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'
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...
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...
