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Showing posts with label kurt weill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kurt weill. Show all posts

Monday, 1 September 2025

September Songs

Few months mark the start of something new as much as 1st September does, a real change in the seasons, change of mood, new phase of the year,  the whole back to school routine (which as someone who has worked in education since the early 90s is very much part of my annual rhythm). 

In 1984 Ian McCulloch tested the water for a solo career with a single released under his own name, outside the Bunnymen with a cover of Kurt Weill's September Song. Weill's song looks forward to autumn coming...

'But it's a long, long while from May to December
And the days grow short when you reach September
And the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
And I haven't got time for waiting game

And the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I'd spend with you'

September Song (Long Version)

In 1987 David Sylvian released a solo album, Secrets Of The Beehive which had this song to open it, one minute and seventeen seconds of David and piano. For David, the inevitability of September and the changes it brings are shot through with melancholy...

'The sun shines high above, the sounds of laughterThe birds swoop down upon the crosses of old grey churchesWe say that we're in love while secretly wishing for rainSipping Coke and playing games
September's here again'

September

Much more recently, in 2021, Chris Coco and George Solar released September On The Island, a tribute to Ibiza after all the tourists have gone home...

September On The Island (Dub Version)

Saturday, 1 September 2018

September Songs


September arrives after a long August bringing with it a change in tone and pace. The first of today's pair of September songs is Ian McCulloch's solo single from 1984. Ian wanted to indulge his crooning side away from the Bunnymen and this song, a cover of the 1938 Kurt Weill standard, is decent enough (but in the same year as Ocean Rain it naturally pales a little). The lyrics nail this day and month perfectly-

'Well, it's a long, long time
From May to December
But the days grow short
When you reach September'


September Song (Long Version)

Meanwhile a decade earlier Alex Chilton wrote this song for Big Star, less about September maybe and more about a gurl. There is something heart-wrenchingly beautiful about this song- the guitars, the chord change, the vocal. Autumnal perfection.

September Gurls

Thursday, 1 September 2011

The Days Grow Short When You Reach September


Don't they just.

In 1984, with The Bunnymen at the top of their game with Ocean Rain, Ian McCulloch decided to nip off for a solo single, which probably didn't do much for fragile band relationships. Taking Kurt Weill's September Song, a crooner's standard, Ian gave it his best shot. This being the mid 1980s the 12" had a long version to use up those extra five inches. Backcomb what's left of your hair, wrap up in something warm (a raincoat maybe or long black woollen coat), take a stroll around some moody landscape and wallow in Ian's version of September Song, while contemplating the fact that yesterday's Model 500 song was released less than a year later.