Diamonds & Rust

by Joan Baez

Overview

With the Vietnam War winding down, Joan Baez, who had devoted one side of her last album to her trip to Hanoi, delivered the kind of commercial album A&M Records must have wanted when it signed her three years earlier. But she did it on her own terms, putting together a session band of contemporary jazz veterans like Larry Carlton, Wilton Felder, and Joe Sample, and mixing a wise selection from the work of current singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne and John Prine with pop covers of Stevie Wonder and the Allman Brothers Band, and an unusually high complement of her own writing. A&M, no doubt recalling the success of her cover of the Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," released her version of the Allmans' "Blue Sky" as a single, and it got halfway up the charts. But the real hit was the title track, a self-penned masterpiece on the singer's favorite subject, her relationship with Bob Dylan. Outdoing the current crop of confessional singer/songwriters at soul baring, Baez sang to Dylan, reminiscing about her '60s love affair with him intensely, affectionately, and unsentimentally. It was her finest moment as a songwriter and one of her finest performances, period, and when A&M finally released it on 45, it made the Top 40, propelling the album to gold status. But those who bought the disc for "Diamonds & Rust" also got to hear "Winds of the Old Days," in which Baez forgave Dylan for abandoning the protest movement, as well as the jazzy "Children and All That Jazz," a delightful song about motherhood, and the wordless vocals of "Dida," a duet with Joni Mitchell accompanied by Mitchell's backup band, Tom Scott and the L.A. Express. The cover songs were typically accomplished, making this the strongest album of Baez's post-folk career. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	10/25/1990
Label:	A&M
UPC:	0075021323322

Tracks

1. Diamonds & Rust
2. Fountain of Sorrow
3. Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer
4. Children and All That Jazz
5. Simple Twist of Fate
6. Blue Sky
7. Hello in There
8. Jesse
9. Winds of the Old Days
10. Dida
11. I Dream of Jeannie/Danny Boy

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Joan Baez   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals,Soloist,Lead Vocals,ARP Synthesizer,Moog Synthesizer,Synthesizer Horn,Guitar (Acoustic)
Joni Mitchell   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Vocals,Featured Artist
Tom Scott   Guest Artist,Flute,Saxophone
Hampton Hawes   Guest Artist,Piano,Keyboards
Wilton Felder   Guest Artist,Bass
Larry Carlton   Guest Artist,Conductor,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Larry Knechtel   Guest Artist,Piano (Electric),Piano
Joe Sample   Guest Artist,Organ (Hammond),Piano (Electric)
Red Rhodes   Guitar (Steel)
David Paich   Piano,Keyboards,Electric Harpsichord
Dean Parks   Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Ollie Mitchell   Trumpet
Max Bennett   Bass
James Getzoff   Violin
Sidney Sharp   Violin
John Guerin   Drums
Carl La Magna   Violin
Jim Gordon   Drums,Percussion
Jim Horn   Saxophone
Reinie Press   Bass
Jesse Ehrlich   Cello
Ronald Folsom   Violin
Isabelle Daskoff   Viola
Buck Monari   Trumpet
William Hymanson   Violin
Rick Lotempio   Guitar,Guitar (Electric)
Robert Ostrowsky   Violin
Raymond Kelly   Violin
Tibor Zelig   Violin
William Kurasch   Violin

Technical Credits

Stephen Foster   Composer
David Kershenbaum   Producer
Janis Ian   Composer
Robert Margouleff   Programming,Synthesizer Programming
Dickey Betts   Composer
Richard Betts   Composer
Rick Ruggieri   Engineer,Mixing Engineer
Syreeta Wright   Composer
John Prine   Composer
Rob Martens   Engineer,Post Production
Stephen Collins Foster   Composer
Tom Scott   Horn Arrangements
Henry Lewy   Mixing,Engineer
Traditional   Composer
Bob Dylan   Composer
Joan Baez   Arranger,Composer,Producer
Will Spencer   Assistant Engineer
Stevie Wonder   Composer
Malcolm Cecil   Programming,Synthesizer Programming
Jamie Putnam   Design
Ellis Sorkin   Assistant Engineer
Rik Davis   Producer
Frederick Edward Weatherly   Composer
Julie Knowles   Arranger
Fred Weatherly   Composer
Larry Carlton   String Arrangements
Jackson Browne   Composer