Single Song Sunday: Who Knows Where The Time Goes
(Kate Rusby, Eva Cassidy, Kate Wolf, Nanci Griffith and more)
Leaving the North Carolina sound for the long drive north is always bittersweet. Grateful for the respite from the scheduled world, saddened that it has to end, we shake the sand from our shoes one last time. The long road ahead of us looms large, threatening our carefully recovered sense of self. By the time we arrive, late and tired from the miles, there will be but tatters left.
Who Knows Where The Time Goes is properly a song of autumn’s end; the lyrics speak clearly of winter’s impending fire, and the scattering of migrant birds which mark its ascension. But inside our bodies and hearts, where seasons know neither weather nor calendar, leavetakings are leavetakings: the beaches recede in our memories, put away for another year, and back we go to the cold, cruel world, keeping the warm spark of summer in ourselves and our love for each other.
Pre-eminent sixties Britfolk goddess Sandy Denny recorded her own song several times over: as a solo artist, with the Strawbs, and most notably as part of Fairport Convention on their seminal album Unhalfbricking. Her pure voice was a perfect match for the simple lyrics, and though it took Judy Collins‘ slow-building 1968 cover, on her album of the same name, to truly bring Denny to light in the U.S., it is Denny’s voice that most old folkies hear when we read the lyrics: crystal clear, delicate and strong in all the right places, with crisp, almost clipped phrasing, and that slight and unmistakable vibrato on the long notes.
Though each has its own subtleties, the cycle of early versions created a strong sense of definition for the song. Over forty years and as many as eighty covers later, the vast majority of interpretations perpetuate the sweeping sense of loss and longing through the same soaring female vocals, laid over the same building surf-sound brushes and strum pattern, and the same broad range of emotions between the hushed early verses and high sustained title phrase.
But there are many gems, from the acoustic quietude of Kate Wolf’s deep alto or Maggie Reilly’s light Scottish soprano to the subtle neo-traditional sound of Kate Rusby’s gorgeous warble, from Mary Black’s slower Irish folkpop ballad to Nanci Griffith’s post-country folk, from Eva Cassidy’s poignant blues club vocals to Cat Power’s typical piano deconstruction. To listen to them all is to study nuance: the way different hearts evoke the majesty of time, and the passage thereof, is an infinity of horizon.
So come the storms of winter and then the birds in spring again / I have no fear of time. It is, after all, a short winter, from April to June. Too soon, the school year will be over, and true summer will begin again. Until then, here’s the subjective best of a long list of covers, to hold the tides of time dear.
- Kate Rusby: Who Knows Where The Time Goes
(from a two-track single, 2008) - Judy Collins: Who Knows Where The Time Goes
(from Who Knows Where The Time Goes, 1968) - Kate Wolf: Who Knows Where The Time Goes
(from Give Yourself to Love, 1983) - Mary Black: Who Knows Where The Time Goes
(from The Circus, 1995) - Eva Cassidy: Who Knows Where The Time Goes
(live at Perl’s in Annapolis, MD, 1994; also on Imagine) - Cat Power: Who Knows Where The Time Goes
(from Dark End of the Street, 2008) - Nanci Griffith: Who Knows Where The Time Goes
(from Other Voices, Too, 1998) - Maggie Reilly: Who Knows Where The Time Goes
(from Rowan, 2006)
Cover Lay Down publishes new coverfolk features Wednesdays, Sundays, and the occasional otherday. Coming soon: new singer-songwriter coverfolk from the increasingly mainstream neo-bluegrass world, and a look at Peter Yarrow’s recent series of folk songbooks for cool moms and dads. Y’all come back now, y’hear?
Category: Single Song Sunday
April 26th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
And while we’re at it, let’s not forget versions by Deanna Kirk, Linde Nijland and Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs! I’m sure there are many others as well. It’s a timeless song (no pun intended)
April 26th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
I actually toyed with the Sweet/Hoffs cover, as well as the post-Merchant 10,000 Maniacs. Both leaned pretty pop; neither seemed as heartfelt — maybe it’s just me?
Haven’t heard the Deanna Kirk — any good?
April 26th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
It’s nice - piano based. Really it would take a lot to ruin the song. I just discovered tonight a very pretty version by Susanna (the same Susanna from Susanna & the Magical Orchestra). Not surprisingly, her version is… magical. The album it came from is almost all covers and it’s pretty great: Flower of Evil. If you like I’ll set up a Rapidshare link for both versions of the song.
P.S. I finally downloaded Shawn Colvin’s version of “Pride (in the Name of Love)”. If you’d like that I’ll include it in the Rapidshare zip too.
Since I live in NC (but not near the Outer Banks) thanks for the NC posts.
April 26th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Send away, JoeG, and thanks!
One of the reason I love these Single Song Sunday posts is that, more than almost any other type of feature, they have a tendency to spawn such discovery. In case it hasn’t been made abundantly clear already, I appreciate every submission, and consider myself blessed to have fans and readers with such great taste!
April 27th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
One of my alltime favorite songs! And there’s also great, great versions of it by Charlie Louvin and Susan Cowsill.
Thanks for the blog!
May 14th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
After a nudge from NPR All Songs Considered
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104024009
I replayed the covers and had to go back to the Sandy Denny, No More Sad Refrains, compilation (almost through the second cd as I type)
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wjfrxqlkldde
The covers are great. The originals are better.
May 14th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
PS: I also found and played the original version with The Strawbs.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Daniel Martin Moore did a pretty sweet cover.
July 12th, 2009 at 12:04 am
[...] on Cover Lay Down: Eight stunning covers of Who Knows Where The Time Goes, plus two more from another [...]
December 8th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
[...] Kate Rusby: Who Knows Where The Time Goes (orig. Sandy Denny) (single, 2008; more covers of Who Knows Where The Time Goes) [...]
December 16th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Nina Simone’s version has to be the most haunting…..