Diamonds and Rust

Soul Music

BBC

Personal Journals, Music Commentary, Society & Culture, Music

4.7 • 772 Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“Well, I'll be damned, Here comes your ghost again…”

Joan Baez, also known as the "Queen of Folk", is halfway through writing a song one day when she gets a call from Bob Dylan. It’s 1974; almost 10 years after their relationship ended. The song went on to become the iconic ‘Diamonds and Rust’, an outpouring of memories from their time together in the early sixties.

Music writer Kevin EG Perry tells the story behind Baez and Dylan’s relationship, how they shaped each other’s worlds, and how this song came into being a decade later. Folk legend Judy Collins, also a good friend of Joan Baez, shares old memories of Newport Folk Festival alongside more recent memories of performing ‘Diamonds and Rust’ with Baez at her 80th birthday. And we hear from people whose lives have been touched by the song. Classicist Edith Hall listened to ‘Diamonds and Rust’ on repeat when she ended her first marriage, on the night that the Berlin Wall fell. And writer John Stewart looks back on a heady relationship from his early twenties, which was always bound up with the lyrics of this song. Decades later, this formative time in his life continues to resonate with diamonds, rust, and gratitude.

Producer: Becky Ripley

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others.
0:05.2	My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland.
0:11.3	It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here,
0:16.3	but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world.
0:19.6	And because the team is such a diverse
0:21.2	range of skills and strengths, we have trained journalists, people who love digging through
0:26.0	archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice. So if
0:31.8	you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories
0:37.1	from all around the UK. BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK.
0:40.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:48.3	Well, first of all, diamonds and rust is a story, and stories have a way of latching on to you.
0:57.8	They have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
1:00.5	And they tell something personal.
1:04.0	And this does that in the most remarkable way.
1:11.5	Well, I'll be damned. Here comes your ghost again. But that's not unusual. It's just that the moon is
1:24.1	full and you happen to call
1:28.0	So Diamers and Rust
1:29.7	As written by Joan Byers
1:31.1	About a phone call that she got
1:33.3	From Bob Dylan
1:37.1	Hearing a voice I'd known
1:40.0	A couple of light years ago
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.