Oh, September

words & music by Doug Howell (6 Aug 1980)

oh, September
why’d you have to come so soon
just when I finally started to have some fun
I remember well
the spell of an August moon
and I was just gettin used to livin in the sun
look what you’ve done,
September

summer’s warmth is gone now
there’s that coolness in the air
seems like love is changing with the leaves
how can I be happy when the trees stand stripped and bare
it’s plain to see it’s summertime that this boy needs

oh, September
why’d you have to come so soon
just when I finally started to have some fun
I remember well
the spell of an August moon
and I was just gettin used to livin in the sun
look what you’ve done,
September

sing your praise to autumn and the harvest of the seed
but I can’t take these gray days and this rain
fall has fallen and left me with nothing but a need
and I don’t see how spring could ever take this need away

oh, September
I remember well
the spell of an August moon
and I was just gettin used to livin in the sun
look what you’ve done
September
come on ahead
December

℗ © 1986 Dweller by the Light Stream Music, assigned to Creative Measures (ASCAP)

Reviews

When I think beauty with music I think of yours… Just magnificent Doug. —David B.

What a beautiful, moody, broody, ode to the changing season, Doug. Now, here you have seemingly endless August. Do you, like me, feel a little nostalgia for September? —B.J.L.

Very pretty…. Seriously, the seasons of the world and life…all contain good and bad, and we’re fortunate if we keep pushing through to the next one. I identify with being “stuck in a season of discouragement” right now, but I do know that there will be beauty in future seasons. And your voice alone brings me joy. —Katie C.

Brilliance~~~ —Jay M.

Wow giving me Michael Bublé feels in the morning! —Jennie G.K.

…something wonderful has happened, and that is your latest release – Oh, September.  Doug, I have to tell you, it is absolutely beautiful!  I knew it would be good, but it far exceeds what I could possibly have dreamed of.  Your original version was lovely, but you have now taken it to a much higher place. I can’t thank you enough for such a lovely song, and all that goes with it. —Andy C.

A beautifully woven tapestry. —Dina H. L.

All the feels, Doug Howell Music and Dan Leonhardt! Fun to hear another lovely collaboration. —Cindy K. Z.

I must now congratulate you on the terrific remix of Oh, September. It most certainly does have more sparkle, and it has more presence in my room when I am listening to it. I loved the last version of it, and I would never have thought it could have been improved upon, but you have now taken it to an even higher level. It is simply wonderful and it moves me every time I hear it. Of course, because of the way you crafted the song so beautifully, it would stand up in almost any arrangement, including simply your voice and piano. However, as I love the sound of an orchestra, I am so pleased that you orchestrated it. It’s a gem, and if I were stranded on a desert island with only eight records, I would want this to be one of them. I have to say that the lyric is one with which I can identify, as I am sure it will with many listeners. —Andy C.

2023 Notes

Of course I went home for the wedding. She was a childhood friend of mine. You know, the kind that shows up in your family pictures. And if I wasn’t in the mood, I’d been in—or played for—so many weddings by then I knew my role by head if not by heart. And besides, I had the music to think about.

But by the time the event I had affectionately come to call “the garter part” rolled around, the music had run out, and so had my smile, so I slipped out as discreetly as I could. Alone under the streetlights I felt a little less of a misfit. I walked back and forth while the sky darkened, pressed down and kept me from looking up at that “harsh mistress” of a moon, the same one that had cast her spell only a few Augusts ago and now promised nothing. A chill breeze blew up telling the leaves it was time they start falling, and whispering a truth in my ear that the whole world probably knew except for one incredibly naïve boy: This is never going to happen for you.

That boy just walked back and forth aimlessly, throwing shadows, kicking leaves, wondering where the summer had gone, trying in vain to blame the season for his misery—and wrote this song.

Music Notes

As I say below, I sang this on my album, The Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction, then rerecorded it in 2020, adding an orchestra and the beautiful guitar work of Dan Leonhardt. And as I had become my own mixing engineer by necessity, I did my best, but have never been quite happy with the result. I’ve learned a lot since then, and wanted to give it another try. So I hope you like this remix. I’m still not hanging out my sound engineer shingle, but I think I finally like it well enough to move on in peace.

2020 Notes

If you wrote a song entitled “Oh, September,” which month would you try to release it by…? Time’s up! Yeah, that’s the same answer I got. So here you go…

This song was originally released on The Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction. On that album, Mike and I had decided to shoot for an edgier feel, so we used only synthesizer touches in the arrangement. As a result, this is one of those I’ve often thought about redoing with more orchestration.

Heartfelt thanks to my guitar buddy, Dan Leonhardt—one-time roommate and traveling music group colleague (Good News Circle)—for liking this song and agreeing to play on it. I gave you very little direction, but what you’ve added is nothing less than magic, and it ended up inspiring the whole arrangement. I’m so grateful for your talent. I always admired how you could be so spontaneous and humble and just let the music pour out of you. Thank you for being a part of my musical journey through five albums and several singles so far!

It’s always an interesting proposition: singing a song that, at the time it was written, felt like “the end of time as we know it.” You don’t think you’ll ever get beyond it. And even if you could, you’re not sure you want to.

The hurts we once thought would end us don’t go away any too quickly, do they? But as we make our way through the seasons of time and love, they slowly become part of the very fabric of who we are. And like Arnold’s mother says in Torch Song Trilogy, they “make sure you don’t forget.”

2011 Notes

I used to get asked to sing at weddings all the time, and by the time I wrote this song, I had grown to hate them. Well, maybe hate’s too strong a word. Let’s just say I was getting awfully tired of participating in a ceremony where I felt I’d never be able to be the guest of honor. Singer, sure. Best man or groomsman, sure. But never the groom. Guess it was my version of “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” syndrome.

Anyway, I’d been invited to the wedding of a childhood friend. You know, the kind of friend that shows up alongside you in all your baby pictures? It was a nice wedding, and I was doing fine, all the way up to the “garter part.” At that point, I usually felt pretty out of it for obvious reasons, and just wanted to escape. And on this particular occasion, I did escape. Out into the street. I walked back and forth under the streetlight and the August moon, dreaming of another August moon, and wrote this song.


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