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Who's That Lady? Susan Rotolo - the chick in Dylan's "FreeWheelin'" Album Cover

Posted about 4 years ago
I just finished an article by Josh Getlin of the LA Times, about a new biography that unmasks the identity of Susan Rotolo, who at 17 was immortalized as the long-locked giggly girl snuggly onto Dylan's hunched side while they were trudging through snow on the cover 'Freewheelin Bob Dylan.'"

The book, "A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties," talks about the behind-the-scenes Dylan, a 20-year-old loose cannon who would scribble lyrics on diner napkins and member of the late night NY village dungeon-bar 'club' (think: Tom Paxton, Paul & Mary, Bill Crosby, to name a few). More apparently, it discusses a time of intense politics, intense dreams, human rights struggles, drugs, sex, and rock & roll...a time of intense cultural upheaval in the US.

Getlin questions if the book will "connect with younger readers today, who have only dim recollections- if any - of the Great Folk Scare."

As a member of the twitter i-pod Millenial generation, but also a fiery independent female, I beg to differ. If anything, I am more intrigued with the sentiments of that time than ever before. I want to make change, whether it be virtually through my prose & photos- or on foot- in NYC, or on all terra firma I can. I also seek models for such change, and find that generation quite a bawdy, bold one (granted- idealistic & hedonistic). For proof, I just purchased Abby Hoffman's "Steal This Book"...on Amazon.com....last week...for 10 bucks. (That's a metaphor for my generation for ya).

But I'm sure I'm not alone. I am sure most of you moggers, music lovers and fellow 20 and 30-year olds would be curious on what she had to say- free wheelin' or otherwise. Wouldn't you?

(Here's the link to the "LA Times story":http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-rotolo2-2008may02,0,5047520.story)
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Comments (22)

  1. Michael Goldberg
    Michael Goldberg says I paid for Steal This Book took but I did that the month it was published, way back when. I wonder how much interest there is right now among people in their 20s in the Beats and the '60s radicals (hoffman, etc.)...
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  2. contrabandwidth
    contrabandwidth says You purchased "Steal This Book" off Amazon? Yep, you truly are of this generation. I would've found it on PDF and downloaded it personally, just to make a point. I've always seen Rotolo as Dylan's first true love and heartbreak. "She Belongs To Me", for example, has gotta be about her. She seems to be Dylan's Venus, yet through out his albums, he realizes she is unattainable. Dylan as Dr. Faustus, Rotolo the love he has never known...
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  3. anna log
    anna log says i'm really happy when some pop culture product comes out that interests and intrigues younger generations to examine the past, glean the good, remember the bad and not repeat those mistakes and etc. HOWEVER... having worked on a lot of dylan projects myself AND being a bonafide baby boomer (i am over 50), i've always known who rotolo was - and if i am not mistaken, she was interviewed IN DEPTH somewhere within the past 5 years... i've always wondered why someone who claimed they were a private person agreed to be interviewed, and eventually wrote a tell-all book anyway - speaking as an old lady, i find this all CYCLICAL - and yes yes, i am a cynic and a skeptic, too. i've seen this kind of THING happen over and over - i always but always question the motivation. what i found of note in the LA TIMES piece was this quote from maria muldaur: ""I can only imagine what it must have been like to stand in her shoes," said blues singer Maria Muldaur, who lived in the Village in this period. "Suze was her own person, who loved this guy very much. Suddenly people were stepping over her, pushing her aside to talk to him. "It must have been an overwhelming experience." muldaur is one of the many people interviewed in the (really god-awful, if you ask me,) martin scorsese documentary that was on PBS... she also had a hit record in the 70s, breaking out of her greenwich village folk/blues ghetto - a harbinger of norah jones by 30+years, "midnight at the oasis," but i digress... as someone who herself - her own person, her own artist - was always looked over (her husband, geoff muldaur got more noticed than maria), she does GET IT.... BUT.... suze rotolo's experience as the girlfriend of a guy who after slugging it out and doing EVERYTHING he possibly could to get ahead and then being considered an overnight sensation and NEXT BIG THING... well - she's no different than many many other women. and while it does not negate her experience - and i will give it up to her that since she was with bob dylan, a man who changed the world, like or not, her story is interesting because of that BUT - from where i stand, she simply joins the ranks - identified or unidentified - of women who were definitely equal and might have possibly been superior to their more famous counterparts: simone de beauvoir and jean-paul sartre (and nelson algren, if you're keeping track) nora barnacle and james joyce (though she may have been deemed a simple girl - she kept his shit together) betty shabazz and malcolm x camille claudel and august rodin hillary & bill clinton carole king and gerry goffin there is a part of me that believes these ladies all knew what they were in for by being in the orbit of someone who is a star (yes, the metaphor is intentional) let's consider princess diana. it was never any secret that the royal bachelors were cads, ladies men, international playboys. it was never any secret that being the wife-consort of these men meant you had to grin & bear it, bear the heirs, do the royal duties vis a vis public appearances, charities, etc, and above all else, stand by your man. that's what you had to do in exchange for the title of "her royal highness." yet postmodern society played right into her "poor woe is me" story. i never had a shred of sympathy for her marital woes because she knew what she was getting into unless she was just plain stupid - and then... well, someone surely must have warned her (oh, let's say her sister who dated the prince before she did) and then, by choosing not to heed the advice, diana is merely intentionally naive... yes, yes, i'm harsh! but i extrapolate all this... and wonder why people latch on to a girlfriend of a star as an icon herself. i think one of the greatest women in bob dylan's life is his daughter Anna - who does good work for society and no one trumpets her - her accomplishments, etc. i think she is the real hero. but don't even try to find mention of her. because like a real hero, she does not need to kiss and tell.
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  4. steve simon
    steve simon says can't wait for this
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  5. contrabandwidth
    contrabandwidth says Always love your insight, Anna. Would Dylan's other son, the one who directed "Kicking and Screaming" be the worst person in his life? Sorry, just being cynical. But it was a terrible movie. I guess I just always latched onto the notion that Rotolo was Dylan's muse for some of his greatest early songs, and think the fact that he didn't get the girl in the end just plays into the suffering for your art mystique. I know I'm over simplifying, as you clearly have an insight many of us don't. Let us not forget Georgia O' Keefe's muse Alfred Stieglitz (or vice versa), and of course Alma Mahler, use to Gustav Klimt, Gustav Mahler, Oskar Kokoschka, Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel.
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  6. contrabandwidth
    contrabandwidth says that was supposed to be "muse to" not "use to"
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  7. anna log
    anna log says you see, all one needs to do is name a few muse ladies, and people start remembering all the others.... i don't buy into the whole "girl that got away" thing, by the way
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  8. indiepixie
    indiepixie says anna log- first of all, this is one of the most inspiring responses I could have dreamed of for this post. You bring up a plethora of points- and I'd like to cite your intellect rather than your cynicism as to how you hit them all so impressively. a) I too wondered why there was such emphasis on Rotolo being a private person.....for indeed she is profiting on an experience that occured in her teens- years ago- and there seems to be a direct light hovering over her pocket for this one. One reason I had this suspicion is the title. It appears either she is too embarrassed to directly place her lover in her title or she could not gain authorization to do so...either way, the title seems if anything to highlight the elephant in the door.... b) I think you should write a book about the females behind the shadows- many of who chose to be in that light in order for their men to shine brighter- Vera Nabokov comes to mind- who was a muse, editor & permanent back-scratcher of Vladamir. It's intriguing bc I don't think the females of this generation would be willing to be such subordinates- 'sacrificing for the greater good' (like Angelina and Pitt, Paltrow and Martin, Posh to Beckham, to provide horrid pop culture examples of the equal of two parts).
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  9. contrabandwidth
    contrabandwidth says Well, what ever her choice was, or realization about the situation. Even the bitter side of Dylan is some of the sharpest word craft music has ever seen. It's kind of like an argument I have with my Mother -in - Law about why I find Christian Inspirational music near un-listenable. I think blues music is more religious and redemptive, because it has a quality in which the singer has made mistakes and faults that the listener can relate to. C.I. on the other hand is an "Everything is Zen", happy in my faith, quality, that only a few can relate. In other words the blues music makes a better story. As does the Rotolo/Dylan years of music. Turbulent as it may have been, it spawned some exciting music. You can relate to that infatuation, that love, the turbulence, the break up.
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  10. anna log
    anna log says indiepixie - i've been working on something i call "the womens bible" with the term "bible" used ever so loosely meaning BOOK, basically - only it does start w/ all the women in Thee bible who have no name - Lots WIFE, etc... and presumes back stories for them (a la Tracy Chevalier's book of the same name about the Vermeer painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring") ... someday, i'll finish it - because the material to draw from is endless. great that you have brought up the generational divide with your "horrid pop culture examples" of brangelina, becks and cold gwenyth, because those females are not the ladies of the recent past history. i have yet to read patti boyd's memoir... i wonder where she fits into all this sort of thing. joan baez is certainly an intriguing character in the bob dylan story. he really rode her coat tails! she was a bonafide folk star and brought him on stage at newport, in that very act, completely legitimizing him. i will hand it to dylan, he DID finally admit to being in love with her in that scorsese doc that i hate... what has joan said about bob? "diamonds and rust" was a good way to get the frustration out. as for the rotolo/dylan years and the poetry they spawned... would this be a gender-biased theory for me to put forward that perhaps he indulged in such behavior simply to elicit those songs. i can certainly think of several great songwriters i personally know - two of whom are such dylan devotees - who put their lives through the wringer so as to extract ART. i don't know if they are consciously aware of it - but in my working with them, and being outside their personal lives, i do see a pattern with each of them repeated ad infinitum through the course of several girlfriends and multiple wives. just a theory....
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  11. TongueOfTheDog
    TongueOfTheDog says I've always enjoyed Dylan's music, but I really don't know much about him beyond what has come up among friends. I recently had a personal "who's that girl" experience concerning an old girlfriend from high school...finding her in a picture with Stevie Ray Vaughan and thinking to myself "holy s***"..that's what happened to her!
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  12. contrabandwidth
    contrabandwidth says (Wo)Man, you always get me into some great discussions. While I agree that a certain amount of turmoil can illicit great art, I personally don't subscribe to it. Having gone to a small art school and seen the "tortured" artist first hand, I always found it foolish that people would let themselves be taken advantage of so readily. As if it were your lot in life to be the worlds rag doll, beaten up and kicked around, just so long as you could make your art. But I guess if we as artists sometimes model ourselves off of those we admire, inevitably we sometimes may come to the conclusion of "following the lead" of our idols. But what do I know. I'm probably an outsider when it comes to artistic thinking. I barely drink, I don't suffer in the "traditional" sense for my work, and I think things like drugs and creativity combined more often lead to more years of mediocrity than they do intense, original, creativity.
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  13. anna log
    anna log says actually - i was thinking more along the lines of people like dylan might just push other people's (as in their lovers/partners/friends) buttons to the brink, just to see how far they CAN push others (just like children test their parents boundaries) - rather than along the lines of thinking about a tortured artist being one ready to get beaten up emotionally, etc... being an artist is a pretty narcissistic endeavor. many of them are totally solipsistic, others not as much - but the level of self-absorption is always pretty high... so much so that you don't see (or in some cases care to) another person's point of view YET, you could write about it in another voice if you want to extrapolate that to other art forms... just think of Picasso
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  14. contrabandwidth
    contrabandwidth says Pushing people's buttons - I guess it's sort of the universal creative question, "Because you can, should you?". My answer is always, only in the correct circumstances. I think it takes a lot of maturity as a human and as an artist to know when to push those buttons, and to realize when it's purely just for shock or reaction.
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  15. indiepixie
    indiepixie says hmmm contra and Anna- speaking of artists - and their habits: i drink, i play, i am raucous- but i also have a quiet introspective side- and i also have a social conscience. But I still proudly consider myself an artists- but one without a cynical edge or addiction to the living on the brink of death. I also mostly get along w. artists- my friends are my inspiration- and i think as much as they acknowledge their talent- they also have such wonderment for the world and its offerings- more so than my friends whose lives are devoted to making money or building a white picket fence. They are some of the best witnesses and storytellers- told through their eyes or paints or lenses- so Anna- thank being the case - I think they are generally more caring than self-absorbed....? Though I love your work solipsistic. :) granted, I am 25, but I've seen 35 countries, lived in 8 cities, speak 3 languages, and have also endured a lot of personal and familial hardship (the stuff that made James Joyce, Hemingway, Poe and Clinton so famous.) So I'd say I'd have a wider perspective than most chaps my age- but still eyes wide open. I'd like to think the world is not so dark and I find most I-bankers a hell of a lot more narcissistic than any artist I've met.
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  16. Bartleby
    Bartleby says Like Anna, I can't seem to understand the fascination of some part of the public for the "satellite people" (those who are "in the orbit of someone who is a star"). -- Hell, I can't even understand the public's craving for so-called celebrities. (I don't think I can add anything more pertinent than what has been above. What is interesting in those couplings is the de-facto assumption that the women are the sacrificial elements of a pair. -- Who's to say that a symbiosis might not have existed?) Now if I may, no one's mentioned those non-artist couples such as Sigmund and Martha Freud or Albert Einstein and his first wife Mileva Maric... What would you say about these two couples who've sprung to mind?
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  17. Cody B
    Cody B says Having been raised by an actor, I know how my mom put her acting and other aspirations on hold to stand behind her man, and it eventually drove her out the door. My dad did exactly as he pleased. On the other hand, he knew exactly what he wanted to do, and he did it. In a lot of ways folks are lucky to have that focus, but it can be painful for those in the orbit. Not that I can scrute Dylan, but he seems to be a typical detached artist. Everything around him was in service of what he needed to do. Like Anna sez, he doesn't seem to mind pushing peoples buttons because he can and because it served/serves his needs. It doesn't mean he isn't good at what he does, but a lot a people get pushed aside in favor of his needs. Everything I've read sez he wanted to be huge and that's exactly what he did. You have to have laser focus to do what he's done.
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  18. Mike the Knife
    Mike the Knife says Stimulating thread, y'all. I am among those who have long known of Suze as Dylan's girlfriend and Freewheelin' cover-model. Meanwhile, who draws the line between muse and groupie? As for pixie's "horrid pop culture examples," Becks and Posh seem to fit the "horrid" bill, but the other two couples are, by comparison, paragons of talent and equality. You may not like what Jolie, Pitt, Paltrow & Martin each produce, but as individual artists, they have been critically lauded for one project or another (suggesting balanced partnerships) and none of them (save Angelina) ever come off like publicity hounds.
    Permalink posted 05/02/2008
  19. Jonh Ingham
    Jonh Ingham says I think Todd Rundgren summed it up well when he named an album The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect. Should we add Edie Sedgewick to Dylan's list of early muses? Even though she was a selfish socialite famous for being famous? Speaking of artist's muses, Ana you should add Kiki of Montparnasse, who was the favourite model of all the Paris-based artists in the 20s. Man Ray has written some wonderful lines about her. They became an item for a long time. 'Steal This Book' is still in print? Amazing. And someone's about to make a film about Abbie Hoffman aren't they? Faith, it's nice to read your words about looking to the past to understand truths and draw experience from it. The older I get the more I feel that the postwar period was a small arc of freedom and openness from which strength must be drawn and truths remembered. Or else how do we keep the bastards from screwing us back down?
    Permalink posted 05/03/2008
  20. NeilNathan
    NeilNathan says wow, i was going to have my morning coffee and get all intellectual with harper's magazine and a little blues on the record player, but this just did the trick what a stimulating thread kudos to all of you for your depth of insight if moggers could set the artistic and intellectual agenda for this funny country, we'd be doin something! as far as famous couplings go, i think paul newman/joanne woodward are the classiest model as far as generations go, this one has quite a healthy disrespect for authority and tradition, but due to the incredible amount of leisure activities (music, film, video games, micky d's) they simply don't care enough to get off the couch and do anything about it that is a wild generalization, and false in many cases, but after living through two stolen elections, gas gouging, and an illegitimate war, i have lost much hope for this ailing empire ever finding it's way back on course towards true democracy and real leadership but there are some youngens i've met that are slick as hell and quite knowledgeable about their cultural heros and eras past, so all hope is not lost!
    Permalink posted 05/03/2008
  21. uncle creepy
    uncle creepy says The book by Abbie Hoffman that really changed me, deranged me - had me toasting banana peels almost burned the house down... was Revolution For The Hell Of It ! You might really enjoy that, written a year or two before Steal This Book, he put every subversive recipe for hi-jinks ever thought of up to that point! My social studies teacher read my book report I did on it out loud in class without saying who wrote it... the class went ballistic, wondering aloud who wrote that report... I just smiled and said not a word... for some reason the teacher played along, it was strange but cool, I was a teenage revolutionary and no one knew, that book put ideas and much worse in my head... try it, search it, felch it, buy it, just get it... & let me know if it warps you too! http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1560256907/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link
    Permalink posted 05/06/2008
  22. lisbetho
    lisbetho says I would totally read this...in fact, I'm going to seek it out..and I'm 24 - I might have a bias, since I spent a year studying the politics/society/arts of the 60s in a GE cluster at UCLA
    Permalink posted 05/06/2008

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