Dylan Revisited: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

Looking back at the album that launched an icon

This is a series by DylanRevisited based on former Twitter threads, now available here in an easier to read and longer lasting format.

It’s one of the greatest album covers ever. Just look at that image.

A young couple striding down the middle of the street, braced against the New York cold, bound together by young love. It feels timeless, universal, familiar.

Of course, it’s totally misleading.

The cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan gives the impression of unity whereas many songs on the record are about these lovers being apart from one other and the pain this separation causes.

As Bob Dylan began recording his second album in April 1962, his girlfriend Suze Rotolo moved to Italy to study. She’ll be his absent muse for the rest of the year, a ghost haunting his songs.

Suze is most obviously present on The Freewheelin’s magnificent cover and on the blues te…