Clinton Heylin (born 8 April 1960) is an English author who has written extensively about popular music and the work of Bob Dylan. (More from Wikipedia)
It was clear that Bob Dylan’s second album would be very different from Bob Dylan, where only two original songs were presented. Wikipedia notes: “Many critics have noted the extraordinary development of Dylan’s songwriting immediately after completing his first album. Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin connects the sudden increase in lyrics written along topical and political lines to the fact that Dylan had moved into an apartment on West 4th Street with his girlfriend Suze Rotolo in January 1962. Rotolo’s family had strong left-wing political commitments; both of her parents were members of the American Communist Party. Dylan acknowledged her influence when he told an interviewer: ‘Suze was into this equality-freedom thing long before I was. I checked out the songs with her.’” That’s Suze Rotolo on Bob Dylan’s arm in the front cover shot of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, walking down a snowy Greenwich Village street.
(June 2013/2)
* * *
Bob Dylan himself reports that someone threw a silver cross on the stage during a concert in San Diego in November 1978, leading directly to his conversion to Christ. It was much more dramatic than I had ever imagined. Again from Wikipedia: “[Clinton] Heylin writes that ‘his state of mind may well have made him susceptible to such an experience. Lacking a sense of purpose in his personal life since the collapse of his marriage, he came to believe that, when Jesus revealed Himself, He quite literally rescued him from an early grave.’”
(August 2014)
