MICHELLE MARGETTS
Inarguably, Jim’s most famous Bob Dylan shot is the one he called “Dylan With Tire.” It captures such an optimistic and ebullient and inspiring time in Dylan’s life—and also in Jim’s.
“Dylan With Tire” is one of what Jim called his “hero shots,” and it has been published in three of his books and included in nearly every article and interview that was ever done on Jim. It’s an image so iconic and mysteriously compelling that it became much bigger than itself from the moment it was first printed; people have been trying to imbue it with meaning since the Saturday Evening Post ran it more than four decades ago.
Here are a couple of versions of Jim’s story about how this moment was captured. They were published twelve years apart, and you may note the difference in Jim’s tone and mood from one recounting to the next.
From his 2009 book Trust:
Bobby Dylan lived right around the corner from me in Greenwich Village and I hooked up with him around the neighborhood. The famous shot of him rolling the tire from 1963 happened when we were just going for breakfast one morning. There was me, Bobby, his girlfriend Suze, Dave Van Ronk, and his wife Terri. The tire was in the fucking street, Bob picked it up, kicked it twice, end of fucking story, no big deal. Fuckers been reading into it for some meaning, the song was never going to be called “Like a Rolling Tire!” There’s a nut that even went through [Dylan’s] garbage every day looking for meaning. The Saturday Evening Post ran it and it took on a life of its own.
And from Not Fade Away, published in 1997:
What did Churchill say about Russia? A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma? Well, Dylan is an enigma. This particular photo was taken one Sunday morning when Bobby, his girlfriend Suze Rotolo, Dave Van Ronk, and Terri Van Ronk all were going to breakfast in New York. Just two frames were shot—no big deal—but I feel it shows that Bob was still a kid in 1963. Contrary to popular belief, this shot did not inspire the song “Like a Rolling Stone.” No one really knows where he was coming from, but he’s one of the most brilliant songwriters of our time. The last time I photographed him was in 1980.
BOB DYLAN rolling the tire, Greenwich Village, New York City, 1963
I’m with Jim on the dumbness of thinking the shot’s about “Like a Rolling Stone/Tire.” Featuring something that rolls is just way too trite for the way Jim worked, even in the beginning stages of his career. What it makes me think of is another classic song Dylan wrote a decade after he hung out with Jim and some friends, just heading to grab some grub on a sleepy Sunday morning in downtown New York City: “Forever Young.”
BOB DYLAN rolling the tire, Greenwich Village, New York City, 1963
TERRI VAN RONK, DAVE VAN RONK, UNKNOWN, SUZE ROTOLO, and BOB DYLAN, walking down the street in Greenwich Village, New York City, 1963
