Who Knows Where the Time Goes?

"Who Knows Where the Time Goes?"
Song by Sandy Denny from the album Unhalfbricking (by Fairport Convention)
Released	1968
Writer(s)	Sandy Denny

"Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" is a song written by the English folk-rock singer and songwriter Sandy Denny. Denny originally recorded the song as a demo in 1967, singing and playing guitar on the track. Later that year, she briefly joined the folk band The Strawbs, and re-recorded the song, again with only her voice and guitar, for what became the album All Our Own Work, which would not be released until 1973.

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 cover 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.

"Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" became a signature song for both Denny and Fairport Convention, and has been covered by many artists.

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

The song is a slow-paced reflection in three verses on observed events ("Across the evening sky all the birds are leaving") Having described these observations, Denny then writes that for her, some things are timeless ("Before the winter's fire, I will still be dreamin'; I have no thought of time") and in the last line of the short chorus asks rhetorically "Who knows where the time goes?".

The song is in the key of E major and employs relatively complex jazz-like chord progressions.

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