"I met Bob Dylan on a hot day at the end of July 1961 at a marathon folk concert at Riverside Church in upper Manhattan."

-- Suze Rotolo

Thus begins a significant episode in the history of rock 'n' roll.

Suze Rotolo had a front-row seat as Bob Dylan took his first steps to becoming a cultural legend.

Rotolo was Dylan's girlfriend. They met when he was 20 and she was 17. After her 18th birthday, they moved in together in a tiny apartment on West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village.

That's her walking with her arms entwined in his left arm on the cover of his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

Her leaving him was the inspiration for Boots Of Spanish Leather on Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin' album, and their final breakup was the basis for Ballad In Plain D on Another Side Of Bob Dylan.

Dylan may be more famously remembered for his early partnership with Joan Baez, but Rotolo can be considered Dylan's first muse.

After 45 years, Rotolo has returned to the public eye with a book, A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir Of Greenwich Village In The Sixties (Broadway Books, $25.95).

Dedicated old folkies and longtime Dylan fans will be interested in tales of the old Village folk scene and the people who populated it.

But it's stories of the young Dylan that will draw the most attention in the 369-page book that is illustrated with photos (including others from the photo shoot that produced the Freewheelin' cover), drawings and concert programs.

Without intending any slight to Rotolo's life, here are some key passages about the young Bob Dylan, on his way to becoming the most important voice in modern music.

* * *

"I thought he was oddly old-time looking, charming in a scraggly way. His jeans were as rumpled as his shirt and even in the hot weather he had on the black corduroy cap he always wore. He made me think of Harpo Marx, impish and approachable, but there was something about him that broadcast an intensity that was not to be taken lightly."

* * *

"Bobby had an impish charm that older women found endearing. He had a touch of arrogance, a good dose of paranoia, and a wonderful sense of the absurd. But Bobby was also tough and focused and he had a healthy ego. The additional ingredients protected the intensive sensitivity. As an artist he had what it took to become a success."

* * *

"Some of the tales he wove were out of sync with a previously woven one. The sad story he told of being abandoned at a young age in New Mexico and then going to live with a travelling circus didn't jibe with his stories of growing up in Duluth."

* * *

"Onstage he moved around a lot, removing the harmonicas from his pockets and placing them on a stool, fiddling with the capo on his guitar and the corduroy cap on his head. Then he would adjust or change the harmonica in the holder around his neck, retune his guitar and go back to organizing the harmonicas. He rarely said anything. When he finally began to play, he had the audience's attention and he knew it."

* * *

"Bob wanted a shearling jacket to wear for his picture on the cover of the (first) album, but there was no way he could afford a real one. We finally found a synthetic shearling in a shop in the Village that looked pretty good -- almost like the real thing. Bob carefully adjusted the collar just so. He was ready for his self-titled close-up."

* * *

"Accusations of plagiarism would always be a ball and chain on Dylan's career as a songwriter, but especially in the early years. Now and then he acknowledged possible crossovers. One night he burst into the Kettle of Fish (club) waving a piece of paper and announcing to Sylvia Tyson: Hey you gotta listen to this song I just wrote! I just wrote it, or at least I think I wrote it, but maybe I heard it somewhere."

* * *

"Quietly Bob said: This is the beginning of what I have always known. I am going to be big. He said it calmly and knowingly and it was true. No bragging, no Look at me, no Ain't I grand. That was not his way. He spoke only what he knew to be true."

* * *

"Bob always did as he saw fit. He was rarely swayed by outside demands or requests. He went where he wanted to go, even if it meant alienating his public, fans, friends and lovers. He did not make anything easy for anyone, or for himself."

* * *

"After the Freewheelin' Bob Dylan had been out awhile, at parties I noticed that people would approach him with reverence and tell him involved stories about their lives and then wait for him to speak. They wanted him to suggest solutions for them, to enlighten them in some way. It made him uneasy. He wanted to make music, not address a congregation."

* * *

"Joan (Baez) was a big star in the folk music world. Bob was the new, fast-rising star. Their convergence was predictable. Baez and Dylan's professional appearances were exciting and provoked gossip about an affair. At first it was just gossip -- then, of course, it wasn't."

* * *

"Fame came fast and hard for Bob Dylan. He was barely twenty-one when it hit. He has to be lauded for learning how to survive fame with all its pressures and responsibilities, glory and riches aside. He managed it. That took work and work is what he does best. He kept doing what he loved to do -- make music. He served that gift and he survived."

dfoley@thespec.com

905-526-3264