......‘Will you never cut the cloth?’ could be a reference to Jeannie Franklin.
– But then what about this verse? my interrogator continued:
And will you never return to see
Your bruised and beaten sons?
"Oh, I would, I would, if welcome I were
For they loathe me, every one".
Could be about roadie Harvey Bramham, who had fallen asleep at the wheel and caused the tragic accident in which Jeannie Franklyn and Martin Lamble lost their lives.
He was prosecuted for “dangerous driving” and served a prison term.
I can imagine that he wanted to visit the other bandmembers afterwards, but thinking that they hated him.
Then again it might be about something completely different
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apparently according to Richard, Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman is about Harvey Bramham. "RT 2014: "Fairport’s roadie, Harvey Bramham, served time for manslaughter for the tragic accident we had in 1969. It was absolutely no fault of Harvey’s, and it gave us an ugly taste of the workings of the British legal system. That was the jumping off point, anyway."
As for Farewell Farewell RT said in 2007:
"I really don't know what it means. This song came out of a dream, and I pretty much wrote it as I dreamt it (it was the sixties), and didn't spend very long analyzing it. So interpret as you wish – or replace with your own lines."
