Bryan Ferry's forthcoming opus Dylanesque, due March 5th, is of course a tribute to Bob Dylan's music. Unusually though, one of the songs that appears on the album, 'Baby Let Me Follow You Down', was not written by Dylan, but rather is famous by his association with it.

The song is usually credited to Eric von Schmidt, another alumni of the West Coast folk scene and friend and contemporary of Zimmerman. Von Schmidt however denied the authorship credited to him by Columbia Records, Dylan's record company, saying the song was a rewrite of a Blind Boy Fuller song 'Mama Let Me Lay It On You', whose authorship is itself in question.

Unfortunately the raised profile the song will gain from its new association with Bryan Ferry will mean little to von Schmidt. He died yesterday after a long battle with throat cancer at the age of 75.

You can find out more about von Schmidt and the convoluted origins of this song here.

Eric Von Schmidt obituary