"Who Knows Where the Time Goes?"
Song by Sandy Denny
from the album Unhalfbricking (by Fairport Convention)
Released1968
Songwriter(s)Sandy Denny

"Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" is a song written by the English folk-rock singer and songwriter Sandy Denny.

History

Denny recorded a first demo of the song in 1966.[1] It was the second song she ever completed.[2] She again recorded the song as a demo in 1967, singing and playing guitar on the track.

In 1967 she joined the folk band The Strawbs, and in 1968 she re-recorded the song, again with only her voice and guitar, for what became the Strawbs album All Our Own Work, which was not released until 1973. (This version has the opening line “Across the purple sky...”[2])

The American folk singer Judy Collins heard a tape of the original demo recording in 1968 and decided to cover the song. She released her recording first as the B-side of her version of "Both Sides, Now", and then as the title track of her album Who Knows Where the Time Goes, both released in 1968. Hers was the first widely available recording of the song.

In 1968, Denny joined the folk-rock band Fairport Convention. She recorded the song on her second album with the band, the 1969 album Unhalfbricking. This version had more of a rock influence.

The song became a signature song for both Denny and Fairport Convention, and was subsequently covered by many artists.

It was the last song Denny sang at her last ever performance,[3] before she died at age 31.

Structure and lyric

The song is a reflection in three verses on observed events ("Across the evening sky all the birds are leaving").[4] Denny writes that she does not count time ("Before the winter's fire, I will still be dreamin'; I have no thought of time"[5]) and in the last line of the short chorus asks rhetorically, "Who knows where the time goes?". The last verse includes the lines "I am not alone while my love is near me, I know it will be so until it's time to go.”[3]

Cover versions

Versions have been recorded by, among others, Eva Cassidy, Judy Collins, Nana Mouskouri, Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet, Deanna Kirk, Eddi Reader, Julianne Regan (with Fairport Convention), Kate Rusby, Nina Simone (on her 1970 live album Black Gold), Barbara Dickson, The Lasses,[6] Heather Masse (on the radio program A Prairie Home Companion),[7] Dez Mona,[8] and Kate Wolf (on her 1983 live album Give Yourself to Love).[9]

Reception

In 2007, the Unhalfbricking version was voted "Favourite Folk Track Of All Time" by listeners of BBC Radio 2.[10]

Rufus Wainwright called it “one of the saddest songs ever written,” Nina Simone called it a "lovely, lovely thing,” and Linda Thompson said “I don’t find it to be sad. Great music is always uplifting to me. She was so young when she wrote it but it pinpoints exactly the feelings I have now, at 71. It also resonated strongly with me when I was a teenager. Love and loss portrayed so sweetly. A song for all ages.”[3]

References

  1. ↑ "I've Always Kept a Unicorn" Mick Houghton, biography of Denny. ISBN 978-0571278916
  2. 1 2 "Sold on Song - Song Library - Who Knows Where The Time Goes". www.bbc.co.uk.
  3. 1 2 3 "Subscribe to the Financial Times". subs.ft.com. November 18, 2023.
  4. ↑ "purple" is used in Denny's original home demo, later versions used "evening"
    - "Sandy Denny". New Musical Express. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  5. ↑ "Who Knows Where The Time Goes Chords by Fairport Convention". Ultimate-Guitar. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  6. ↑ "The Lasses - Undone (2019)".
  7. ↑ "Sandy Denny: Who Knows Where the Time Goes?". Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music. Reinhard Zierke. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
    - "A Prairie Home Companion for December 31, 2011". American Public Media. 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  8. ↑ "Dez Mona - Pursued Sinners (2010)". Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  9. ↑ Give Yourself to Love, Official Kate Wolf website.
  10. ↑ "Radio 2 Folk Awards 2007 winners". BBC. 6 February 2007. Retrieved 7 August 2008.
  11. ↑ "Firefly Lane season 1: All songs with scene descriptions". Soundtrackradar.com. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
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