After hearing the sad news this morning that, as the Village Voice reports, Suze Rotolo died at 67 years old on Friday following a long illness, I immediately took to my copy of Bob Dylan’s memoir, Chronicles, Volume One, to revisit the influence Rotolo had on her iconic boyfriend of 3 years in the early ’60s. It’s fascinating to read about how Rotolo, who famously appeared alongside Dylan on the cover of 1963’s The Freehweelin’ Bob Dylan, helped introduce the poet laureate of rock to the civil rights movement, the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, theater, Picasso, Cézanne, Bertolt Brecht, and many more artists. In short, Rotolo’s taste, experience, relationships, and voice during this period inspired the “Voice of a Generation.”
We’re planning to get started on her memoir, A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir in Greenwich Village in the Sixties, this afternoon, but in the meantime, enjoy 3 choice quotes from Dylan’s book alongside a few songs he wrote about Rotolo:
“I couldn’t take my eyes off her… The air was suddenly filled with banana leaves. We started talking and my head started to spin. Cupid’s arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard.”
“Tomorrow Is a Long Time”
“Meeting her was like stepping into the tales of 1,001 Arabian nights. She had a smile that could light up a street full of people and was extremely lively, had a particular type of voluptuousness–a Rodin sculpture come to life. She reminded me of a libertine heroine. She was just my type.”
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”
“The alliance between Suze and me didn’t turn out exactly to be a holiday in the woods. Eventually fate flagged it down and it came to a full stop. It had to end. She took one turn in the road and I took another. We just passed out of each others’ lives…”
“Ballad In Plain D”