Dylan of The Day - Bob and a letter to Suze Rotolo

Don Hunstein Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo , Greenwich Village, New York City 1963

"Nothing much is happening here I guess.

Bob Shelton is waiting for Jean.

The dogs are waiting to go out.

The thieves are waiting for an old lady.

Little kids are waiting for school.

The cop is waiting to beat up on someone.

Them lousy bums are waiting for money.

Grove Street is waiting for Bedford Street.

The dirty are waiting to be cleaned.

Everybody is waiting for cooler weather.

And I am just waiting for you"

• Bob Dylan, in a letter to Suze Rotolo

“Bob was charismatic: he was a beacon, a lighthouse… He was also a black hole. He required committed backup and protection I was unable to provide consistently, probably because I needed them myself.” 

Suze Rotolo

Dylan of The Day II - Girl From the North Country

 Bob and the writing of Girl From The North Country

Woodstock, NY. 1968. Bob Dylan on his equipment truck outside his Byrdcliffe home. 

 

Photo by the legendary Elliott Landy 

In late 1962 and early 1963, Bob Dylan traveled to London, where he met British folk musicians, among them Martin Carthy. Mr. Carthy taught Dylan the traditional English song “Scarborough Fair,” upon which “Girl From the North Country” is loosely based. Dylan retains the song’s basic structure and some of the original lyrics (“She once was a true love of mine”), but he alters the melody and seems to personalize the song by setting it in the region of his own youth in Northern Minnesota, which is known locally as the North Country. 

Although the song’s source material is clear, there’s been a long ongoing debate regarding the person to whom Dylan is talking about. Some argue that it’s about his former girlfriend, Echo Helstrom, while others suggest Bonnie Beecher, both of whom Dylan knew before he left for New York. 

However, it’s most commonly suspected that the inspiration might have actually come from his then-girlfriend, Suze Rotolo. Dylan departed England and headed to Italy in search of Rotolo, who had caused a significant strain in their relationship due to her continued studies there. Rotolo had already returned to the United States, though, roughly around the same time Dylan arrived in Italy.

During this time, he completed the song and returned to New York to reconcile with Rotolo, convincing her to move back into his apartment on 4th Street. The album cover makes it more likely that the song’s muse was, in fact, Rotolo, as she is presented strolling arm in arm with Dylan down Jones Street, not far from their apartment.

Bob Dylan and his political influence from Suze Rotolo

Don Hunstein Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo, Greenwich Village, New York City 1963

“A lot of what I gave him was a look at how the other half lived — left wing things that he didn’t know. He knew about Woody and Pete Seeger, but I was working for CORE and went on youth marches for civil rights, and all that was new to him.” Suze Rotolo

“How many nights I stayed up and wrote songs and showed them to [Suze] and asked, ‘Is this right?’ Because I knew her mother was associated with unions, and she was into this equality-freedom thing long before I was. I checked the songs out with her.” Bob Dylan

A Love Story “Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo"

 

Don Hunstein     Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo, Greenwich Village, New York City  1963

“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.” 

Bob Dylan, on meeting Suze Rotolo, 2004.

“Whenever I looked around, Bobby was nearby. I thought he was oddly old-time looking, charming in a scraggly way. His jeans were as rumpled as his shirt and even in the hot weather he had on the black corduroy cap he always wore. He made me think of Harpo Marx, impish and approachable, but there was something about him that broadcast an intensity that was not to be taken lightly.” 

Suze Rotolo, on her first encountering Bob Dylan at folk music happenings around New York City shortly after his arrival in the city, 2008

" Don't Think Twice It's Alright "

                             

                                                       

“Right from the start I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. 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… She had a smile that could light up a street full of people and was extremely lively, had a kind of voluptuousness—a Rodin sculpture come to life.”
– Bob Dylan

 

“Bob was charismatic: he was a beacon, a lighthouse, he was also a black hole. He required committed backup and protection I was unable to provide consistently, probably because I needed them myself. … I could no longer cope with all the pressure, gossip, truth and lies that living with Bob entailed. I was unable to find solid ground. I was on quicksand and very vulnerable.”
– Suze Rotolo

_ _  _ _ _ _ _ _ 

                                         

"The last great song on Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan is “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”. The first track on the second side, it could almost actually be the best thing on the whole album (it’s not, but it’s close), which is saying quite a lot. Dylan will go on to write a whole raft of break-up songs, but this is the template for all the rest of them. These are the cool lyrics, with an undercurrent of hurt, and with the false veneer that says ‘nothing really bothers me’. This is the kind of song that most people wish they could sing when they getting dumped, but few of them actually can.In the summer of 1963 Dylan was seeing both Joan Baez and Suze Rotolo (his longtime on-again off-again girlfriend who is hugging his arm on the cover of Freewheelin’). Baez performed this song during her set at the Newport Folk Festival, and introduced it, with Rotolo in the audience, thusly: “Here’s another Bobby song. This is a song about a love affair that has lasted too long”. Rotolo, of course, walked out." 

Long and Wasted Year

                        

                                      

Bob on Suze

&

Suze on Bob

“Right from the start I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. 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… She had a smile that could light up a street full of people and was extremely lively, had a kind of voluptuousness—a Rodin sculpture come to life.”

– Bob Dylan

“Bob was charismatic: he was a beacon, a lighthouse, he was also a black hole. He required committed backup and protection I was unable to provide consistently, probably because I needed them myself. … I could no longer cope with all the pressure, gossip, truth and lies that living with Bob entailed. I was unable to find solid ground. I was on quicksand and very vulnerable.”

– Suze Rotolo