I want to thank all that have contributed and would like to add/correct some details. The two versions have slightly different lyrics. Some are slight and insignificant (these/the) but the line "not for drivers or dreamers was all that he said" in the Columbia release (1971) is "love is for dreamers; that's all that he said" on Ol' Eon.
That character is Old Bill in one version, Old Will in another and I am virtually certain he is Old Bill "at the lakehead, he never took him a wife", at least in the Ol' Eon version.
Not that anyone visits this discussion anymore anyway.