Sara Dylan (born October 28, 1939 in Wilmington, Delaware), born Shirley Marlin Noznisky (or Novoletsky)[1] and later known as Sara Lownds, was the first wife of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and mother of singer Jakob Dylan. She was married to Bob Dylan from November 1965 until June 1977.
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Biography
Very little is known about Sara Dylan's early life or family.[1] Her maiden name was Shirley Nozinsky (or, according to Beatty Zimmerman, Novoletsky),[1] and was born in Wilmington, Delaware on October 28, 1939 to Bessie and Isaac Nozinsky.[2] While Shirley was still a child, Bessie had a stroke, and her great aunt Esther came to watch over the family.[3] Al Aronowitz claims her father was a scrap metal dealer who had been shot to death in 1956 during a hold-up.[1][4] Her mother died approximately five years later.[3]
As a young woman, she worked as a fashion model, as a stage actress, as a Playboy bunny, in film production,[4] and for TIME magazine.[1] She changed her first name from Shirley to Sara at the request of her first husband, magazine photographer Hans Lownds. Lownds almost ordered her to do this, stating: "I can't be married to a woman named Shirley."[5] According to Peter Lownds, her then-stepson, Sara met Dylan in Greenwich Village in late 1962 while driving around the Village in her MG sports car. "Her meeting with Bob was the reason (Sara left Hans) — he was famous, and she was very beautiful," says Lownds.[5] She was not familiar with his music, and only vaguely knew who he was.[4] Sara introduced Dylan and his manager Albert Grossman to D.A. Pennebaker, the director who would later film Don't Look Back.[6]
Aronowitz claims that shortly after meeting her, Dylan told him that he planned to marry her.[4] Sara Lownds and Bob Dylan became romantically involved sometime in late 1964;[6] soon afterwards, Lownds and Dylan both moved in to separate rooms in New York's Chelsea Hotel to be near one another. Dylan, however, maintained romantic relationships with Joan Baez and Edie Sedgwick for a while after he and Lownds began courting — possibly up until or after the date of their wedding.[7]
The pair were wed in a secret ceremony on November 22, 1965, during a break in his tour. The marriage took place under an oak tree on a judge's lawn on Long Island. The only other participants were Albert Grossman and a maid of honor for Sara.[8] Their marriage remained a secret even to some of Dylan's closest friends until many months afterwards, until the press caught wind of their union.[7] Bob reportedly "depended on her advice as if she were his astrologer, his oracle, his seer, his psychic guide. He would rely on her to tell him the best hour and the best day to travel."[9]
During her marriage to Bob Dylan, Sara Dylan bore three sons and a daughter: Jesse, Anna, Samuel, and Jakob. Jakob, the youngest, would later become well-known as the lead singer of the band The Wallflowers. Bob adopted Sara's daughter Maria from her first marriage, affording her the unique Dylan surname, although she is the only member of the Dylan family not to have retained it. According to biographer Howard Sounes, the Dylans established a trust fund children allowing their chidren to never have to work, unless they wanted to.[10]
Friends and family have described Sara as a good, loving mother who shunned the limelight. Her only public endeavor after marrying Dylan was to play the role of Clara in Bob Dylan's sprawling movie Renaldo and Clara, filmed during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour of 1975-76.
The couple's bitter divorce was finalized on June 29, 1977. Tensions remained between the two for several years afterwards,[11] but they eventually made amends;[11] in 1983, they even considered remarriage.[11] A photo taken by Sara of Bob in Jerusalem on the occasion of their son's bar mitzvah would later become the album cover for his 1983 album Infidels.[11] In his 2004 autobiography Chronicles: Volume One, Bob remembered Sara as "one of the loveliest creatures in the world of women."[12]
In pop culture
A fictionalized account of their marriage is featured in the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There, with Heath Ledger based on Dylan and Charlotte Gainsbourg based on Sara Dylan.
Common biographical errors
Sara Dylan is often referred to as "Sara Lownds, wife of Bob Dylan", which is inaccurate; "Dylan" is not a stage name but the former Robert Allen Zimmerman's legal surname. Sara Lownds changed her surname to Dylan on her marriage and retained the Dylan surname after they divorced.
Sara Dylan is also sometimes incorrectly identified as "Sara Lowndes"; the error apparently comes from a long-debunked but often-repeated report that her first husband was one-time Playboy executive Victor Lowndes.[citation needed]
The maid of honor at the Dylan wedding was not Sally Grossman,[citation needed] as is sometimes stated; her identity is unknown.
Sara Dylan in Bob Dylan's songs
Sara Dylan has inspired several of Bob Dylan's songs, at least two directly. The first was "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" (from Blonde on Blonde), and the second the eponymous "Sara" (from 1976's Desire). This song was an attempt to reconcile with Sara after their estrangement around 1975:
- I can still hear the sound of the Methodist bells
- I had taken the cure and had just gotten through
- staying up for days in the Chelsea Hotel
- writing "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands" for you
Bob Dylan's 1975 album Blood on the Tracks is widely viewed as the most potent of Sara's inspirations, as many fans assume the songs refer to her. The album was recorded soon after the couple's initial separation. Bob Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin has argued that Sara Dylan's influence on the lyrical content of the album is often exaggerated. Bob Dylan himself denied at the time of the album's release that Blood on the Tracks was autobiographical. However, the couple's son Jakob says: "The songs are my parents talking".[13]
Other Bob Dylan songs believed to be inspired by Sara Dylan include "Isis", "We Better Talk This Over", "Abandoned Love", "Down Along The Cove", "Wedding Song", "On A Night Like This", "Something There Is About You", "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight", "To Be Alone With You", "If Not For You", "Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)" and "Love Minus Zero/No Limit".[14]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Behind the Shades Revisited by Clinton Heylin, pp. 167
- ^ Sounes, p. 162; p. 467
- ^ a b Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan fan page - "Sara"
- ^ a b c d A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks by Andy Gill & Kevin Odegard, p. 5
- ^ a b Sounes, p. 200
- ^ a b A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks by Andy Gill & Kevin Odegard, p. 3
- ^ a b A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks by Andy Gill & Kevin Odegard, p. 4
- ^ Sounes, p232
- ^ A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks by Andy Gill & Kevin Odegard, p. 8
- ^ Sounes, Howard. Down the Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan (Doubleday 2001. ISBN 0-552-99929-6) p.461
- ^ a b c d Behind the Shades Revisited by Clinton Heylin, pp. 710
- ^ Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One, pp. 127.
- ^ Sounes, Howard. Down the Highway: the Life of Bob Dylan (Doubleday 2001; ISBN 0-552-99929-6) p333.
- ^ Gill, Andy. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right. Thunder's Mouth Press, 1998. ISBN 1560251859
References
- Howard Sounes. Down The Highway, The Life Of Bob Dylan. Doubleday 2001. ISBN 0-552-99929-6
- Clinton Heylin. Bob Dylan Behind The Shades- A Biography. Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 0-14-028146-0
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