September is a month of transitions. About three weeks into the month, the fall equinox passes us, and autumn officially begins. But here in the Great Land, fall has already been with us. On this second week in September, we’ve already had a couple of hard frosts, and the leaves on the birches and poplars are yellowing and dropping. The nights are getting longer, and before long, it will start to snow.
It’s funny how we humans tend to look at things in a linear fashion, but the natural world always seems to move in circles. Fall gives way to winter, winter to spring; but we tend to see fall as an ending of things, instead of just a temporary cessation. And that reflects a lot in literature and music focused on this time of year.
It’s not surprising, then, that there are so many songs about September. Whether it be September as a time of seasons changing or lives changing, a time of withering and declining or a time of resting and preparing for the coming cold, September seems to be a time that draws a lot of reflection, and at times, a lot of creativity.
I do have some favorite songs about this transitional time of year, as it happens. Here are seven.
Frank Sinatra - The September of My Years (1965): I confess to still being a big fan of Frank Sinatra, because how could you not be? Amazingly, we once had a good friend who lived in Las Vegas and, with his orangutans, had a long-standing show on the Strip. (Yes, the orangutan in those famous Clint Eastwood movies was one of his.) He had a big portrait in his living room, with him in his spangly stage-show outfit, and one of his apes with one long, long arm around him, and the other around Frank Sinatra. This song is a piece about nostalgia, about looking back, which rather suits the season, doesn’t it?
Neil Diamond – September Morn (1979): This is probably my very favorite Neil Diamond song. It reminds me of other songs about a couple that separated and came back together, sometimes more than once; in that, it’s reminiscent of one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs, Tangled Up In Blue. In Diamond’s song, the two have grown apart, but not so much that they can’t dance until morning. I love a happy ending.Van Morrison – September Night (1983): This one’s a beautiful instrumental, and you know, sometimes that’s more than enough.Kool And The Gang – September Love (1983): As we see so often in songs about September, this is a wistful tune (or at least, what passes for one with this band) about looking back on one’s youth. The lyrics are telling:So 'September' was fantastic and thrilling, and they had started the intro of it by the time I had walked into the studio to meet everyone. Just as I opened the door and I heard that little guitar intro, I thought, Oh God, please let this be what they want to work with me on. Because it was so obviously a hit.
Johnny Cash and Rosanne Cash - September When It Comes (2003): Everyone loves the Man in Black, and he passed a lot of his considerable talent on to his daughter, Rosanne Cash. This is actually Rosanne’s song, from her 2003 album Rules of Travel, but her father joined her in the studio recording, making for a really great piece of music. Rosanne said about her lyrics for the song that she had initially just left them lying around:When we were young and so naive
Emotions turned in our hearts
When love was young, we promised and believed
In one love and our dreams
Since it was just lying around, (her husband, John) Leventhal then happened upon the lyrics and asked her what it was. She simply responded that it was something she wrote. He then took it and wrote music to go along with it. When he was finished, he returned to her and told her that if there was ever a song to sing with her father, it was it.
This was the last duet she recorded with her father.
Here’s hoping most of you folks down in the lower 48 are enjoying a balmy, pleasant autumn – and if you are, like me, here in the Great Land, well, we all know the snow’s coming soon.Thoughts on the coming fall? On September songs? Any I missed? Any you like more? The comments, as ever, are all yours.
Oh, and the request line is still open.
