In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"-being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. There is a strong feeling of "I told you so" to the song. Time has brought decay (rust) in his relationship with Sara and Baez is pointing out he could have had a diamond instead, Baez. Would it be too much of a stretch that Baez was the charcoal and Lownds was the shiny metal (Dylan refers to Sara's silver cross in "Sad Eyed lady of the lowlands"). She never knew what I was talking about, what I was thinking about, and I couldn't possibly explain it." His marriage ended in 1977, which is the fall that is referred to. That's when our marriage started breaking up. Raeban's teaching methods radically changed the musician's way of thinking, and he would later tell an interviewer, "I went home after that first day and my wife never did understand me ever since that day. According to a Wikipedia entry "Their marriage first became strained around April 1974 when he began taking art classes from Norman Raeben, a 73-year-old Russian immigrant. Heading straight for a fall" Considering the song was written in 1975, it is my reading of it, that Bob rang her up one day looking for sympathy when he realised his marriage to Sara Lownds was on the rocks. "hearing a voice I'd known a couple of light years ago I put these lyrics in my top ten because of the raw sadness and pain that they are able to drudge up but also because it's that raw truth that comes through and her strength to say no to being in that position again. And given that he thought her poetry was lousy I think she more than makes up for it with these lyrics. She brought diamonds to the relationship and all she got from him was rust. He just wasn't capable of returning the favor and she got nada from him for emotional support when it came to her life and hard times. But it wasn't an adult to adult relationship emotionally. It's obvious she cared for him during this time as a mother would for a wounded child. Joan clearly is saying that she was there for him emotionally during a period in his life when he was "temporarily lost at sea" meaning a vulnerable scary place, maybe even going through an identity crisis, which isn't unusual with such successful artists and with as much fame as Dylan. People people, it's just not that complicated! The title simply is stating from Joan's point of view the inequity of the relationship. And if you're offering me diamonds and rust
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