Diamonds And Rust (5:04)

“Diamonds & Rust” is a 1975 song written and performed by Joan Baez. 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 was a top-forty hit for Baez on the U.S. singles chart, is regarded by a number of critics, as well as by Baez fans, as one of her best compositions. It served as the title song on Baez’s gold-selling Diamonds & Rust album in 1975.

Claims that the song describes Baez’s relationship with Bob Dylan ten years before are undermined by Baez in her memoir, And a Voice to Sing With, where she recounts how she told Dylan that the song was actually about her husband David Harris.