This is an interesting, if somewhat rambling passage by Eric Von Schmidt from "Baby Let Me Follow You Down," the book (1979).

"When we got to my apartment he wasn't much interested in playing; he wanted to listen. So I played "He Was a Friend of Mine,' 'Wasn't That A Mighty Storm,' 'Baby Let Me Lay It On You," and a couple of others. It was something, the way he was soaking up material in those days --like a sponge and a half. Later, somebody said, 'Hey, Bob's put one of your songs on his album.' They were talking about 'Baby Let Me Follow You Down' which had a spoken introduction saying he had heard it from me..'in the green fields of Harvard University.' The tune was the same, and the chores were real prety, but they weren't the same. I don't know if he changed them or if he'd heard a different version from Van Ronk. He also did Van Ronk's version of 'House of the Rising Sun' on that record, which pissed Dave off. The label on the record lists 'R. Von Schmidt' as he composer, but Witmark had copyrighted it under Dylan's name. I figured it was a good plug for me, so what the hell."

"The next time I saw Bob, he said, 'Hey man, that's your song,' or something..and sure enough, I got a contract signed by him listing us as co-composers. It was to become effective when I signed it. I called Manny Greenhill and explained the situation to him. He said, "Whatever you do, don't distort the facts, because you could get in trouble.' So Iwrote Witmark and gave them the 'facts' but explained that if we co-wrote the moment I signed the cntract, then we co-wrote it when the recored was released and royalties should start from there. They wrote back a note thanking me for my trouble and saying that I was right, I didn't have a claim to the song, and they were honoring 'a priori copyright." I figured they meant Blind Boy Fuller's heirs or something, but they were talking about Dylan's copyright. Apparantly they turned around with the "facts" I had supplied them and used them to void THAT copyright. A postscript to this all is that my ex-mentor, Manny Greenhill, now claism that the song was written by Reverend Gary Davis. Well, that's show biz."

Not sure who to attribute this mess to -- maybe not Dylan in the end? But these problems always seem to crop up with Dylan, don't they?! I don't know -- most of the arguments I could have made had been made by the time I got to this thread (and so much better, especially by Sandy Patton), but it seems to me there's just too many instances where Dylan, given a choice, made it in favor of himself (you know, if it walks like a duck, etc.) etc). At best, this convenient habit of taking material without credit is slipshod, at worst, somewhat shadowy and dubious.

Incidentally, Van Ronk WAS resentful of Dylan about "The House of the Rising Sun," I believe. for a long time. When I would hear him talk in the Village in the 70's, he often spoke of Dylan in somewhat mocking tones.