Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Saturday Night at the Oldies: Remembering Suze Rotolo and the Songs She Inspired

Bob_Dylan_-_The_Freewheelin'_Bob_Dylan
Suze Rotolo, depicted above, died on 25 February 2011 at 67 years of age. Dylanologists usually refer to the following as songs she inspired:

Don't Think Twice.  This Peter, Paul, and Mary rendition may well be the best.  It moves me as much as it did 62 years ago in 1963 when it first came out.  It was via this song that I discovered Dylan.  The 45 rpm record I had and still have showed one 'B. Dylan' as the song's author.  I pronounced it as 'Dial-in' and wondered who he was.  I soon found out.

One Too Many Mornings

Tomorrow is a Long Time

Boots of Spanish Leather (Nancy Griffith) Joan Baez version.

There is some irony, of course, in Baez's renditions of songs inspired by Rotolo: Dylan's affair with Baez was a factor in his break up with Rotolo.

Ballad in Plain 'D.' Analysis. The song. This song is only indirectly inspired by Suze; it is 'inspired' by Suze's sister, Carla Rotolo, the "parasite sister" in Dylan's song. The link below that references their mother Mary Rotolo will also bring you to pages about Suze and Carla.  The commie character of the Village folk scene as represented by the Rotolos, Pete Seeger, and so many others  is a good part of the backstory to Dylan's My Back Pages. "Ah, but I was so much older them, I'm younger than that now."

Finally a great song by Baez inspired by and about Dylan: Diamonds and Rust

In her memoir, A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties (Broadway Books, 2008, p. 277-8), Suze Rotolo says this about her mother Mary Rotolo:

I remember her informing me that the career army man an older cousin was married to had lost out on a promotion that involved security clearance because of my appearance on the cover of Bob's album.  I was astounded.

True, the times they were troubled.  Protest against the escalating war in Vietnam was on the rise, draft cards were being burned, and colleges were erupting with discontent.  Blues, bluegrass, and ballads no longer defined folk music, since so many folksingers were now writing songs that spoke to current events.  Bob Dylan was labeled a "protest singer."  But the absurdity of my mother, Marxist Mary, trying to make me feel responsible for a military man's losing a security clearance because I am on an album cover with Bob Dylan, a rebel with a cause, left me speechless.  And that was all she said to me about the cover or the album in general. 

It Ain’t Me, Babe Today on TAP: When biopics get it wrong—and occasionally get it just right


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4 responses to “Saturday Night at the Oldies: Remembering Suze Rotolo and the Songs She Inspired”

  1. Ed Farrell Avatar

    I agree about the Peter, Paul and Mary version of “Don’t Think Twice.” I don’t know if you’re a bluegrass fan but you might check out this version of “Don’t Think Twice” by Billy Strings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmlLdntYnpU
    His intro is truncated but he’s referring to this earlier version by Doc and Merle Watson:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHnK0G6J45A

  2. BV Avatar
    BV

    Those are fabulously good versions of a song I never get tired of. Thanks, Ed.
    By the way, how are you finding Cheever’s Journals? I’d be very interested in your opinion.

  3. Ed Farrell Avatar

    Hi Bill, I’ve barely dug into Cheever’s journals because I am absolutely determined to finish plowing through Charles Taylor’s “The Language Animal” and “Cosmic Connections.” Not light reading by a long shot but he is really putting many years of language study and musing into a very elegant framework that seems to work. Mostly at least. I’m not through with it. But I will definitely write up something on Cheever within the next couple of weeks or so because I can already see that he demands it–it’s very vivid stuff and a far cry from the relatively dull Celan letters I was browsing through.
    I’m glad you liked the bluegrass versions. I’m a guitar picker myself and “Don’t Think Twice” has been a constant companion over the years.

  4. BV Avatar
    BV

    Ed,
    I’ll add you to the list of MavPhil guitar players: me, Malcolm Pollack, Dave Bagwill, who is also a luthier (in Oregon, probably not far from you), Tony Flood.
    I look forward to some posts by you on Taylor and on Cheever.

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