It ain't me, babe

Last night I ran into some friends who, as it turns out, unbeknownst to me, read my blog.  How cool!

They had developed a theory that the sentiment expressed in my recent post about a Dylan concert (to paraphrase: "Fuck you, Bob Dylan.") is akin to the sentiment expressed so beautifully by Joan Baez in her song "Diamonds and Rust," which is of course a tribute to her ex-boyfriend, one B. Dylan.

That got me thinking about that song, which is one of the songs of my childhood.  My mom had the album it is from, and I used to listen to it all the time.  I didn't know who Bob Dylan was then, of course, and I didn't know the song was about him.  But even when I was very young, I found "Diamonds and Rust" to be intriguingly haunting, a blurry window into adulthood that seemed impossibly far away.  It introduced me at an extremely young and impressionable age to ideas like how glamorous it is to fall in love with someone that is both charming yet undependable, and how you can end that relationship yet still miss it.  "My greatest mistake," as Sheryl Crowe would put it more pithily and, of course, more shallowly, years later.

Here is the song, as performed live by Joan Baez in 1975:

As flattered as I am by the comparison to the song, and as much as I'm sure "Diamonds and Rust" is now part of my subconscious, I'm not sure that the sentiments are actually the same.  My blog post was expressing disappointment about Dylan's purposefully obtuse and eardrum-blasting concert, whereas the song seems to express disappointment that the first blush of passion and promise that Joan Baez felt for Bob Dylan didn't pan out.  She's nostalgic, but maybe not for a real person.

On second thought, maybe my friends are right.

Here is another YouTube clip I found, a performance with Dylan and Joan Baez at the Newport Festival in 1964.  Notice how he cheerfully drowns out her voice and hogs the microphone.  Notice her swooning regard.  Notice his impish grin. 

How can anyone NOT love Joan Baez?

Comments

[tporemba]

Okay, I hate to even write this, but I briefly met Joan Baez in Big Sur at Esalen where I was working and, well, she was truly one of the most arrogant, self-obsessed seeming women I've ever run across. I didn't spend much time with her and I really don't have much room to say anything, and honestly, she wasn't rude or nasty to anyone, she just seemed to exude the most overwhelming arrogance I've seen on someone, well, ever. It surrounded her like a big wet gas of fartiness. Really. So maybe she's making up for the days when she was more shy or when narcissists like dylan drowned her out. Who knows? Maybe she learned some tricks from him. So me-- I dont reallu like Joan Baez, but I support your right to like her. :)

[Joy]

Excellent field reporting, Agent Poremba! The plot thickens...

(Although I suppose the fact that she refers to herself as "the Madonna" and "the girl on the half-shell" in "Diamonds and Rust" might be a tip-off...)