Bob Dylan's 'muse' Suze Rotolo dies aged 67Bob Dylan's 'muse' Suze Rotolo dies aged 67
The one time muse and ex girlfriend of singing legend Bob Dylan has died at the age of 67.
Suze Rotolo was 17 years old when she began dating Dylan in 1961, and was famously photographed with the icon on the cover of his 1963 album 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'.
It is understood Miss Rotolo died of lung cancer on Friday, 'after a long illness, at home in her Noho New York loft and the arms of her husband of 40 years, Enzo Bartoccioli,' according to a friend.
Speaking about the iconic 'Freewheelin' album cover she said: 'He wore a very thin jacket, because image was all.
'Our apartment was always cold, so I had a sweater on, plus I borrowed one of his big, bulky sweaters. On top of that I put on a coat.
'So I felt like an Italian sausage. Every time I look at that picture, I think I look fat.'
Rolling Stone magazine credited her left-wing background as having 'a huge role in Dylan's political awakening.'
Miss Rotolo is also thought to be the muse behind some of Dylan's early love songs, including 'Don't Think Twice, It's All Right,' 'Boots of Spanish Leather' and 'Tomorrow Is a Long Time'.
In the song Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, he wrote: 'I once loved a
woman, a child I'm told/I gave her my heart, but she wanted my soul.'
Miss Rotolo was born on Nov. 20, 1943, in Brooklyn and grew up in Sunnyside and Jackson Heights, Queens.
Her mother, from Piacenza, Italy, was an editor and columnist for the American version of L’Unità , published by the Italian Communist Party.
Her father, from Sicily, was an artist and union organizer who died when she was 14.
Speaking about Rotolo in his 1994 memoir Chronicles: Volume 1, Dylan said: 'Right from the start I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
'She was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. She was fair skinned and golden haired, full-blood Italian.
'We started talking and my head started to spin. Cupid’s arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard.'
After three years the couple split, and Rotolo went on to marry Italian film editor Bartoccioli whom she met on a trip to Italy in 1962.
They had a son named Luca.
Rotolo spent the rest of her life as an artist and jewellery maker, but the shadow of her time spent with Dylan proved difficult to shake.
She repeatedly refused to speak of their time together, turning down numerous interview requests over the years.
She only relented when approached by Martin Scorsese approached her
for the 2005 documentary about the singer, 'No Direction Home'.
In 2009 she wrote a memoir titled 'A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties'.
She called her artwork 'book art', or 'a reinterpretation of the book as an art object, thereby altering the perception of what a book can be.'
Suze Rotolo was 17 years old when she began dating Dylan in 1961, and was famously photographed with the icon on the cover of his 1963 album 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'.
It is understood Miss Rotolo died of lung cancer on Friday, 'after a long illness, at home in her Noho New York loft and the arms of her husband of 40 years, Enzo Bartoccioli,' according to a friend.
Iconic: Suze Rotolo on the cover of the 1963 album 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan', has died at 67
Young love: A youthful Rotolo and Dylan. Rotolo was said to be the inspiration behind some of Dylan's early love songs
Speaking about the iconic 'Freewheelin' album cover she said: 'He wore a very thin jacket, because image was all.
'Our apartment was always cold, so I had a sweater on, plus I borrowed one of his big, bulky sweaters. On top of that I put on a coat.
'So I felt like an Italian sausage. Every time I look at that picture, I think I look fat.'
Rolling Stone magazine credited her left-wing background as having 'a huge role in Dylan's political awakening.'
Miss Rotolo is also thought to be the muse behind some of Dylan's early love songs, including 'Don't Think Twice, It's All Right,' 'Boots of Spanish Leather' and 'Tomorrow Is a Long Time'.
Return: Miss Rotolo poses in front of a copy of her 2008 memoir 'A Freewheelin' Time'
Miss Rotolo was born on Nov. 20, 1943, in Brooklyn and grew up in Sunnyside and Jackson Heights, Queens.
Her mother, from Piacenza, Italy, was an editor and columnist for the American version of L’Unità , published by the Italian Communist Party.
Her father, from Sicily, was an artist and union organizer who died when she was 14.
Speaking about Rotolo in his 1994 memoir Chronicles: Volume 1, Dylan said: 'Right from the start I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
'She was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. She was fair skinned and golden haired, full-blood Italian.
'We started talking and my head started to spin. Cupid’s arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard.'
After three years the couple split, and Rotolo went on to marry Italian film editor Bartoccioli whom she met on a trip to Italy in 1962.
They had a son named Luca.
Rotolo spent the rest of her life as an artist and jewellery maker, but the shadow of her time spent with Dylan proved difficult to shake.
She repeatedly refused to speak of their time together, turning down numerous interview requests over the years.
Writer: Rotolo photographed here as she launched
her memoir in 2008. Dylan always loomed large in her live, despite
their brief three years together
In 2009 she wrote a memoir titled 'A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties'.
She called her artwork 'book art', or 'a reinterpretation of the book as an art object, thereby altering the perception of what a book can be.'
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