Diamonds And Rust Heavy Duty Judas Priest

Diamonds & Rust Album: Sin After Sin (1977)
Heavy Duty Album: Defenders Of The Faith (1984)
by Judas Priest

Baez revealed to The Huffington Post that she wrote Diamonds & Rust after Bob Dylan called her from a phone booth and sang her the lyrics to his song "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts." Baez said that this gave her inspiration to write "Diamonds & Rust," and that she lied to Dylan, telling him it was about David Harris, to whom she was married from 1968-1973. Bob Dylan rarely reveals much about his songs, but his track "Queen Jane Approximately" is most likely his take on his relationship with Baez.

In addition to singing on Diamonds & Rust, Baez played the Moog and Arp Synthesizers.

The British metal band Judas Priest covered this song in 1977. They pick up the tempo and electrify the song, but their version is sincere.

They recorded it at the urging of their record company, which sent a copy of the Joan Baez original to the studio when they were recording their second album, Sad Wings Of Destiny, in 1976. At first, they dismissed it, but changed their tune when they gave it a good listen. "We sat down, listened to it closely, and realized it was a brilliant, sensitive song," lead singer Rob Halford wrote in his memoir, Confess. "'OK,' we decided. 'Let's show them what we can do with this.'"

Diamonds & Rust didn't make the album, but they held onto it and included it on their next one, Sin After Sin. It became one of their most popular songs, included on their compilations The Best of Judas Priest and Hero Hero, and on the live album Unleashed in the East. It remains a staple of their concert performances.

In the 2000s, Priest performed a mostly acoustic version of the song more similar to the original than the "rocked up" recorded version.

On Bob Dylan's album John Wesley Harding, there's a song called "The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest," which may have supplied the band name. Judas Priest took their name from a disbanded group that had been using it, so it's provenance isn't clear.

Defenders of the Faith is the ninth studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 13 January 1984 by Columbia Records. The album was certified platinum by the RIAA.

Defenders of the Faith was recorded at Ibiza Sound Studios, Ibiza, Spain, and mixed from September to November 1983 at DB Recording Studios and Bayshore Recording Studios in Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida. The LP and cassette tape were released on 4 January 1984, and the album appeared on CD in July. A remastered CD was released in May 2001. Simultaneously with the album's release, the band kicked off their tour in Europe, with the bulk of concerts taking place in North America during the spring and summer.

The cover art by Doug Johnson (who also designed the Hellion in Screaming for Vengeance) depicts the Metallian, a horned, tiger-like land assault creature with Gatling guns and tank tracks conceptualized by the band. The back cover contains a message:

Rising from darkness where Hell hath no mercy and the screams for vengeance echo on forever. Only those who keep the faith shall escape the wrath of the Metallian ... Master of all metal.

In December 1983, the band did a short tour playing dates in the UK and Germany introducing new single "Freewheel Burning" in the set. In January 1984, the band embarked on the Metal Conqueror Tour across Europe, North America and Japan. On this tour, the band played every song from the album live, with the exception of "Eat Me Alive". During the band's 2008 tour in support of Nostradamus, they played many songs which had never been played live before, one of them being "Eat Me Alive". To date, this made Defenders of the Faith the second Judas Priest album from which every song had been played live (the first being Rocka Rolla), followed by British Steel during the 2009, British Steel 30th anniversary tour. By the end of 1984, Defenders of the Faith sold more than 800,000 copies worldwide.

Judas Priest
Rob Halford – vocals
K. K. Downing – guitars
Glenn Tipton – guitars
Ian Hill – bass
Dave Holland – drums