R is for Suze Rotolo, one of his girlfriends.

She is photographed with him on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album cover. She was a well-read, articulate, left-of-centre political activist and an enormously strong influence on him after his first album, Bob Dylan, barely broke even.

She talked with him about a big current event - the murder of a 14-year-old African-American youth from Mississippi who’d whistled at a white woman. He wrote The Ballad Of Emmett Till as a direct result of the incident.

Then he started scouring papers, listening for news reports of events to which he could apply his words and music treatment.

Theirs was a troubled relationship, especially as she went off to spend time in Italy, but her impact on him cannot be overplayed.