Weird covers: Judas Priest do Joan Baez

“Diamonds and Rust”

Judas Priest

Joan Baez playing Tampa Theatre on April 9 got me thinking about Judas Priests’ unlikely cover of her 1975 hit “Diamonds and Rust.” This YouTube clip shows recent concert footage of a sweaty, leather-clad Rob Halford giving a gloriously over-the-top reading of the pensive number Baez penned about her rocky relationship with Bob Dylan. Purists have bulked at the British metal gods reworking the singer-songwriter’s highly personal account of a failed romance that made headlines, but I’m partial to both renditions. Judas Priest takes the bitter lyric and creates a weirdly wonderful (and campy) power ballad.

This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2008.