There was Red Grooms, his girlfriend Suze Rotolo's favorite artist: "He incorporated every living thing into something and made it scream÷everything side by side created equal÷old tennis shoes, vending machines, alligators that crawled through sewers.... Brahman bulls, cowgirls, rodeo queens and Mickey Mouse heads, castle turrets and Mrs. O'Leary's cow, creeps and greasers and weirdos and grinning, bejeweled nude models.... Subconsciously, I was wondering if it was possible to write songs like that."