Who Knows Where The Time Goes by Fairport Convention

Album: Unhalfbricking (1969)

License This Song

lyrics

artistfacts

Songfacts®:

The song's title has no question mark, probably because the question is purely rhetorical. Written by Sandy Denny, who recorded it as a demo in 1967, it was covered the following year by Judy Collins, who released it as the B-side of "Both Sides Now." Denny joined Fairport Convention, and it was recorded for their third album Unhalfbricking, on which it runs 5:13. In 2007, it was voted by BBC Radio 2 listeners as their favorite folk rock track of all time.
This may be Sandy Denny's greatest song but it is also her epitaph, because time ran out for her on April 21, 1978 when she died in the Atkinson Morley Hospital, London, aged just 31. She fell down a flight of stairs, was knocked unconscious, and never woke up. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2
The Judy Collins version appears on her album Who Knows Where the Time Goes. Sessions for the album are where she met Stephen Stills, who played guitar and bass on LP. They soon began dating, and Stills wrote the song "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" in her honor.

Comments: 2

Tony from San DiegoI simply LOVE old Fairport with the classic line up.
Brad from Lancaster, PaIt is not true that Sandy never woke up from her concussion--in fact she was sent home from the hospital and lived for several more days before collapsing suddenly and passing away. It is believed she had a brain hemorrhage possibly triggered by a medication given her at the hospital which thinned her blood. It was a horrible tragedy and an a devastating loss. Her daughter Georgia was still a baby at the time and Sandy had recently been struggling with depression and alcohol abuse--a situation directly responsible for her accident. Years later her husband Trevor Lucas (himself a member of Fairport for several years in the mid-1970's ) had remarried and he and his wife released a number of rarities cassettes called "The Attic Tracks" to help pay for Georgia's education. These tracks, including some truly exquisite demos, are now available on various boxed sets and compilations. Sandy was an absolutely unique talent. Her astonishing voice is of course legendary but her artistry as both a songwriter and an interpreter of other people's songs is often overlooked. I have often said that if I could listen to only one artist for the rest of my life it would have to be Sandy Denny.

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Street HassleLou Reed

Lou Reed's 11-minute "Street Hassle" features a spoken part by Bruce Springsteen.

Rocket QueenGuns N' Roses

Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction album includes a song called "Rocket Queen," identified in the liner notes as Barbi Von Greif. Axl Rose says she "kind of kept me alive for a while."

Pinball WizardThe Who

Pete Townshend wrote The Who's "Pinball Wizard" to coax a good review for the Tommy album out of a rock critic who loved pinball. It worked.

Learning To FlyPink Floyd

David Gilmour really was "Learning To Fly" when he co-wrote the Pink Floyd song - the aviation jargon came from his lessons.

Don't ChaThe Pussycat Dolls

Sir Mix-A-Lot is credited as a writer on The Pussycat Dolls' biggest hit, "Don't Cha," because it interpolates his 1988 song "Swass," where he goes, "Don't you wish your boyfriend was swass like me?"

WonderwallOasis

Oasis didn't coin the term "Wonderwall." It's the title of a 1968 movie with a soundtrack by George Harrison. It was Harrison's soundtrack that got the band's attention.