the weight of it dragged me overboard.”
Yes, well, that was a good thing for all of us Dylan fans,
as his romance with Suze (they moved in together, into an
apartment on West 4th Street, in January 1962) directly
inspired the songs “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,”
“Tomorrow Is a Long Time,” “One Too Many Mornings”
and “Boots of Spanish Leather.” How much her liberal
political views made their way into his topical songs has
been speculated upon endlessly, but it’s probable that
there’s as much Suze Rotolo as Pete Seeger or WoodyGuthrie in “Oxford Town,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Masters
of War” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” She was every-
thing to him, for a time.
If you don’t think you know her, you do. She is the happy
young woman clinging to her boyfriend’s arm as they walk
down the slushy Greenwich Village street on the cover of
the boyfriend’s second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
While he was recording what would be his breakthrough
record, he was continuing to climb in reputation—he
landed that first Carnegie Hall gig, which forced even the08-35 LIFE_Bob Dylan 2020 Folksinger.indd 24 FINAL 1/13/20 4:16 PM