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July 2024: The last update was January 6 this year when, had she lived, Sandy Denny would have been celebrating her 77th birthday, writes Colin Randall. It felt appropriate to mark her birthday once again. I have also posted an article at my new Substack pages.
It always feels appropriate celebrate Sandy Denny.
If you go to Substack, don’t worry about the invitation to pay to subscribe. Naturally, I hope some people will do so (I’ve pledged some of the proceeds to the homelessness charity Crisis) but there is an option to subscribe for free.
Come back to Salut! Live tomorrow (Jan 7) when Andrew Curry takes another look at look the theme of this item …
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Oct 2022 mini-update: I reposted this and plugged it a little on social media, with warm and encouraging results … RIP Sandy
March 2021 update:
My tribute to Who Knows Where the Time Goes?, a great song by an even greater departed heroine of folk and folk-rock, Sandy Denny, first appeared when I was living in Abu Dhabi in 2008.
It was republished in slightly amended form in 2017 but the enduring interest in Sandy, and the sharply growing reach of Salut! Live, committed me to a third outing.
It seems tailor-made for inclusion in my Cover Story series comparing and contrasting different versions of the same songs.
Some of the versions first mentioned of this classic Sandy song (actually one of several classics but certainly her best known) have disappeared from view and one or two added in 2017 have met the same fate .
Along the way, including now, I have added or re-added Eva Cassidy, Judy Collins, Nanci Griffith, Nina Simone, Rufus Wainwright, 10,000 Maniacs , Full House with Chris While , Mary Black and Kate Rusby. I have been reminded of Barbara Dickson’s gorgeous singing of it – Barbara also tells me of the formidable accompaniment she received from Danny Thompson and Dave Mattacks plus “a beautiful bell-like motif [devised by Ian Lynn] to depict the passage of time. Other versions have appeared here but have been dropped or become unavailable. There’s still lots out there and I shall leave you to explore at YouTube.
The version by Sandy that I have chosen in 2021 is a much lesser visited one than those attracting hundreds of thousands or even a million views. It is far from being her best, but is a fascinating reminder of a time when she was such a breath of fresh air in British music and John Peel was among music’s greatest broadcasters. And for the record, I admire many of the other versions but if forced to choose would always plump for Sandy …
See also the Comments: I have finally acted on Tom Bliss’s request and added links from each artist’s name back to YouTube. And my thanks, again, to Ross Anderson for alerting me to a tremendous BBC Soul Music mini-documentary on the song, quoting Sandy, Judy Collins, Rufus, Sandy’s biographer Mick Houghton, Fairport founder Simon Nicol and several others. There’s a link in the footnote …
Jean-François Perroy, a French urban stencil artist better known by his pseudonym Jef Aérosol, consented very early in Salut! Live’s life to the reproduction of this great work
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE, NOW AMENDED, APPEARED HERE IN 2008
…well, I’d like to know what happened to the time that has elapsed since I agreed to an acquaintance’s request to compile for him a cassette – that dates it already – of versions of Sandy Denny’s spellbinding Who Knows Where The Time Goes?, his favourite song.
It began with good intentions on my part. As a reviewer of folk albums, I already had several renditions – quite a few different ones recorded by Sandy, come to that – and you can be sure that more have reached me since.
But I never quite got round to it. I am not sure exactly how many years have passed since my undertaking to prepare the tape. But with thanks to YouTube subscribers and apologies to Julian, the husband of one of my wife’s then colleagues, here at least is a start.
A search for the song produces the good, the not so good and the downright ugly. I came across some assaults on the ear that were simply so gruesome that it would be unkind to everyone concerned to expose them to Salut! Live‘s small but probably quite discerning audience.
I have embedded a few versions. Feel free to commend others to me, or to comment on those I have included.
And sorry again, Julian, I still haven’t got round to making a tape.
Chris While, with the House Band at Chester Folk Festival 2008
Kate Rusby, also from 2008
Eva Cassidy ‘Depth and beauty from two souls gone too soon,’ said someone at YouTube of the singer and writer
10,000 Maniacs, from 2010
Nina Simone, live at the Philharmonic Hall, New York, 1969
Rufus Wainwright at the 2016 British Folk Awards
Nanci Griffith, a clip posted in 2014
Judy Collins, Sandy’s friend and occasional drinking buddy when in the UK. Unbelievably from 1968
Mary Black, from a “best of” album around 2001:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=z6DiPp7hAJY&si=gW23Q8UtCK79w9-B
And finally, for now, Barbara Dickson, also from a “best of”: collection sort of album …
Already a long list and one that could easily be extended … I can but hope that I have not put you off the song for life.
- * The BBC Soul Music documentary can be heard at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08tcnmk#play
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