Yeah Joe, that "somebody" is me!
I've been singing it for awhile meself.
Here's the lyrics as published in 1994 in Robb's first songbook, “Words & Chords (Part 1), which I believe is still available from his website www.robbjohnson.co.uk. Chords info is also included in there. Robb's own recording is on his CD “Overnight” (IRR027, 1996), and also on the stonking big 4-disc compilation “A Reasonable History Of Impossible Demands” (also on Irregular Records). Roy Bailey has also recorded it, on his CD “Business As Usual” (Fuse, 1996) - a truly magnificent performance. I've indicated some minor changes Roy made, below.


Winter Turns To Spring (Robb Johnson)

I knew a man who nothing could dismay
Nor take away his dignity,
A man who knew what two and two make and how
Many flowers make the spring.

He saw spring crushed in 1939
Beneath the wheels of Germany,
And walked through all the falling cities somehow,
Like a seed towards the spring.

Returning home in 1945,
Prague was full of Russian tanks,
And it was law, two twos are four, only now
It’s Joseph Stalin makes the spring.

You have to know the difference
Between the roundabouts and swings,
No matter what the distance, winter turns to spring. >>


Sentenced to death in 1954 for being
Too much of a socialist,
Surprise, surprise, old Stalin dies and somehow
It’s still the flowers make the spring.

So through the cold war, he studied Kafka,
And learned like Galileo
To tell as much truth as the times allow,
Planting seeds towards the spring.

(Repeat of >> section)

So when spring (*Roy Bailey sings “it”) came in 1968,
Wenceslas was glorious,
But with the summer, the Russian armour returned (** - Roy Bailey sings “came”)
To save the people from their spring.

I asked him then, in his last exile,
“How come you’re still a socialist?”
He said, “Ask me instead, what two and two make, and how many.. flowers make the spring.”

(Repeat of >> section)

(The following words are sung to tune of >> section: )
(You see) From Prague to Santiago, Belfast to Beijing,
Underground but undefeated,
Winter turns … winter turns … winter turns …
winter turns to spring.