The reason that Suze Rotolo is on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan is that she was his significant other when he was writing those songs. In fact, the song Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right is about her.
Rotolo went to Perugia Italy to study art, and Dylan was unhappy that she extended her stay there. That song was his way of expressing his annoyance. You can read the details in her wonderful aforementioned memoir A Freewheelin’ Time.
But the story of Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right is even more interesting. It turns out that it’s not really an original song, but rather a brilliant adaptation.
It’s a riff on the traditional song Who’s Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I’m Gone, and Dylan learned it from fellow folksinger Paul Clayton. In fact, in 1960 Clayton had already recorded his own adaptation called Who’s Gonna Buy You Ribbons When I’m Gone?.
Dylan’s version, in addition to borrowing the music, also borrowed key lyrical phrases from Clayton’s song, including his opening line as well as that great lyric “I’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road.”
So there’s that road imagery again, later used in I’ve Got a Name and then again in Forbidden Road. Musically, all of these songs are highly similar, and it’s not clear where the credit should go, since the author of the original inspiration — Who’s Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I’m Gone — is unknown.
But I think there are lessons to be drawn from all this. More tomorrow.