"He Was a Friend of Mine" is a traditional folk song in which the singer laments the death of a friend. Ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax was the first to collect the song, in 1939, describing it as a "blues" that was "a dirge for a dead comrade."
The Byrds issued a reworded version of the song in 1965, with lyrics that lament the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Since then, other artists have adapted the lyrics to talk about different murders, including those of John Lennon and George Floyd.
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