{"id":332,"date":"2025-01-18T16:51:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T16:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/01\/18\/saturday-night-at-the-oldies-suze-rotolo-and-the-songs-she-inspired\/"},"modified":"2025-01-18T16:51:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T16:51:58","slug":"saturday-night-at-the-oldies-suze-rotolo-and-the-songs-she-inspired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/01\/18\/saturday-night-at-the-oldies-suze-rotolo-and-the-songs-she-inspired\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Night at the Oldies: Remembering Suze Rotolo and the Songs She Inspired"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bob_Dylan_-_The_Freewheelin'_Bob_Dylan\"<\/a>
Suze Rotolo, depicted above, died on 25 February 2011 at 67 years of age. Dylanologists usually refer to the following as songs she inspired:<\/span><\/p>\n

Don't Think Twice<\/a>.  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.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>One Too Many Mornings<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Tomorrow is a Long Time<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Boots of Spanish Leather<\/a> (Nancy Griffith) Joan Baez version.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>Ballad in Plain 'D.' Analysis<\/a>. The song<\/a>. 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<\/a>. "Ah, but I was so much older them, I'm younger than that now."<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally a great song by Baez inspired by and about Dylan: Diamonds and Rust<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It Ain\u2019t Me, Babe<\/span><\/a> Today on TAP: When biopics get it wrong\u2014and occasionally get it just right<\/span><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “Saturday Night at the Oldies: Remembering Suze Rotolo and the Songs She Inspired”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,167,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americana","category-dylan","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}