![]() Rob Halford, A THREE AND A HALF OCTAVE VOCAL RANGE TO SING WITH, 1992 I used to protect him from the rougher convicts, and in exchange he would bugger me good and hard." I could have spent my life with him but he was married to some slag. Who did you think it was about?" I stonewalled. "I wrote it for an old cell-mate, David Harris." "Oh", I said, "you must mean Diamonds & Rust. " Living After Midnight? We always sing that one." "You gonna sing that song about robin's eggs and diamonds?" Bob had asked me. In his autobiography, Halford recounts the following conversation with Dylan, in which he proposes an alternative theory. 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. The subject is harshly critical of Halford's poetry, which fits the common description of Dylan as "a hypercritical narcissist" by other folk singers. The song speaks of a "vagabond" who "burst on the scene, already a legend", a clear reference to Dylan. 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 lyrics cite "eyes bluer than robins' eggs" and describes the subject as "unwashed", both of which certainly match Dylan physically. At the time, Halford was an aspiring singer trying to find his voice, while Dylan, already a popular folk singer, had just released his eighth studio album and was going through a quarter-life crisis.Īlthough Dylan is never explicitly mentioned in the lyrics, a number of clues suggest that the song is about him. 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.ĭylan (left) and Halford (right) were close friends in the late sixties. In the song, Halford recounts an unexpected phone call from a former friend that brings back a rush of memories. Now you're telling me you're not nostalgicĪnd if you're offering me diamonds and rustĭon't want no more Diamonds! Diamonds and Ruu-u-u-ust.ĭiamonds & 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. We both could have died then and theeee-e-e-eeere Now you're smiling out the window of that crummy hotel Now I see you standing with leaves falling all around Well, you burst on the scene, already a legend ![]() “To Bobby” never made an appearance in the show.Ten years ago I bought you some cufflinks Dylan didn’t write any new protest songs, but at least she got to sing the old ones with him one last time. Later that year, Dylan asked Baez to join him on his Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Radio did play that one, and it gave her career a much-needed boost. Three years later she wrote “Diamonds and Rust,” a significantly better song that focused on their personal relationship and her hurt feelings over how it all ended. The song called out to me from the radio like a public service announcement.” The song was hardly a hit, and it’s hard to imagine what radio station Dylan was listening to that played “To Bobby,” but there’s no doubt that it annoyed him. “Joan Baez recorded a protest song about me that was getting big play,” he wrote in his 2004 memoir Chronicles, “challenging me to get with it – come out and take charge, lead the masses – be an advocate, lead the crusade. Needless to say, Dylan didn’t appreciate the unsolicited advice. Trump Judge Restricts Biden Officials From Working With Social Media to Combat Misinformation “You left us marching on the road and said how heavy was the load,” she sang, “The years were young, the struggle barely had its star/ Do you hear the voices in the night, Bobby?/They’re crying for you /See the children in the morning light/ Bobby they’re dying.” Joan Baez was so desperate to see her former singing partner get back into the political sphere that she addressed him directly by song on “To Bobby” from her 1972 LP Come from the Shadows. The fact he moved away from topical songs in 1964 and had never uttered a single word against the war didn’t seem to matter much to them. The Vietnam War was winding down by this point, but the protest movement was still going strong and they longed for a leader of Dylan’s stature. II and the “George Jackson” single the following year. ![]() There hadn’t been a new studio album since 1970’s New Morning, giving his fans little more to chew on a handful of fresh tracks for Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. By the fall of 1972 Bob Dylan had been living largely outside of the public eye for six very long years.
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