I remember back when I read A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, the artist Suze Rotolo’s memoir of the time when she and Bob Dylan were dating in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s. Her book made a huge impression on me, as a clear eyed and perceptive window into the Village folk scene.
I was delighted to later learn that while I was reading that book, she was teaching at the Parson’s School of Design, just across town from NYU. In the back of my mind, I imagined that I would one day run into her.
Alas, Suze passed away in 2011, and I never did get to meet her. But I did think about her yesterday morning, when I learned that she was represented as a character called “Sylvie Russo” in A Complete Unknown, the newly released docudrama about Dylan in the 1960s. Apparently Dylan had requested that the film not use her real name.
Coincidentally, yesterday evening I read that the Robbie Williams song Forbidden Road was just removed from the Oscars shortlist for Best Original Song, because it sounds too much like a certain other song. And that immediately made me think of Suze Rotolo.
More tomorrow.