The origins to this song are very disputed and I just realized that there's no thread to discuss them. The story I've heard is that this was a Dylan song that he would perform at the Gaslight in the early 60's. Van Ronk, emcee at the Gaslight at the time, heard it and liked it and then recorded it making it the first Bob Dylan song to ever be commercially recorded. I've heard a few other stories and I was wondering what you all had to say... sadiejane@folly.org kindly allowed me to include the following info, Aug 13, 1996: DAVE VAN RONK at Club (47) Passim 8/10/96 DYLAN CONTENT I caught Dave van Ronk in Harvard Square tonight. Nice little show (short) but sweet. He told two Dylan stories. The first was really about Noel (Paul) Stookey (of Peter, Paul and Mary fame) who was at that time performing his own brand of standup comedy in the local clubs with Dylan, Van Ronk et al. He was famous for his imitations of the Indiana 500 and a toilet flushing which he would execute with the help of a microphone. He also liked to do an imitation of Charlie Chaplin with the help of a hat and cane and apparently, BOB DYLAN's jacket. Dave went on to say that they got pretty tired of this Charlie Chaplin routine and ambushed him one night with a lemon meringue pie. The best story of the night came as an introduction to "He Was