Freewheelin' Poem by gershon hepner

Arm in arm with Bob, freewheelin’,
Suze became his cover girl,
musically and sex appealin’,
causing Dylan’s heart to whirl.
Persistent, and intense, engaging,
like a sponge he used to soak
up influences, raging
against the music they called folk,
transforming it as he transformed
Rotolo, who refused to be
his seventh string or be deformed
by his electric jamboree.
Though she inspired “Don’t Think Twice, ”
and other songs he wrote in rhyme,
she left him, having paid the price,
because tomorrow is the time
that we must thing of when today
no longer seems worthwhile with lovers
from whom we have to move away
although they put us on their covers.

Josh Getlin writes in the LA Times on may 2nd 2008about Suze Retolo, whose book, “A Freewheelin’ Time, ” describes her relationship with Bob Dylan that led her to become the girl on the cover of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” in 1963:

It was one of the most iconic record album covers ever released, and Suze Rotolo was part of it: On a snowy day in 1963, she snuggled with Bob Dylan as the two walked down a Greenwich Village street. 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' went on to become one of his best-known records, but the long-haired girl on his arm was always a mystery. Now, Rotolo has broken years of silence to tell the story of what it was like to fall in love with Bob Dylan at 17, to introduce him to civil rights politics and modern poetry, and to finally break up with him when the pressures of his stardom became too great. Her new book, 'A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, ' offers a revealing glimpse of the young artist, whom she calls with understatement 'an elephant in the room of my life.' 'People will always identify Suze as the girl on the album cover, and she's lived with this since 1963, but that's not the reason to read her book, ' said Sean Wilentz, a Princeton University professor and historian in residence at Dylan's official website. 'She evokes a time and place out of which a good deal of contemporary American culture sprang. It was a time of great freedom, when people were figuring out what they want to be, but freedom is scary.' During their turbulent, four-year relationship, Rotolo deeply loved Dylan, who was 20 when they met. She was there when classic songs like 'Blowin' in the Wind' and 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall' were new. She looked on with pride, then fear, as celebrity transformed him and other women pursued him. The author finally decided it was time for her to leave and become her own person. But not before an abortion and emotional breakdown shattered her. 'We loved each other very much and when it ended it was mutual heartbreak, ' she writes in her memoir. 'He avoided responsibility. I didn't make it easy for him, either.... I knew I was not suited for his life.'…“He was funny, engaging, intense, and he was persistent, ' she writes, describing her initial impressions of Dylan, whom she ran into at a folk music festival in 1961. 'These words completely describe who he was throughout the time we were together; only the order of the words would shift depending on the mood or circumstance.' The Dylan she knew could withdraw emotionally on a moment's notice or crack up friends with outrageous humor. He'd scribble lyrics to new songs on napkins in cheesy diners. Like a sponge, he absorbed new influences, sometimes not sure if he'd written a song or borrowed it from someone else. Without warning he could be cruel, affectionate or deeply enigmatic. He also became a hugely influential figure in the Village, and Rotolo was along for the ride. Dylan's celebrity 'made it harder for her to walk around for a few years because of that album cover, ' said John Sebastian, an acquaintance who went on to form the Lovin' Spoonful. 'He looked like the ramblin' guy, and she was the perfect girl. Suddenly you were looking for a rumpled leather jacket just like his, and girls were wearing those high boots.'…..She was unwilling, however, to be the seventh string on Dylan's guitar. Although some have idealized the folk era, Rotolo was rebelling against pervasive male chauvinism in the Village before she even had the words to describe it: 'I am private by nature, and my instinct was to protect my privacy, and consequently his, ' she writes. Yet this proved impossible, as Dylan's star soared. 'We got on really well, though neither one of us had any skin growing over our nerve endings. We were both over sensitive and needed shelter from the storm.' Her reference to one of Dylan's most famous songs is no accident. Elsewhere, she recalls 'roosters crowing at the break of dawn' in the South Village; when the big breakup finally came, 'he saw right from his side, and I saw right from mine.' Some rock historians believe Rotolo inspired a flock of Dylan tunes, including 'Don't Think Twice, It's All Right' and 'Tomorrow Is a Long Time.'

5/2/08