A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties
by: Suze Rotolo
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Product Description:
A Freewheelin’ Time is Suze Rotolo’s firsthand, eyewitness, participant-observer account of the immensely creative and fertile years of the 1960s, just before the circus was in full swing and Bob Dylan became the anointed ringmaster. It chronicles the back-story of Greenwich Village in the early days of the folk music explosion, when Dylan was honing his skills and she was in the ring with him.
A shy girl from Queens, Suze Rotolo was the daughter of Italian working-class Communists. Growing up at the start of the Cold War and during McCarthyism, she inevitably became an outsider in her neighborhood and at school. Her childhood was turbulent, but Suze found solace in poetry, art, and music. In Washington Square Park, in Greenwich Village, she encountered like-minded friends who were also politically active. Then one hot day in July 1961, Suze met Bob Dylan, a rising young musician, at a folk concert at Riverside Church. She was seventeen, he was twenty; they were young, curious, and inseparable. During the years they were together, Dylan was transformed from an obscure folk singer into an uneasy spokesperson for a generation.
Suze Rotolo’s story is rich in character and setting, filled with vivid memories of those tumultuous years of dramatic change and poignantly rising expectations when art, culture, and politics all seemed to be conspiring to bring our country a better, freer, richer, and more equitable life. She writes of her involvement with the civil rights movement and describes the sometimes frustrating experience of being a woman in a male-dominated culture, before women’s liberation changed the rules for the better. And she tells the wonderfully romantic story of her sweet but sometimes wrenching love affair and its eventual collapse under the pressures of growing fame.
A Freewheelin’ Time is a vibrant, moving memoir of a hopeful time and place and of a vital subculture at its most creative. It communicates the excitement of youth, the heartbreak of young love, and the struggles for a brighter future.
A Freewheelin’ Time is Suze Rotolo’s firsthand, eyewitness, participant-observer account of the immensely creative and fertile years of the 1960s, just before the circus was in full swing and Bob Dylan became the anointed ringmaster. It chronicles the back-story of Greenwich Village in the early days of the folk music explosion, when Dylan was honing his skills and she was in the ring with him.
A shy girl from Queens, Suze Rotolo was the daughter of Italian working-class Communists. Growing up at the start of the Cold War and during McCarthyism, she inevitably became an outsider in her neighborhood and at school. Her childhood was turbulent, but Suze found solace in poetry, art, and music. In Washington Square Park, in Greenwich Village, she encountered like-minded friends who were also politically active. Then one hot day in July 1961, Suze met Bob Dylan, a rising young musician, at a folk concert at Riverside Church. She was seventeen, he was twenty; they were young, curious, and inseparable. During the years they were together, Dylan was transformed from an obscure folk singer into an uneasy spokesperson for a generation.
Suze Rotolo’s story is rich in character and setting, filled with vivid memories of those tumultuous years of dramatic change and poignantly rising expectations when art, culture, and politics all seemed to be conspiring to bring our country a better, freer, richer, and more equitable life. She writes of her involvement with the civil rights movement and describes the sometimes frustrating experience of being a woman in a male-dominated culture, before women’s liberation changed the rules for the better. And she tells the wonderfully romantic story of her sweet but sometimes wrenching love affair and its eventual collapse under the pressures of growing fame.
A Freewheelin’ Time is a vibrant, moving memoir of a hopeful time and place and of a vital subculture at its most creative. It communicates the excitement of youth, the heartbreak of young love, and the struggles for a brighter future.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- She's got everything she needs, she's an artist and at last she looks back
When I saw Suze Rotolo in No Direction Home it sent shivers down my back. You may talk of Patty Boyd, Jane Asher, and Anita Pallenberg, but Suze Rotolo inspired Boots of Spanish Leather, One Too Many Mornings, It Ain't Me Babe, Ballad in Plain D, She Belongs to Me, If You See Her Say Hello, and numerous others of Dylan's most passionate, thought provoking and beautiful love songs. In Chronicles, Dylan himself, credits her with introducing him to ideas that would spin his art in it's most fascinating ... Read More
Rating: 
- Don't Think Twice, It's...well, All Right
More precisely, I'd give it 3.5 stars. Dylan fans: Don't be deceived by the book's cover or the title. It is not a book about Bob. The byline is a more accurate description of the content: "A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties". And of course - it is a book about Suze Rotolo, Dylan's girlfriend during the early stage of his career. Sure, a good deal of it deals with stories of life with Bob Dylan and it offers some insight into how he related to Rotolo, friends, family and colleagues but there ... Read More
Rating: - This is my story
Suze Rotolo has captured the essence of the sixties in The Village with devastating accuracy. She has told my story, with all my own experiences, these many long years later, ; parts of which moved me to tears. Here I thought I was the only one who saw and remembered things this way. Her descriptions were spot on target; it was just like being back there working at the Gaslight and hanging upstairs at The Kettle of Fish.
People wereenthralled by the stardom, recording contracts and the money ... Read More
Rating: - Greenwich Village with Dylan
I liked reading Suze's account of her time with Dylan, the folk scene in Greenwich Village, the affordable housing and easy employment opportunities.Once time moves forward there's no going back to the simplicity of that particular time, the early 60's, so it's enjoyable to read about.
She had an unorthodox background and a lot of independence for someone underage, and she had a lot of adventures. Her descriptions are earnest and vivid.Unlike some other biographies about women behind rock stars, ... Read More
Rating: - "The Times They Are A-Changin'..."
When you look at the iconic photograph, that graces the cover of the classic '60s record album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" it brings about so much emotion. A young Bobby Dylan, hunched over, hands in the pockets of his jeans, walking down a snowy NYC street. Clutching his arm is a beautiful, young woman with a smile, that looks like it could light up the whole world. The photo to me speaks volumes of both young love and the innocence of a new generation at the begining of a new decade.
We all know Bob ... Read More
- She's got everything she needs, she's an artist and at last she looks backWhen I saw Suze Rotolo in No Direction Home it sent shivers down my back. You may talk of Patty Boyd, Jane Asher, and Anita Pallenberg, but Suze Rotolo inspired Boots of Spanish Leather, One Too Many Mornings, It Ain't Me Babe, Ballad in Plain D, She Belongs to Me, If You See Her Say Hello, and numerous others of Dylan's most passionate, thought provoking and beautiful love songs. In Chronicles, Dylan himself, credits her with introducing him to ideas that would spin his art in it's most fascinating ... Read More
- Don't Think Twice, It's...well, All RightMore precisely, I'd give it 3.5 stars. Dylan fans: Don't be deceived by the book's cover or the title. It is not a book about Bob. The byline is a more accurate description of the content: "A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties". And of course - it is a book about Suze Rotolo, Dylan's girlfriend during the early stage of his career. Sure, a good deal of it deals with stories of life with Bob Dylan and it offers some insight into how he related to Rotolo, friends, family and colleagues but there ... Read More
- This is my storySuze Rotolo has captured the essence of the sixties in The Village with devastating accuracy. She has told my story, with all my own experiences, these many long years later, ; parts of which moved me to tears. Here I thought I was the only one who saw and remembered things this way. Her descriptions were spot on target; it was just like being back there working at the Gaslight and hanging upstairs at The Kettle of Fish.
People wereenthralled by the stardom, recording contracts and the money ... Read More
- Greenwich Village with DylanI liked reading Suze's account of her time with Dylan, the folk scene in Greenwich Village, the affordable housing and easy employment opportunities.Once time moves forward there's no going back to the simplicity of that particular time, the early 60's, so it's enjoyable to read about.
She had an unorthodox background and a lot of independence for someone underage, and she had a lot of adventures. Her descriptions are earnest and vivid.Unlike some other biographies about women behind rock stars, ... Read More
- "The Times They Are A-Changin'..."When you look at the iconic photograph, that graces the cover of the classic '60s record album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" it brings about so much emotion. A young Bobby Dylan, hunched over, hands in the pockets of his jeans, walking down a snowy NYC street. Clutching his arm is a beautiful, young woman with a smile, that looks like it could light up the whole world. The photo to me speaks volumes of both young love and the innocence of a new generation at the begining of a new decade.
We all know Bob ... Read More
