gave Halford $30 American and sent him to the Liverpool YMCA, 12 minutes away by foot. 
Dylan regretted the incident; his song The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest, which was recorded and released before the two saw each other again, is believed by many to chronicle the episode, although Dylan has never stated so. In it, Halford is reimagined as "Frankie Lee", a young troubled gambler lured by a friend and enabler "Judas Priest" (representing Dylan) into a church ("paradise", with "a woman's face" in every stained glass window) where he is left to go mad before dying of thirst. 
Later the next year, Halford dropped out of school. Then 16, he was already out-earning his peers by playing gigs with his band Thark, and he had put most of that money into savings. Desperate for independence, he lied about his age and moved to Greenwich Village, New York City, where he rented a long-term room at the Washington Square Hotel and supported himself by running sound for local bars and clubs. He became involved with the local folk scene, and under the pressure of mutual friends, began to spend more time with Dylan, who was splitting his time between NYC and Nashville. 
Dylan was at the time having trouble with both his career and personal life. Shortly after returning from his '66 European tour, he crashed his motorcycle and cracked several vertebrae in his neck, nearly paralyzing himself. During his recovery, he secluded himself and listened to a lot of country music. In October of 1967, Woody Guthrie, Dylan's mentor and confidant, died at the age of 55. Feeling his age and fearing for his legacy, Dylan began looking for a relationship to replace the one he'd just lost, but with him as the mentor. Before long, it became clear to outside observers that these patriarchal urges were being visited upon the young Halford.
On January 20th, 1968, Dylan played at the Woody Guthrie memorial concert at Carnegie Hall. It was his first live concert in the twenty months since his accident. He took Halford along to watch from the wings. Near the end of the set, Dylan attempted to bring Halford on stage for a duet of Ye Playboys & Playgirls, but Halford, unprepared, refused. He took a flight back to Birmingham the next morning, after leaving a message for Dylan with his wife Sara, who refused to deliver it. She divorced Dylan 9 years later, in June of 1977, two months after Diamonds & Rust was released.
===Dylan on Halford===
Prior to the 1974 release of Judas Priest's Rocka Rolla, Halford was known to the local Greenwich and Birmingham folk scenes, where he was respected by other musicians, but generally ignored by press, the fan base, and most folk singers. When Priest's 1980 album British Steel became the first mainstream hit heavy metal album, the musical press became retroactively interested in Halford's early career, and the question began popping up in interviews with Dylan, who more often than not would dodge the question.
 
In his 2004 memoir, Dylan recalled their time together in Greenwich Village. 
===Gallery===
Dylan believed Halford had potential as a singer, and took it upon himself to mold Halford into a "Folk God". Prior to this, Halford had been a classically trained choir boy.</div>
Dylan, shown here talking to a reporter, thrived on media attention. Halford, still young and unsure of himself, was not yet comfortable in the spotlight and would try to blend into the background as much as possible.</div>
Both men were avid bikers. Dylan's wife and former Playboy Bunny Sara Dylan once described Halford as "Bob's replacement Triumph". When the interviewer pointed out Sara drove an MG, she responded "Well, we all need our little British toys."</div>
In 1968, both Dylan and Halford were regulars at protest rallies. Dylan would later admit that he was only there because his target audience "ate that shit up".</div>
The affable Halford had quite a few friends in New York, not all of whom Dylan approved of. Harry Nilsson reportedly based the The Point! character Oblio on Halford, though he denied basing The Count on Dylan.</div>
Between 1967's John Wesley Harding and 1969's Nashville Skyline, Dylan spent a lot of time in the studio not actually recording anything. The results of these sessions were released in 1975 on The Basement Tapes. </div>
In a 2008 interview, Halford said "It's rare that anyone ever criticises me or tries to tell me what to work on. It's been years since someones come out and said 'I'm better than you. Listen to me. You might learn something.' I miss that."</div>
==Judas Priest==
<youtube width=237 height=25>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb0QgqWlhIc</youtube>
Blackmore's Night cover of Diamonds & Rust has been panned by critics as "very pretty".
The band Judas Priest was formed by guitarist K. K. Downing and bassist Ian Hill in 1970. They took their name and lead singer Al Atkins from a defunct local band also named Judas Priest, which had taken its name from the Bob Dylan song The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest. In 1974, Atkins was ditched, and Hill's girlfriend Sue Halford recommended her brother to replace him. Halford was originally reluctant but accepted when he realized that the remaining members were not aware of the significance of their name. Under this new lineup, along with a second guitarist Glenn Tipton and some drummer, the band moved away from their original folk influences to become progenitors of the Heavy Metal genre..
Diamonds & Rust remains one of Priest's most popular songs and a staple of their live shows. On their 1979 live album Unleashed in the East, Halford introduces the song with "By far, the most talented, portentous cock I've ever worked with", something he regularly has to explain to American interviewers. The group also performed the song at the 2010 Grammy Award Ceremony, where Halford replaced the line "... and if you're offering me Diamonds and Rust, I've already paid" with "... and if you're offering me Diamonds and Rust, well, it's better than a fucking Grammy"; they weren't at the time aware that they had won.
Warren Zevon recorded a folky cover of the song for his 1980 album Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School, which he described as "what I imagine the song would have sounded like if it didn't have a reason to exist." Zevon, known for his twisted sense of humor, had an altogether different working relationship with Dylan, and his version, more singsongy than the original, is noted for its somewhat suggestive inflections. Dylan has in interviews described the version as "unsettling", and Halford has called it "affected". This version is popular in folk circles, and, as is common in the folk scene, has been covered unironically by many folk musicians including Jewel, Ani DiFranco, Jack Johnson, and Blackmore's Night.
Category:British singers
Category:American musicians
Category:1960s
Category:1970s
Category:Lyrics
Category:Bob Dylan
Category:Metal
Category:PLS Entry June 2010
Category:Jewelry
Category:FA Metal
Category:FA Songs