ldquo;The girl with Bob Dylan on the cover of Freewheelinrsquo; broke a forty-five-year silence with this affectionate and dignified recalling of a relationship doomed by Dylanrsquo;s growing fame.rdquo; ndash;UNCUT magazine Suze Rotolo chronicles her coming of age in Greenwich Village during the 1960s and the early days of the folk music explosion; when Bob Dylan was finding his voice and she was his muse.A shy girl from Queens; Suze was the daughter of Italian working-class Communists; growing up at the dawn of the Cold War. It was the age of McCarthy and Suze was an outsider in her neighborhood and at school. She found solace in poetry; art; and musicmdash;and in Greenwich Village; where she encountered like-minded and politically active friends. One hot July day in 1961; Suze met Bob Dylan; then a rising musician; at a concert at Riverside Church. She was seventeen; he was twenty; they were both vibrant; curious; and inseparable. During the years they were together; Dylan transformed from an obscure folk singer into an uneasy spokesperson for a generation.A Freewheelinrsquo; Time is a hopeful; intimate memoir of a vital movement at its most creative. It captures the excitement of youth; the heartbreak of young love; and the struggles for a brighter future in a time when everything seemed possible.From the Trade Paperback edition.
#188572 in eBooks 2008-05-13 2008-05-13File Name: B000UZQIHO
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Splendid history of an important company in the 78 rpm records eraBy Richard M. RolloRick Kennedy has written an excellent social history of the Gennett Record Company. The Gennett family acquired the Starr Piano Company of Richmond; Indiana; and began recording and selling phonograph records as an offshoot of their piano business. Although sound recordings had been available since 1900; it was slow to develop by todays standards on technological change. By the 1920s; it was still fairly primitive and all involved were still experimenting.Today; music lovers look back on the Gennett Company and marvel at their cultural achievements. Jazz fans marvel at the range of artists they recorded: King Oliver; Louis Armstrong; Jelly Roll Morton; Bix Beiderbecke;; Delta Blues fans collect their records by Roosevelt Sykes; Blind Lemon Jefferson; Charley Patton; Lonnie Johnson; and many others; Doc Roberts and Gene Autry (future cowboy movie actor) were among the Country music artists. They also recorded numerous gospel music artists; white and black. All this began in a small Indiana town near the Ohio border.But; dont get too sentimental about it. Like the Hollywood cliche: its not SHOW business; its show BUSINESS. Gennett was a business and it reflected the times. They were willing to record whatever and whomever they thought would sell. The KKK had a huge resurgence in the 1920s throughout the country; and Gennett recorded their records too during that time. Gennett was not fussy at all about their acts. Also; like the music business today; many artists soured on Gennett due to late payments and being shortchanged on royalty payments.Many of the early records had fair to poor sound fidelity due to the acoustic horn process used. On some records; the piano sounds like its out in the hallway. Photos in the book show the recordings were made with a big acoustic horn and the recording engineer positioned the performers through experimentation. It wasnt until 1927-28 that recording companies began using electric microphones to record the performers. You can hear the difference on the 78 rpm records afterwards. But many of the best performances were recorded using the older method.One of the best anecdotes in this book involves King Olivers Dippermouth Blues. Dippermouth Blues has been a staple of traditional jazz bands since the 1920s. The best recent version was done at Jeff and Joels 2013 House Party as seen on You Tube. Traditional Jazz is structured with what Jelly Roll Morton called riffs and breaks (see his Library of Congress recordings.) Breaks were short solo interludes between band riffs. Near the end of any version of the Dippermouth Blues you will hear the band break and shout "Oh; Play that thing." You also hear it on the original Gennett 78 record because; according to Kennedys sources; the clarinet player missed his "break." He forgot to play his solo. One of the band members shouted at him and it became part of the song.If you are interested in popular music of the early 20th Century; I think you will enjoy this book.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Hail Bix!By Gospel JonOnce again Hoosiers come through!1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. The complete story of Gennett and the tipping point in the record business and American vernaculr musicBy CharlieKennedyrsquo;s passion for and years of in depth research of the Starr Piano / Gennett Record label story shines brightly in the new edition of Jelly Roll; Bix; and Hoagy. Not only is it the definitive account of the companyrsquo;s history; but of the tipping point in both the birth of the modern record business and the introduction of American culture and music to the world.