JANUARY 14, 1963 – Bob Dylan performed on Eric Von Schmidt and Richard Farina’s album “Dick Farina and Eric Von Schmidt” (a UK release only) at the legendary Dobells Folk Record shop in London, contributing backing vocals and harmonica to several tracks on the sessions, but billing himself as Blind Boy Grunt in tribute to one of his early musical heroes, Blind Boy Fuller. These 1964 black & white photographs were taken at the Troubadour in New York City.Dylan first met Von Schmidt (b. May 28, 1931 in Bridgeport, Connecticut) in June 1961, slept on his couch, heard him perform and filched several song arrangements from him. One of these was “He Was A Friend Of Mine,” and another was “Baby Let Me Follow You Down.” When Dylan recorded the latter that November for his début album “Bob Dylan,” he delivered, with his ever-immaculate timing, a spoken intro over his guitar-work, admitting his debt and giving Von Schmidt a namecheck: “I first heard this from, uh, Ric Von Schmidt,” he said. “I met him one day in the green pastures of, uh, Harvard University” and then lit into the song, delivering it so beautifully that he made it his own. Von Schmidt responded after an almost 35-year delay, recording the variant “Baby, Let Me Lay It On You” in a version that included the line “Now Bobby Dylan, he put me in a song.”
