he'd adapted it from a song he'd learned from a Chicago street singer named Blind Arvella Gray. "The source for He Was A Friend Of Mine&gt; is a traditional Southern prison song entitled "Shorty George," which had been recorded by Leadbelly in 1935 and by several penitentiary singers for the Library Of Congress archive recordings. It was from those Library If Congress recordings that Eric Von Schmidt, who remembers playing his adaptation for Dylan in the early sixties, learned the song. Von Schmidt told Dylan's biographer Anthony Scaduto about Bob's reaction when he first played him the song: "He was very impressed by tht concept of being able to take the black expression in that kind of song and being able to sing it. He wasn't at that time quite able to handle material that related to the blues, and he was still feeling around for a way to do that.' "Dylan admitted as much in the sleevenotes to "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan": 'I don't carry myself yet the way that Big Joe Williams, Leadbelly, and Lightnin' Hopkins have carried themselves. I hope to be able to someday, but they're older people...' "But by the time Dylan made this recording, his feel was much more certain, probably as result of having performed the song many times in the New York City clubs in the weeks before the recording sessions. Early in 1962, Dylan was to claim composer/arranger credits on the song, and his version was in turn adopted as standard