After the release of the album: "The Kinks Are
the Village Green Preservation Society", on November 22, 1968, the BBC
commissioned Ray Davis to write more songs for a television serie,
which was to be called: Where was Spring?. A British television sketch comedy
program, which was first aired by the BBC at night time every Monday, between
the months of January to February. A total of 12 episodes were recorded of which only six were aired; of an approximate duration of 25/30 minutes per episode, with music
perfomed by North Kensington Festival Wind Ensemble, arranged and directed by
Stanley Myers and songs by the Kinks: “Where
Did My Spring Go", "When I Turn off the Living Room Light",
"We Are Two of a Kind", "Let's Take Off Our Clothes" and
"Darling I Respect You", an one outtake “Till death us part two”,
from september 1968.
Where Was Spring?, It was a love serie with
Eleanor Bron and John Fortune, two stalwarts of the British satire scene in the
1960s, produced by Neil Sheerin. The show were of a series of two-handed
sketches performed by Bron and Fortune, mostly playing married or romantic
couples though often not seen romantically.
There were also animated sequences supplied by Klaus
Voormann, designer of the cover for the Beatles' Revolver album. Almost
all the episodes were lost, because it is believed that master tapes were
accidentally destroyed by overwriting them.
The BBC proposed to Ray Davies, the possibility of making an EP with the
songs of the program and later an LP adding new ones, but none of the options
came to fruition because the group had a secret agreement with Granada TV,
to carry out a film and an LP that later would be known as: Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire).
The project of "Arthur" was unveiled on
March 10 and with it faded the EP or Lp: There was Spring ?. The recording sessions for
"Arthur" officially began on May 1, 1969, with the songs "Drivin
'" & "Mindless Child Of Motherhood"; immediately after Ray
Davis returned from the United States.
The reconstruction that is brought here, in Lp format,
translates to the side A the original EP of five tracks, once the themes that
Ray Davis did not want to include in his day were discarded: "We Are Two of a Kind",
"Let's Take Off Our Clothes" and "Darling I Respect
You". Side B: begins with the song "Did you see his
name?", written for the:"The Eleventh Hour TV Show", plus
that material recorded before the date of March 10 available Bit.ly/69kkWS
to complete an Lp. All tracks, MONO, because are taken from sample tapes
where there is no stereo mix.
Side A: (13:12)
1. Where Did My Spring Go.(2:10).
2. When I Turn Out The Living Room Light.(2:19).
3. Pictures In The Sand.(2:47).
4. Berkeley Mews.(2:36).
5. Till Death Do Us Part.(3:18)
Side B: (14:13)
1. Did You See His Name.(2:00).
2. Plastic Man.(3:04).
3. Groovy Movies.(2:33).
4. Creeping Jean.(3:11).
5. King Kong.(3:23).
