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Two Weeks Last Summer

[Dave Cousins]

Dave Cousins is the pricipal song writer of the Strawbs. There are several version of his song Two Weeks Last Summer sung by Sandy Denny. On the first version, recorded at Vanløse Bio, Copenhagen in July 1967, she sings accompanied only by a single guitar. This version was released in 1969 on The Strawbs’ Strawberry Music Sampler No. 1, in 1991 on Sandy Denny and The Strawbs’ Hannibal album Sandy Denny and the Strawbs, in 2005 on Sandy’s Castle Music anthology Where the Time Goes, and in 2010 as a bonus track on the CD reissue of Sandy Denny and The Strwabs’ album All Our Own Work.

A second Sandy Denny version of Two Weeks Last Summer with full accompaniment and altered lyrics was intended for release on the abortive Fotheringay 2 album. This version was recorded at Sound Techniques in autumn 1970 and released both on the 1986 Who Knows Where the Time Goes? box set and on the 1987 Fotheringay CD reissue by Hannibal. In 2008 Fledg’ling Records finally published the Fotheringay 2 CD. An alternate version (marked as ‘Joe Boyd Mix’) was included in 2015 on Fotheringay’s Universal anthology Nothing More.

An earlier live version, recorded at the Holland Pop Festival in Rotterdam on 28 June 1970, was included in 2004 on the second (Fledg’ling) CD reissue of Fotheringay and in 2015 on Nothing More.

Bryony Holden sang Two Weeks Last Summer in 2013 on her Sandy Denny tribute album Across the Purple Sky.

Lyrics

Sandy Denny with the Strawbs sings Two Weeks Last Summer

The dancing plants grow low
Burning embers start to glow
The pictures soon will fade
Pictures that the flames have made
Your hazy, wistful face
Suddenly is gone without a trace

Chorus:
Summer days I’ll float downstream
Wondering where the day has been
Boats that sail away at night
Come the day
Have sailed far out of sight

Reminiscing summer walks
Empty glances, moonlit talks
Candyfloss and ice-cream cones
Discothèques and Rolling Stones
Passing fancies fly away
Empty shadows on a sunlit bay

(2× Chorus)

Fotheringay sings Two Weeks Last Summer

The dancing flowers grow low
Burning embers start to glow
The pictures soon will fade
Pictures that the flames have made
Your hazy, wistful face
Suddenly is gone without a trace

Reminiscing summer walks
Empty glances, moonlit talks
Promises that mean so much
Broken with a single touch
Passing fancies fly away
Painting shadows on the sunlit bay

Chorus (repeated after each verse):
Summer days I’ll float downstream
Wondering where the day has been
Boats that sail away at night
Come the dawn
Have sailed far out of sight

Deserted evening warm and still
Strangers come and go at will
Driftwood on the silent shore
Laughter from an open door
Friendly faces once again
Come inside before it starts to rain