Saturday & Sundry Thoughts on September

Most of these thoughts of mine are a decade old, but in the absence of new inspiration, could be worth re-airing:

September brings with it memories of two portentous events: in September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, World War 2 followed. September, 11th, 2001 brought another fateful, never to be forgotten event. This year [2017] September is seeing the aftermath, and continuation of horrendous flooding in southern Texas and Louisiana, USA, as well as even worse floods, and higher death tolls, in India and elsewhere in the world.

It's sad that September carries such bad memories.

Sorrow and scarlet leaf,
Sad thoughts and sunny weather.
Ah me, this glory and this grief
Agree not well together!
(Thomas Parsons, 1880, A Song For September)

September, so named because once upon a Roman time it was the 7th month.
(Septem = 7th in Latin). The first three weeks of September fall within the tropical zodiac sign of Virgo, with just one week left for Libra.

You know, September, as a month, here in the northern hemisphere, doesn't strike me as being a typically Virgoan time, or for that matter Libran. Yes, I know that in mythology Virgo holds a sheaf of corn, and in most places September is harvest time, but September is also when, in many locations, the leaves fall from the trees, and life starts winding down. September is not a neat Virgoan month. Leaves pile up all over the place, then chilly winds blow them messily around. If anything, Virgo has to describe the work of clearing up the leaves. September - the kids go back to start a new school term. The boys, in Britain anyway, play soccer and rugby again, after a summer of playing tennis and cricket. They often get themselves very muddy in the process - how Virgo is that? In the USA Labor Day (that is, to my mind, Virgoan) with a holiday weekend marks the move from August to September.

One of Frank Sinatra's loveliest recordings, September Song..."And it's a long long time from May to December, and the days grow short when they reach September..." describes our life's September, our own autumn/fall. On the back of the old LP cover to the Sinatra album September Of My Years, Stan Cornyn wrote:

"....September can be an attitude or an age or a wistful reality. For this man it is a time of love. A time to sing. A thousand days hath September"

Goodness me, those liner-note writers were good! It's a big loss that CDs don't have the space for their purple prose; and now, in 2017, even CDs are becoming defunct, along with even the briefest of liner notes.

Sinatra, though a Sun Sagittarian, for me remains a September man. Often melancholy, whether for the dying of the year, or for a lost love, a memory, or a feeling - yet with hope always for what is still to come. Perhaps that is the true essence of September.

I'll resist posting again Sinatra's well-known September Song. Instead I've chosen another singer, another song. This could come as a surprise to those who knew the vocalist best as an actor in TV and film, but his stage career began in musicals. He had been a favourite of mine for years, I was so sad when he left us in 2004. Here he is with Try to Remember - and - which song writer would ever be able to resist that rhyme? The song has some nice, very September-ish, nostalgia.

September!

Autumn's not here yet, but the gates have opened! And...they reveal an annular solar eclipse today, in Virgo!

But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.
~Stephen King, ’Salem’s Lot

To the Light of September
By W. S. Merwin

When you are already here
you appear to be only
a name that tells of you
whether you are present or not

and for now it seems as though
you are still summer
still the high familiar
endless summer
yet with a glint
of bronze in the chill mornings
and the late yellow petals
of the mullein fluttering
on the stalks that lean
over their broken
shadows across the cracked ground

but they all know
that you have come
the seed heads of the sage
the whispering birds
with nowhere to hide you
to keep you for later

you
who fly with them

you who are neither
before nor after
you who arrive
with blue plums
that have fallen through the night

perfect in the dew

SEPTEMBER SPINS

WELCOME SEPTEMBER!

"Outside the leaves on the trees constricted slightly; they were the deep done green of the beginning of autumn. It was a Sunday in September. There would only be four. The clouds were high and the swallows would be here for another month or so before they left for the south before they returned again next summer."
~ Ali Smith, The Whole Story and Other Stories

(Photograph: old door found in Nacogdoches, Texas; from husband's camera )





Definitive version of September Song, for me, is Frank Sinatra's - but it's always good to hear how some other artists have tried to "make the song their own". There's a long list of them at YouTube, a selection follows:

Ever wondered who Lotte Lenya (of Mack the Knife fame was?)

Now … Jenny Diver … ho, ho … yeah … Sukey Tawdry
Ooh … Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy Brown
Oh, the line forms on the right, babe
Now that Macky’s back in town.

I assumed it was a name made-up to fit the rhythm of the song, but as I searched for unusual versions of September Song I came across the version below, then discovered via Wikipedia that

In 1956, Louis Armstrong recorded the song "Mack the Knife", both as a solo number and as a duet with Lenya. Armstrong added Lenya's name into the lyrics, in place of one the characters in the play. Other recordings of the song, most notably Bobby Darin's in 1959, have continued this tradition.
Lotte Lenya (1898 – 1981) was an Austrian singer, diseuse (i.e. performer of monologues), and actress. In the German-speaking and classical music world she is best remembered for her performances of the songs of her husband, Kurt Weill. In English-language film she is remembered for her Academy Award-nominated role in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) and as the sadistic and vengeful Rosa Klebb in the James Bond movie From Russia with Love (1963).

Lou Reed's unusual version of Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's
September Song:

And a rather classy jazzy interpretation of it by Sarah Vaughan and Wynton Marsalis:

Husband suggested this as the best Big Band version - Stan Kenton's Orchestra :

Chet Baker's rendition is wistful and lovely:

Finally - I do like Jeff Lynne's unstudied, unpretentious version. A commenter at YouTube mentions that the lovely guitar solo is George Harrison's - I wanted to hear more of THAT!

**PS~ We ought never to forget that.....

SEPTEMBER

Welcome September! I've waited impatiently for you since June! Looked forward to kinder temperatures, clearer air, coolness, heading for some downright shivery mornings in a few short weeks. I fancy a shiver!
("September Morn" by Paul Chabas, left.)




September - "septem..." Latin for seven, was 7th month of the year in Roman times, before the calendar was changed in 153 BC, making September our 9th month. In astrology September contains part Virgo, part Libra, 6th and 7th signs of the tropical zodiac. Astrological houses 6 and 7 connect to Virgo and Libra respectively. So even though September is our 9th month, it retains some relationship to seven.

Historically, September hasn't always been a month of autumn glory. The invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in September 1939 started World War 2 in Europe. September 11th 2001 holds a memory engraved into the hearts and minds of Americans, and others all over the world.

In view of those two pieces of history, it's tempting to think that the word 'septic' (relating to putrifaction, toxic, poisoning ) might come from the same root as 'September', but thankfully it doesn't. Its origin is the Greek word 'septikos'.

"My life's long radiant Summer halts at last,
And lo! beside my path way I behold
Pursuing Autumn glide: nor frost nor cold
Has heralded her presence; but a vast
Sweet calm that comes not till the year has passed
Its fevered solstice, and a tinge of gold
Subdues the vivid colouring of bold
And passion-hued emotions. I will cast
My August days behind me with my May,
Nor strive to drag them into Autumn's place,
Nor swear I hope when I do but remember.
Now violet and rose have had their day,
I'll pluck the soberer asters with good grace
And call September nothing but September."
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

Cant' end without that other "September Morn" - Neil Diamond's, with some lovely photographs added.

September

September brings with it memories of two portentous events - in September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, World War 2 followed. September(11th)2001 brought us another fateful, never to be forgotten event. This year a solar eclipse adds to the drama.

It's sad that September carries such dreadful memories.

Sorrow and scarlet leaf,
Sad thoughts and sunny weather.
Ah me, this glory and this grief
Agree not well together!
(Thomas Parsons, 1880, A Song For September)

September, so named because once upon a Roman time it was the 7th month. (Septem = 7th in Latin).The first three weeks of September fall within the tropical zodiac sign of Virgo, with just one week left for Libra.

You know, September, as a month, here in the northern hemisphere, doesn't strike me as being a typically Virgoan time, or for that matter Libran. Yes, I know that in mythology Virgo holds a sheaf of corn, and in most places September is harvest time, but September is also when the leaves fall from the trees, and life starts winding down. September is not a neat Virgoan month. Leaves pile up all over the place then chilly winds blow them messily around. If anything, Virgo describes the work of clearing up the leaves, I guess.

September is when the kids go back to start a new school term. The boys, in Britain anyway, play soccer and rugby again, after a summer of playing tennis and cricket. They often get themselves very muddy in the process - how Virgo is that?

One of Frank Sinatra's loveliest offerings, "September Song"....."And it's a long long time from May to December, and the days grow short when they reach September....." describes our life's September, our autumn/fall. On the back of the old LP cover to the Sinatra album "September Of My Years", writer Stan Cornyn says:

"...............September can be an attitude or an age or a wistful reality. For this man it is a time of love. A time to sing. A thousand days hath September"

My goodness those liner note writers were good! It's a big loss that cds don't have the space for their purple prose.

Sinatra in his songs, though a Sun Sagittarian, remains in essence a September man. Often melancholy, whether for the dying of the year, or for a love, a memory, a feeling - yet with hope always for Septembers still to come. And that, for me, is the true essence of September.

A YouTube presentation of Sinatra and John Denver singing "September Song" together - a rare and lovely combination. John Denver didn't live to see the September of his own years, and that is so very sad.