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

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

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

Ohhh, ohhh, ohhh, ohhh

Credit: Epic Records, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Hollywood Couple Dons Goggles to Rescue Brand New Engagement Ring

A dreamlike marriage proposal against a sky of colorful fireworks nearly turned into a water-logged nightmare for model CJ Franco and filmmaker Len Wiseman when her engagement ring went missing just hours after he popped the question.

Franco told People magazine that her boyfriend of eight years surprised her with a ring during a romantic July 4 getaway to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Everything was perfect when Wiseman proposed to Fanco at their favorite restaurant named Arbol at Las Ventanas.

She recalled, "He got down on his knee and said, 'I know we've only know each other for a little while, so this may come as a shock.' He proposed as fireworks began, which felt like they were just for us. I didn't hear anything he said but he looked really cute doing it!"

A few hours later, the couple headed to their hotel's pool, and this is where our story takes a turn for the worse.

"We ended our evening swimming surrounded by candles and rose petals," she told People. "It was like a dream until I realized my ring was missing."

(As we've noted many times in this column, bodies of water and fine jewelry are not a great combination — for so many reasons. In this case, Franco's ring likely slipped off because her fingers shrunk in the cool water.)

Their relaxing evening swim quickly transitioned into a rescue mission.

"We put goggles on and spent the next half hour searching the bottom of the pool for lost treasure — as romantically as possible," she said.

Based on the photos that Franco and Wiseman posted to their respective Instagram pages, we're pretty sure the rescue mission was successful.

Franco's classic solitaire ring features a princess-cut diamond set on a simple gold band.

The 32-year-old model, actress and reality star explained why they kept their engagement under wraps for a month.

Wrote Franco on Instagram, "Been keeping a little secret since 4th of July! I wanted to keep it quiet until we could share the news with our families in Northern California."

Franco's most recent appearance was on The GOAT, an unscripted series where competitors vie for the title of "greatest reality show contestant" of all time.

Wiseman, 50, is the co-creator of the Underworld series and recently filmed the John Wick spinoff, Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas.

Credits: Images via Instagram / cjfranco; Instagram / lenwiseman.

Birthstone of the Month: This 100-Carat Peridot Is a Smithsonian Star

Tipping the scales at an impressive 100.15 carats, this triangular-cut peridot is one of the world’s most striking examples of August's birthstone.

Mined in Pakistan and exhibiting an exceptional vivid green hue, the gem has been part of the Smithsonian's National Gem and Mineral Collection since 2011. The Smithsonian obtained the gem with funds provided by the Tiffany & Co. Foundation.

Peridot is one of only a few gemstones that occurs in just one color. The amount of iron in the crystal structure determines the green gem's intensity and tint. Specimens can range from yellow-green through olive green to brownish green.

According to the Gemological Institute of America, the most favored peridot color is a richly saturated pure grass green.

Peridot has been coveted for more than 3,000 years. According to the Smithsonian, ancient Egyptians fashioned beads from golden green peridot crystals mined on an island in the Red Sea. The island was known to the Greeks and Romans as Topazios and its verdant bounty (today’s peridot) was known as topazion until the 18th century.

Mahana Beach on Hawaii’s Papakolea coast is one of only four green sand beaches in the world. The beach sand on the Big Island’s undeveloped southern tip is rich in the mineral olivine (gem-quality olivine is known as peridot). Olivine is a common mineral component of Hawaiian lavas and one of the first crystals to form as magma cools.

Locals refer to peridot as the “Hawaiian Diamond,” and small peridot stones are sold as “Pele’s tears” in honor of Pele, the goddess of volcanoes. In ancient Hawaiian chants, Pele was described as “She-who-shapes-the-sacred-land,” and her temper was known to be both as abundant and dangerous as the lava.

Peridot is currently sourced in the US (Arizona), Myanmar, Norway, Brazil, China, Australia, Pakistan and Vietnam. Peridot is also one of the few interstellar gems. Pallasitic meteorites contain iron dotted with olivine.

Mined in Zebirget, Egypt, the world’s largest faceted peridot weighs 310 carats and, like today's featured gem, resides at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

In addition to being an official birthstone of August — along with spinel and sardonyx — peridot is the 16th anniversary gemstone.

Peridot has a hardness of 6.5–7 on the Moh’s scale, which means that it is a relatively soft gemstone best suited for earrings, pins and pendants, according to the American Gem Trade Association.

Credit: Photo by Ken Larsen, Smithsonian.

New Methods Can Reveal Whether an Emerald Was Mined in Egypt or Colombia

Utilizing advanced spectroscopic techniques, scientists at the American Institute of Physics can now pinpoint the precise origin of a gemstone.

This scientific breakthrough is exciting on a few levels.

For instance, curators at the Smithsonian might want to determine if the emerald at the center of a historic crown originated in Cleopatra’s Mines near the Red Sea or the ancient Muzo mine deep in the Andes.

The new technology could also be used to shed light on ancient trade routes. Gemstone jewelry unearthed in one part of the world might be linked with a specific mine oceans away, providing solid evidence that the cultures were once connected in commerce.

While all emeralds are made up of beryllium aluminium silicate, subtle differences in the gems' chemical structures can pinpoint their origins, similar to the way a DNA test can reveal that your ancestors were Northern Europeans or Native Americans.

In a study published in the journal AIP Advances, the scientists described three types of spectroscopy — laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. When used in combination, they can tell the origin story of gemstones.

LIBS determines chemical composition; FTIR analyzes structure and the presence of water and other hydrocarbons; and Raman spectroscopy defines the unique crystalline structure of the gems’ atoms.

The researchers analyzed samples of emeralds, peridot and amazonite from the Arabian-Nubian Shield, an outcropping of mineral deposits that runs along the Red Sea in current-day Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The deposits have been dated to Earth’s earliest geological age, and have been a valuable source of precious metals and gemstones since ancient times.

The scientists compared these samples with similar gemstones sourced from mines around the globe.

"We showed the main spectroscopic characteristics of gemstones from these Middle East localities to distinguish them from their counterparts in other world localities," the study's co-author, Adel Surour, told Science Daily.

The gems from the Arabian-Nubian Shield did, in fact, present a different signature than similar gemstones found elsewhere.

"Gemstones, such as emerald and peridot, have been mined since antiquity," Surour said. "Sometimes, some gemstones were brought by sailors and traders to their homelands. For example, royal crowns in Europe are decorated with peculiar gemstones that originate from either Africa or Asia. We need to have precise methods to distinguish the source of a gemstone and trace ancient trade routes in order to have correct information about the original place from which it was mined."

Credit: Photo of 858-carat Gachala Emerald (Colombia) by Chip Clark / Smithsonian.