Muse, Suze Rotolo, died today at age 67 due to a long illness. She was the girl behind dozens of Bob Dylan's most famous songs, and the cover girl on his Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.
They met when she was 17, backstage at a show.
"Right from the start I couldn't take my eyes off her," Dylan wrote. "She was the most erotic thing I'd ever seen. She was fair skinned and golden haired, full-blooded Italian. The air was suddenly filled with banana leaves. 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."
They moved in together and roamed around NYC, until Rotolo went on a summer trip to her native Italy.
Rotolo broke off the relationship due to rumors of him and Joan Baez being more than collaborators. She married an Itialian film editor, had children and later wrote an autobiography about living in Greenwich Village during the 60's.
"Don't think twice it's all right", "Boots of Spanish Leather" and "Tomorrow is a long time" were all ballads inspired by Suze.
