Published by Broadway Books, 2007, softcover, illustrated, 368 pages, condition : very good.
The girl with Bob Dylan on the cover of Freewheelin broke a forty-five-year silence with this affectionate and dignified recalling of a relationship doomed by Dylans growing fame. UNCUT magazine
Suze Rotolo chronicles her coming of age in Greenwich Village during the 1960s and the early days of the folk music explosion, when Bob Dylan was finding his voice and she was his muse.A shy girl from Queens, Suze was the daughter of Italian working-class Communists, growing up at the dawn of the Cold War. It was the age of McCarthy and Suze was an outsider in her neighborhood and at school. She found solace in poetry, art, and musicand in Greenwich Village, where she encountered like-minded and politically active friends. One hot July day in 1961, Suze met Bob Dylan, then a rising musician, at a concert at Riverside Church. She was seventeen, he was twenty; they were both vibrant, curious, and inseparable. During the years they were together, Dylan transformed from an obscure folk singer into an uneasy spokesperson for a generation.A Freewheelin Time is a hopeful, intimate memoir of a vital movement at its most creative. It captures the excitement of youth, the heartbreak of young love, and the struggles for a brighter future in a time when everything seemed possible.
As a red diaper baby with two Communist parents, political activism was built into Suzes DNA. As a young teenager she began hanging out in Greenwich Village with other like-minded friends and was soon a fixture at clubs such as Gerdes Folk City, The Gaslight, Kettle of Fish and The Bitter End. Places that launched the careers of many folk singers such as Dave Van Ronk, Judy Collins, Peter, Paul & Mary, Odetta and of course Bob Dylan.
When remembering their first encounter, Bob said I couldnt take my eyes off her. She was the most erotic thing Id ever seen. We started talking and my head started to spin. Cupids arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard. Just like that Dylan met his first, and most important Muse. Bob had only recently moved to NYC from his small town in Minnesota and it was through Suze that he would not only discover many of the poets and writers that would greatly influence his work but also learn about the political issues he would soon be known for writing about.
But as Dylan began to make a name for himself Suze could feel hers being diminished. All that was offered to a musicians girlfriend in the early 60s was a role as her boyfriends chick, a string on his guitar. In the case of Bobs rising fame, I would be gatekeeper, one step closer to an idol. People would want to know me just to get closer to him. My significance would be based on his greater significance. That idea did not entice.
But Suze was much more than just a string on Dylans guitar. Or the girl walking down the street with him on the cover of A Freewheelin Time. In her book she discusses not only their relationship, but also gives an insiders look at 60's Greenwich Village and the numerous political issues the were at the forefront of their world.
