women

According to Dylan "Everybody should have a wife somewhere in the world..."

Unlike most rock or pop idles, Dylan's women were rarely the skinny 'Barbie Doll' sort of women. Oh no, he liked 'em with "Dirty long hairhanging all over the place". He liked a 'real woman' whom he could talk to, and who could act as his muse. It is prehaps testament to his charms that few women have ever bitched about him in public. And yes, he did have a few.

Dylan has had an incredible number of women, from maybe his first semi serious relationship with Echo Helstrom right up through Marianna Faithful, to Carole Childs and beyond.

Bobs' first serious gilfriend came in the shape of Suze Roltolo, who can be seen with Bob on the front cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. "He was charismatic. Even though he was one of the imitators of Woody Guthrie, he had something of his own" she said after the first time she met him in 1961. She was the subject of many early songs, including 'Boots Of Spanish Leather', and 'Don't Think Twice, It's Alright.

Prehaps the most famous of Dylan women is Joan Baez. She has been called the Yin to Bob's Yang. They were known as the 'King and Queen of Folk'. However, some people believe that Dylan used her to further his career. However, she was content to have the young Dylan as her protege.

Half-Mexican, half-Scots, Baez had also left home to perform in the cofee houses of Greenwhich village, and became very successful there due to her beautiful voice and precise phrasing.

She was unimpressed with Dylan on first sighting, but within two years she was converted, and in 1963 the two began a romance. Dylan did a series of mimi-tours with his new lover, and the exposure it gave him was priceless. By the time the tours ended , he was as popular as Baez.

The love-affair, (a kind of on-off affair anyway) until 1964, when the strain began to show. She wanted Dylan to become even more political, but he resisted. Bob was just a rebel with no particular cause.

After the British tour it was all-over and they would not sing together for 10 years, she joined the Rolling Thunder Tour, and co-starred in the strange Renaldo And Clara. Her last album, 1997's Gone From Danger was met with warm reviews.

After a short relationships with Dana Gillespie, Bob met, and later married Sara Lowndes. She is the only woman that Bob wrote about directly, (Sara appears on 1976's Desire). Sara was his ultimate muse as outlined in Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands from 1966's Blonde On Blonde.

Sara was not a rock 'n' roll chick by any streach of the imagination, and there was widespread amazement when the couple got married in 1965. The marrage lasted for almost 12 years until, in 1977 Sara filed for divorce which resulted in a bitter custody battle which was finally settled at the end of the year. The two are now said to be friends and she reportedly attends some of his shows. However, there has not yet been someone to match Sara's importance to Dylan, not for his lack of trying though!