The death of Suze Rotolo was a terrible shock. I didn't know she was suffering from lung cancer - but then few people did. She shunned the limelight and celebrity status which her relationship with Bob might have earned for her, and got on with her life as an activist, an artist, a teacher, a mother.
Of course, as she said, Bob was the "elephant in the room of life". And elephants don't come much bigger than Bob. But even in those heady four years back in the day, it is clear - both from Bob's version in Chronicles and Suze's in A Freewheelin' Time - that the relationship was never one-way.
It was Suze who introduced Bob to Rimbaud and Verlaine, to Brecht and Kandinsky. It was Suze who first drew Bob's attention to the story of a young Afro-American named Emmett Till. It was with Suze that Bob first saw Picasso's Guernica. As a 'red diaper baby', she gave Bob's instinctive hatred of injustice a political focus.
I've compiled a playlist of songs about Suze or inspired by Suze. It includes Don't think twice, Tomorrow is a long time, Boots of Spanish leather, Down the highway, All I really want to do, Restless farewell and many more.
But these are not enough to do her justice. She was, clearly, "the could-be dream-lover of my lifetime" as Bob wrote in Ballad in plain D. But she was so much more.
Bob fans of my generation, haunted always by that iconic album cover, will want to claim her and her memory. But she belongs, first and foremost, to her husband and their son. And it's with them that my thoughts are this morning.
Today's listening: My Suze playlist, but without Ballad in plain D.
Of course, as she said, Bob was the "elephant in the room of life". And elephants don't come much bigger than Bob. But even in those heady four years back in the day, it is clear - both from Bob's version in Chronicles and Suze's in A Freewheelin' Time - that the relationship was never one-way.
It was Suze who introduced Bob to Rimbaud and Verlaine, to Brecht and Kandinsky. It was Suze who first drew Bob's attention to the story of a young Afro-American named Emmett Till. It was with Suze that Bob first saw Picasso's Guernica. As a 'red diaper baby', she gave Bob's instinctive hatred of injustice a political focus.
I've compiled a playlist of songs about Suze or inspired by Suze. It includes Don't think twice, Tomorrow is a long time, Boots of Spanish leather, Down the highway, All I really want to do, Restless farewell and many more.
But these are not enough to do her justice. She was, clearly, "the could-be dream-lover of my lifetime" as Bob wrote in Ballad in plain D. But she was so much more.
Bob fans of my generation, haunted always by that iconic album cover, will want to claim her and her memory. But she belongs, first and foremost, to her husband and their son. And it's with them that my thoughts are this morning.
Today's listening: My Suze playlist, but without Ballad in plain D.
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