August 11, 2023

Music Friday: ‘Our Love Was a Diamond,’ Dishes a Disheartened Dan Fogelberg

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you sensational songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg compares his love to the hardest substance on Earth in the introspective “Diamonds to Dust.”

In the song, a despondent Fogelberg describes how even the most enduring relationships can break down over time — and uses a precious gemstone to make his point.

He sings, “Once there was love here / And once there was trust / Once it was honest / And open and just / Our love was a diamond / That grew between us / But time can turn even / Diamonds to dust.”

“Diamonds to Dust” appeared as seventh track from Fogelberg’s album Love in Time. The album was released in September of 2009, nearly two years after the artist’s untimely death at the age of 56.

Fogelberg, who battled with cancer since 2004, had completed the songs for the album and stored them in a safe deposit box. He asked his wife, Jean, to release the album after his death. Fogelberg passed away at his home in Deer Isle, ME, on December 16, 2007. His ashes were scattered into the Atlantic Ocean.

When the album was released, Jean wrote, “His music continues — a living legacy to one of the most versatile and talented musicians, singers and songwriters of his generation.”

Jean used the phrase “living legacy” as a nod to her husband’s favorite, and most famous song, “Leader of the Band” (1981), which he wrote to honor his father, Lawrence, a high school band director. For that song, he penned the famous line, “I’m just a living legacy to the leader of the band.” Lawrence passed away in 1982 at the age of 71.

Born in Peoria, IL, in 1951, Daniel Grayling “Dan” Fogelberg was the youngest of three sons. As an adolescent he taught himself to play a Hawaiian slide guitar — a gift from his grandfather.

At age 14, he joined a Beatles cover band, The Clan, and by 1967 he was writing songs for another cover band, The Coachmen. By the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, Fogelberg topped the charts with a string of platinum-selling albums and singles. His 1982 Greatest Hits album went triple platinum.

In a tribute to its hometown hero, the city of Peoria renamed Abington Street in the city’s East Bluff neighborhood “Fogelberg Parkway.”

Please check out the audio track of Fogelberg performing “Diamonds to Dust.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Diamonds To Dust”
Written and performed by Dan Fogelberg.

Diamonds to dust
Oh, diamonds to dust
Time can turn even
Diamonds to dust

Love is a question
That few understand
It runs like a river
Between a woman and man
But its course can get twisted
And its bed can run dry
And our hearts become deserts
In the wink of an eye

Once there was love here
And once there was trust
Once it was honest
And open and just
Our love was a diamond
That grew between us
But time can turn even
Diamonds to dust

Diamonds to dust
Oh, diamonds to dust
Time can turn even
Diamonds to dust

Ohhh, ohhh

Time is a teacher
It’s kind and it’s cruel
It gives you the wisdom
To see you’re a fool
And it gives love and takes love
It hurts and it heals
And it never parts easy
With the truth it reveals

Diamonds to dust
Oh, diamonds to dust
Time can turn even
Diamonds to dust

Ohhh, ohhh, ohhh, ohhh