Study in China

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. 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...

 The outline for Greil Marcus’s approach to analyzing Bob Dylan in his latest book, the aptly titled Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus , can be found in two pieces. The first is a review of the famously messy 1970 album Self Portrait , in which a young Marcus, apparently too stunned to form a proper argument, strings together fifty short observations over twenty pages. Some are fragments of conversations; some are takedowns of the album’s attitude and atmosphere (“I once said I’d buy an album of Dylan breathing heavily. I still would. But not an album of Dylan breathing softly.”); some are muted appreciations of individual songs (Marcus is fond of “All the Tired Horses,” “Living the Blues,” “Copper Kettle,” and precious little else); and some are lengthy quotations from other people. The point, obviously, is that Self Portrait is such an exquisite and inscrutable train wreck that every approach the listener makes toward it is always already doomed to failure; another mus...

  Before he went electric in 1965 — and drew jeers from legions of (arguably small-minded) fans in the process — Bob Dylan epitomized the hard-traveling folk troubadour, and he established this image largely on a vintage Gibson “Nick Lucas” model flat-top guitar. The young Dylan had played other Martin and Gibson models in the late ’50s and early ’60s, but in those final years of his acoustic era, before a “blonde on blonde” Fender Telecaster ushered in a whole new folk-rock sound, the “Nick Lucas” was his instrument of choice. He played this guitar in the studio and on tour from 1963 to ’66, and used it for the legendary albums Another Side of Bob Dylan and Bringing it All Back Home. And, although it didn’t appear on the covers of either of these, it is frequently seen in the many live performance tapes from the day, including broadcasts of the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 and ’65, and Dylan’s famous appearances on BBC TV in England in 1965. While, in hindsigh...

“Clapton is God.” * From the desk of Contributing Editor, Eli M. Getson– * Have you ever thought you had it all?  Once-in-a-lifetime talent, looks, fame, adoring fans, beautiful women on your arms, private jets and chauffered cars at your beck and call.  People hang on your every word, and yet, you have that nagging feeling something is not right.  Is this it?  Who am I?  What purpose does my life have? Then one day it hits you– hammers you actually.  You get total clarity and begin to change everything you’ve known and held sacred.   So it was when Eric Clapton heard The Bands Music from Big Pink .  It was like all of a sudden he heard this record and said to himself, “Now this is what music should sound like.” For me personally– this has always been one of the most interesting moments in rock music history. * 1968, NY– Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce of Cream. –Image by © Michael Ochs Archives/Corbis * Back in 1968, Clap...

  Before he went electric in 1965 — and drew jeers from legions of (arguably small-minded) fans in the process — Bob Dylan epitomized the hard-traveling folk troubadour, and he established this image largely on a vintage Gibson “Nick Lucas” model flat-top guitar. The young Dylan had played other Martin and Gibson models in the late ’50s and early ’60s, but in those final years of his acoustic era, before a “blonde on blonde” Fender Telecaster ushered in a whole new folk-rock sound, the “Nick Lucas” was his instrument of choice. He played this guitar in the studio and on tour from 1963 to ’66, and used it for the legendary albums Another Side of Bob Dylan and Bringing it All Back Home. And, although it didn’t appear on the covers of either of these, it is frequently seen in the many live performance tapes from the day, including broadcasts of the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 and ’65, and Dylan’s famous appearances on BBC TV in England in 1965. While, in...