100 Greatest songs of the 60’s #88 Fairport Convention – Who Knows Where The Time Goes?

Released: 1969

It might have seemed heretical at the time, especially to those who favoured one mode or another, but Fairport Convention’s second album Unhalfbricking is recognised now as a first crossover between traditional folk and rock. It’s an idea which seems tame enough now, but “Plugging in” had to that point been a surefire way to make your pipe and beard audience irate, as Bob Dylan had found out.

Formed in London in 1966, Fairport Convention initially had musical aspirations centered on the American West Coast, being labelled the British equivalent of Jefferson Starship. Dylan then skated into their story for real, as following an appeal they were played unreleased songs from the singer’s The Basement Tapes Sessions, a listening party that would lead to Unhalfbricking including three covers of it’s songs.

Sandy Denny had joined the band in 1968 but wrote Who Knows Where The Times Goes? two years previously when only 19, before Judy Collins released a version of her own. It’s plaintive verses and Denny’s exquisite, crystal clear voice have made it an evocatvive standard which would subsequently be record by Nina Simone and Eva Cassidy amongst others, as well as being the last song she would ever perform before her tragically early death in 1978 aged 31. The bridge between folk and rock had however long been crossed by then.