Susan Elizabeth Rotolo, known as Suze Rotolo, was an American artist, and the
girlfriend of Bob Dylan from 1961 to 1964. Dylan later acknowledged her
strong influence on his music and art during that period. Rotolo is the woman
walking with him on the cover of his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, a
photograph by the CBS studio photographer, Don Hunstein. In her book,
A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, Rotolo
described her time with Dylan and other figures in the folk music and bohemian
scene in Greenwich Village, New York. She discussed her upbringing as a "red
diaper" baby—a child of Communist Party USA members during the McCarthy Era. As
an artist, she specialized in artists' books and taught at the Parsons School
of Design in New York City. Biography
= The Freewheelin' years, 1961–1964 = Rotolo, of Italian-American descent, was
born at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, New York, and raised in Sunnyside, Queens.
Her parents were Joachim and Mary Rotolo, who were members of the American
Communist Party. In July 1961, she graduated from Bryant High School.
At about the time she met Dylan, Rotolo began working full-time as a political
activist in the office of the Congress of Racial Equality, and the anti-nuclear
group SANE. She and her sister Carla had also entered the Greenwich Village folk
scene. Rotolo first met Dylan at a Riverside Church folk concert in July
1961. They were introduced by Carla, who at that time was working as an assistant
to folklorist Alan Lomax. Describing their meeting in his memoir, Chronicles,
Volume One, Dylan wrote: Right from the start I couldn’t take my
eyes off her. She was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. She was fair
skinned and golden haired, full-blood Italian. 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... Meeting her was like stepping into the
tales of 1001 Arabian Nights. 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. It was not until they met that Dylan's
writing began to address issues such as the civil rights movement and the threat
of nuclear war. They started living together in early 1962, much to the
disapproval of her family. As Dylan's fame grew, Rotolo found the relationship
increasingly stressful. She wrote: 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. Rotolo left New York in June 1962, with
her mother, to spend six months studying art at the University of Perugia in
Italy. She was known there as Justine Rotolo, having used an invented middle
name to register as "S. Justine Rotolo". Dylan's separation from his girlfriend
has been credited as the inspiration behind several of his finest love songs,
including "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright", "Tomorrow Is a Long Time",
"One Too Many Mornings", and "Boots of Spanish Leather".
Rotolo's political views were widely regarded as having influenced Dylan's
topical songwriting. Dylan also credited her with interesting him in the French
poet, Arthur Rimbaud, who heavily influenced his writing style. The
influence of Bertolt Brecht on Dylan's songwriting has also been acknowledged
by Dylan as stemming from Rotolo's participation in Brechtian theater
during their relationship. In Chronicles, Dylan describes the impact
of the song "Pirate Jenny" while attending a Brecht show on which Rotolo
worked. Dylan's interest in painting can also be traced back to his relationship
with Rotolo. Rotolo emphasised her shared values with Dylan in an interview
with author Robbie Woliver: People say I was an influence on him,
but we influenced each other. His interests were filtered through me and
my interests, like the books I had, were filtered through him ... It was always
sincere on his part. The guy saw things. He had an incredible ability to see and
sponge—there was a genius in that. The ability to create out of everything
that's flying around. To synthesize it. To put it in words and music."
Rotolo became pregnant in 1963 by Dylan and had an abortion. Their relationship
failed to survive the abortion, Dylan's affair with Joan Baez and the hostility
of the Rotolo family. Suze moved into her sister's apartment in August 1963.
She and Dylan broke up in 1964, in circumstances which Dylan described in
his "Ballad in Plain D". Twenty years later, he apologised for the song,
saying: "I must have been a real schmuck to write that. I look back at that
particular one and say, of all the songs I've written, maybe I could have left
that alone." = Later life, 1964–2011 =
Rotolo traveled to Cuba in June 1964, with a group, although it was unlawful
for United States citizens to do so. She was quoted as saying, in regard to
opponents of Fidel Castro that, "These gusanos [worms] are not suppressed.
There can be open criticism of the regime. As long as they keep it to talk
they are tolerated, as long as there is no sabotage."
Rotolo married Italian Enzo Bartoccioli, a film editor who works for the United
Nations, in 1967. Together they had one son, Luca, who is a guitarist in New
York. In New York, Rotolo worked as an illustrator and painter, before
concentrating on creating book art, making book-like objects which
incorporated found art. Remaining politically active, Rotolo joined the
street-theater group Billionaires for Bush and protested at the 2004
Republican National Convention in Manhattan.
Rotolo evaded discussing her relationship with Dylan for decades. In
July 2004, she was interviewed in a documentary produced by New York PBS
Channel 13 and The New York Daily News; in November 2004, she made an
unannounced appearance at the Experience Music Project, on a panel discussing
Dylan's early days in Greenwich Village. She and her husband also were involved
in putting on a memorial event for Dave van Ronk after the singer's death in
2002. Rotolo made an appearance in Martin Scorsese's documentary film, No
Direction Home: Bob Dylan, which focused on Dylan's early career from 1961 to
1966. This film was broadcast as part of the American Masters series on PBS
public television in September 2005. Rotolo was also interviewed nationally
in 2008 by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air to promote her book, A Freewheelin'
Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, which was published by
Broadway Books on May 13, 2008. Rotolo recounted her attempts not to be
overshadowed by her relationship with Dylan. She discussed her need to pursue
her artistic creativity and to retain her political integrity, concluding:
The sixties were an era that spoke a language of inquiry and curiosity and
rebelliousness against the stifling and repressive political and social culture
of the decade that preceded it. The new generation causing all the fuss was not
driven by the market: we had something to say, not something to sell."
Rotolo died of lung cancer at her home in New York City's NoHo district on
February 25, 2011, aged 67. Film portrayals
In the 2007 film, "I'm Not There", a fictional account of Bob Dylan's life,
there is a version of Rotolo's relationship with Dylan. Heath Ledger
plays Robbie Clark, one of six Dylan-based characters in the film.
Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Claire, the wife of Robbie. This character has been
described as a combination of Sara Dylan, Dylan's first wife, and Suze
Rotolo. In the film, Robbie meets Claire in a Greenwich Village diner and they
fall in love. The scene in which Robbie and Claire run romantically through the
streets of New York re-enacts the cover of the 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob
Dylan. Notes
References Dylan, Bob. Chronicles: Volume One.
Simon & Schuster. p. 293. ISBN 0-7432-2815-4.
Flanagan, Bill. Written In My Soul. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-2224-1.
Gray, Michael, The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, Continuum International,
ISBN 0-8264-6933-7 Heylin, Clinton. Bob Dylan: Behind the
Shades Revisited. Perennial Currents. ISBN 0-06-052569-X.
Rotolo, Suze, A Freewheelin' Time, Aurum Press, ISBN 0-7679-2688-9
Shelton, Robert. No Direction Home. Da Capo Press. p. 576. ISBN 0-306-81287-8.
Sounes, Howard. Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan. Grove Press. ISBN
0-8021-1686-8. Woliver, Robbie. Hoot! A 25-Year History
of the Greenwich Village Music Scene. St.Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-10995-4.
External links Her former webpage, suzerotolo.com
Suze Rotolo memorial at Find A Grave IMDb profile
Rotolo's work on Paperworks Website Obituary in The New York Times
Fresh Air interview, 2008