Songfacts®:

• Donavan wrote this song by way of an apology for his friend and folk music notable Bert Jansch. He explained in an interview with Mojo magazine June 2011: "Bert Jansch was going out with Beverley (Kutner, nee Martyn) at the time, and for a brief while I was part of the triangle, although not in the way Bert thought I was. I wrote the song because I felt bad, as I loved Bert. It also captured everything I was concerned with at the time: jazz, classical, medieval troubadour and folk. (Arranger) John Cameron realized instantly that acoustic instruments would give the album its sound."
• Bert Jansch's best known recording is "Needle of Death," which was hugely influential on the musical and drug habits of many British youth.