《时代的噪音》书写从二十世纪初到我们所处的二十一世纪，西方音乐人如何用音乐製造噪音，以反思时代、纪录歷史，或者追求改变社会。 这些音乐人包括Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, The Clash, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, Billy Bragg, U2。 除了深刻分析这些重要音乐人的创作理念，本书也试图刻划不同歷史阶段的社会反抗史：从二十世纪初的美国资本主义与工运早期阶段、三四十年代的左翼运动、五零年代的麦卡锡主义，六零年代的反战运动、民权运动，七八零年代的经济转型和雷根的新自由主义，以及九零年代的全球化/反全球化、战爭与和平、发展与贫穷。所以这本书的读者不只是摇滚乐迷，而是一本反抗的文化史。 张铁志的《声音与愤怒：摇滚乐可能改变世界吗？》影响了我们对摇滚与政治的认识，《时代的噪音》则以更诗意的文字与更深刻的分析，深化我们对摇滚文化、抗议行动与歷史变迁之间关係的理解，而將成为华语世界最重要的摇滚书之一。

A Freewheelin’ Time is Suze Rotolo’s firsthand, eyewitness, participant-observer account of the immensely creative and fertile years of the 1960s, just before the circus was in full swing and Bob Dylan became the anointed ringmaster. It chronicles the back-story of Greenwich Village in the early days of the folk music explosion, when Dylan was honing his skills and she was in the ring with him. A shy girl from Queens, Suze Rotolo was the daughter of Italian working-class Communists. Growing up at the start of the Cold War and during McCarthyism, she inevitably became an outsider in her neighborhood and at school. Her childhood was turbulent, but Suze found solace in poetry, art, and music. In Washington Square Park, in Greenwich Village, she encountered like-minded friends who were also politically active. Then one hot day in July 1961, Suze met Bob Dylan, a rising young musician, at a folk concert at Riverside Church. She was seventeen, he was twenty; they were young, curious, and inseparable. During the years they were together, Dylan was transformed from an obscure folk singer into an uneasy spokesperson for a generation. Suze Rotolo’s story is rich in character and setting, filled with vivid memories of those tumultuous years of dramatic change and poignantly rising expectations when art, culture, and politics all seemed to be conspiring to bring our country a better, freer, richer, and more equitable life. She writes of her involvement with the civil rights movement and describes the sometimes frustrating experience of being a woman in a male-dominated culture, before women’s liberation changed the rules for the better. And she tells the wonderfully romantic story of her sweet but sometimes wrenching love affair and its eventual collapse under the pressures of growing fame. A Freewheelin’ Time is a vibrant, moving memoir of a hopeful time and place and of a vital subculture at its most creative. It communicates the excitement of youth, the heartbreak of young love, and the struggles for a brighter future.

苏西·罗托洛是鲍勃·迪伦到纽约后的第一位真爱，一九六零年代前期，她和迪伦一起居住在纽约格林威治村。她在这本书里娓娓道来她和迪伦的爱情，以及她所亲历的以格林威治村为基地的民谣复兴运动。 这本书不仅仅关于民谣、迪伦、嬉皮文化、垮掉的一代和格林威治村，作为出生在意大利裔美国共 产党家庭的“红尿布”婴儿，苏西成长于麦卡锡主义盛行的20世纪50年代，因此有着无比艰难的童年和青春期。 热衷政治运动的苏西17岁已是美国最重要的民权组织之一“争取种族平等大会”（CORE）成员，并亲历过多个里程碑式的民权运动事件。作为一位曾身处一九六零年代反抗政治中心的女性，她在这本回忆录里浓墨重彩地描绘了那个激荡年代的民权运动等社会运动。 总的来说，这本书试图还原的是她和迪伦一起走过的美国一九六零年代。