Where Did The Spring Go? was one of 5 exclusive weekly songs that Ray was commissioned to write for the colour BBC2 comedy show Where Was Spring? a satiric look at love and relationships created by Eleanor Bron (of Help! fame) and John Fortune, in early 1969. Unlike the similar commission for At The Eleventh Hour, this time the songs as featured in the show were all recorded by The Kinks themselves, and were accompanied visually on the programme by animations by (another Beatles connection) Klaus Voorman. Also unlike At The Eleventh Hour, (nearly) all trace of the show is completely missing in action, one of many victims of the BBCs archival policy of the time. Not only that, but 2 (We Are Two Of A Kind and Let's Take Off All Our Clothes) of the 5 songs are completely missing, and a 3rd (Darling I Respect You) only survives in abominable quality. (When I Turn Off The Living Room Light is indeed the other song that survives in decent sound) Klaus did keep all his animation cells though, and some of these for today's song were featured in the book for the Kinks At The BBC box in 2012. A few years ago using these I attempted a crude 'reconstruction' of what the beginning of this song animated may have roughly looked like:
Although we can see from this image of further cells that Klaus posted to his site that the original animations would have been a lot more intricate: (wonder which songs some of these were for?)
I thought I should also share some related images I've collected from the 'Where Was Spring?' show, taken from contemporary editions of the BBC tv guide Radio Times and also the series 1972 tie-in book 'Is Your Marriage Really Necessary?'.. I think it's worth posting additional stuff like this to give more context for what kind of show it was and how The Kinks work fitted in.. these shows (especially as they are missing and or never repeated) are kind of just mysterious titles otherwise and you don't get a feel for what they were really like
Sterling work Avid ajsmith! Eleanor Bron was in so many interesting things back in the day, including Help!, the original Bedazzled & even Cucumber Castle, the Bee Gees' very own MMT. As for the song itself, here's a song by Nina Simone that was a UK hit around the same time: Finally, I have to say that the lyrics of "Where Did My Spring Go" cuts too much to the bone for me as I had operations to replace 2 hips & have just found out yesterday that I'm going to have eye surgery for a detached retina. Never get old my fellow Avids!
I've been catching up on the thread after missing the Kinkstrumentals. Two things I'll say on the instrumentals: 1. they are sketches that were only released as bonus tracks decades later so it's unfair to judge them against finished songs or instrumentals by other bands that appeared on albums (I do like the Ides of March though, which someone mentioned); 2. some of the ideas were good, so I'm surprised Ray didn't use something like Easy Come There You Went for the Percy soundtrack where it could have worked well. Thank you Mark for mentioning the Decemberists and especially that album - it is a pastoral prog-folk concept album of the highest order. And I remember Eleanor Bron as one of the few women (maybe the only woman) on the 1979 charity show (and album) The Secret Policeman's Ball - alongside Peter Cook, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Rowan Atkinson et al. Good luck with your op @DISCOJOE. I have been told to look out (no pun intended) for signs of retinal departure in my eyes: fortunately I believe modern doctors have perfected the reattachment process to the point where the risk of seeing the world upside down is now very small indeed. Finally, I'm struck how well Ray writes this song from the perspective of an elderly person. The 24-year old Ray Davies shows more age-related lyrical acuity than the 25-year old Paul McCartney on When I'm Sixty-Four - a song I've always liked.
Great backstories on today song! Thanks ajsmith for fleshing it all out. Is anyone going to bring up that Ray built this song around a melody ripped off from the one-hit wonder soul song “Give Me Some Kind of Sign” more shamelessly than he stole “Jumping Jack Flash” for “Catch Me Now I’m Falling?” For that reason I’ve always docked this song some points. It’s my second least favorite song from Great Lost Kinks Album, behind the song Mark plans to discuss Monday.
‘Ripped off’ is a bit hysterical for a song that Ray didn’t think was worth including on one of his albums. And why should one assume I would mention a comparison to a song I’ve never heard for music which frankly is inconsequential.
Where Did The Spring Go? To be honest, as I complete my 57th trip around the the big yellow ball, I really don't need the reminder of what I'm facing at this point in my life. That said, musically I totally love this song! It's nothing earth shattering new... it's just so perfect though. Another one where Dave needs special mention for making it what it is.
Never noticed the similarity to the verse of Brenton Woods ‘Gimme Some Kind Of Sign’ until @Martyj pointed it out today… while it’s undeniably there, I also don’t think it’s particularly damnning as Ray’s composition goes off in its own direction pretty quickly from the same starting point:
I see more similarity w/the Nina Simone song that I posted than w/that Brenton Woods song (Brenton Woods was a "2-hit wonder" w/the "Oogum Boogum Song" being his other hit)
Yeah, I agree it’s likely that ‘Where Did The Spring Go’ was intentionally written as a parody/take on the Nina Simone song. The Brenton Wood similarity is more a melodic thing, and may have been unconscious.
This is pretty much my main observation as well, but I'll add that when I first heard "Where Did My Spring Go?" I was reminded (at least thematically) of: "Once In A Lifetime" - Talking Heads I've got a feeling David Byrne & Co. were listening to the Kinks.
WHERE DID MY SPRING GO ? Another great fun track with marvellous vocal from Ray. And, surprise, surprise with a sting in the tail. The title is ambiguous. Has he lost the spring he had in his step or the spring of his life (meaning his youth)? I assume it's both. Some nice internal rhymes at the beginning: rainbows/shadows and wet/regret. The song gets quite anatomical. Only Ray could get his varicose veins and his liver into a song. And only he could turn a song about aging into a complaint about having been used by his lover. The romance of making love turns into a gripe: "And every time you took my love you were shortening my life." In the sixties some were going to a go-go while Ray was wondering where his go went.
Some Oddities for the weekend . From Mexico 1968 A1 Días = DaysWritten-By – R. D. Davies* A2 Ella Lo Tiene Todo = She's Got EverythingWritten-By – R. D. Davies* B1 El Viejo Sol = Lazy Old SunWritten-By – R. D. Davies* B2 Puesto Vacante = Situation VacantWritten-By – R. D. Davies*
Los Kinks vol. 9. A1 David WattsWritten-By – R. Davies* A2 Amame Hasta Que Anochezca = Love Me Till The Sun ShinesWritten-By – D. Davies* B1 La Muerte De Un Payaso = Death Of A ClownWritten-By – D. Davies*, R. Davies* B2 Almanaque De Otoño = Autumn AlmanacWritten-By – R. Davies*
Four More Well Respected Gentlemen..... Not Released 1968 "Four More Respected Gentlemen" is the name of a Kinks album that almost got released in 1968. As sent to Reprise All songs by Ray Davies Side A "She's Got Everything" "Monica" "Mr. Songbird" "Johnny Thunder" "Polly" "Days" Side B "Animal Farm" "Berkeley Mews" "Picture Book" "Phenomenal Cat" "Misty Water" -------------------------------------------------- Again, just to give folks something to chat about, if you all feel like it. I think this was mentioned, but I'm not sure we had an official look at it, but this was sent to reprise to release in 1968. It was going to be released at the same time as the European 12 track album, but got pulled at the last minute When originally sent to Reprise, the album was also to include the following tracks: "Autumn Almanac" "Did You See His Name" "There Is No Life Without Love" "Susannah's Still Alive" These songs, however, were pulled from the album before the final master was compiled. Here is the Wikipedia information Here is a blogspot called albums that should exist Here is a link to Earcandymag I don't know much about this one, but I know some of you guys will, so there's no point me prattling on .....
This is what Broadway musical composers call a "list" song, much like "You're The Top," "They All Laughed," or "My Favorite Things." The difference is that in this case, it's a list of negative things. I love the way that organ chimes in on the B♭ chord at the 20 second mark, adding a great exclamation point to the proceedings. You guys are a lot quicker on the draw than I am today. For posterity, here's the original from the 1967 off-Broadway production:
"Where Did The Spring Go?" As commented earlier, this seems like the first time that Ray has actually written a straightforward comedic or musical comedy song - it could be said that it's his first "show tune" - certainly the last part where it speeds up accentuates that feeling. But, as I suspect we will also find during the 70s, even Ray's show tunes have enough Kinks in them to make them entertaining, and that's the case here. Apart from that last part, musically it sounds like a decent Kinks tune from 1969/70.