SpokenVerse | September Song by Maxwell Anderson (spoken version) @SpokenVerse | Uploaded November 2012 | Updated October 2024, 8 hours ago.
Who really listens to the words of popular songs? They best express our deepest emotions - so said Aldous Huxley, no less.
It was written for Walter Huston's voice in 1938 and it featured in the film September Affair in 1950 - a May/September romance between characters played by Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotten - who was in fact only 12 years older. Here's Walter Huston's version - and although he isn't a great singer, he does manage to put across the essential wistfulness lacking in all other performances I have ever heard:
youtu.be/E3mAT-4FdP4
Early films often paired older men with much younger women.
If you want to hear it sung in his own inimitable style, here's Frank Sinatra:
youtu.be/wte1uk4A5eU
If you're going to compare me with Frank Sinatra, let me mention in my defence that I'm a lot bigger than he was, much better at mental arithmetic and not dead.
Here's Jimmy Durante - just wonderful:
youtu.be/a-ldVj34Sfo
When I was a young man courting the girls
I played me a waiting game
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
I'd let the old Earth take a couple of whirls
While I plied her with tears in place of pearls
And as time came around she came my way
As time came around, she came.
But it's a long, long while from May to Decemeber
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 the waiting game
And the wine dwindles down to a precious brew
September, November - and these few vintage years
I'd share with you. These vintage years I'd share with you.
But it's a long, long while from May to December
And the days grow short when you reach September
And I have lost one tooth and I walk a little lame
And I haven't got time for the waiting game
And the days turn to gold as they grow few
September, November,
And these few golden days I'd spend with you
These golden days I'd spend with you.
When you meet with the young men early in Spring
They court you in song and rhyme
They woo you with words and clover ring
But if you could examine the goods they bring
They have little to offer but the songs they sing
And a plentiful waste of time of day
A plentiful waste of time
But it's a long, long while from May to December
Will a clover ring last till you reach September
And I'm not quite equipped for the waiting game
But I have a little money and I have a little fame
And the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November,
And these few precious days I'd spend with you
These precious days I'd spend with you.
Who really listens to the words of popular songs? They best express our deepest emotions - so said Aldous Huxley, no less.
It was written for Walter Huston's voice in 1938 and it featured in the film September Affair in 1950 - a May/September romance between characters played by Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotten - who was in fact only 12 years older. Here's Walter Huston's version - and although he isn't a great singer, he does manage to put across the essential wistfulness lacking in all other performances I have ever heard:
youtu.be/E3mAT-4FdP4
Early films often paired older men with much younger women.
If you want to hear it sung in his own inimitable style, here's Frank Sinatra:
youtu.be/wte1uk4A5eU
If you're going to compare me with Frank Sinatra, let me mention in my defence that I'm a lot bigger than he was, much better at mental arithmetic and not dead.
Here's Jimmy Durante - just wonderful:
youtu.be/a-ldVj34Sfo
When I was a young man courting the girls
I played me a waiting game
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
I'd let the old Earth take a couple of whirls
While I plied her with tears in place of pearls
And as time came around she came my way
As time came around, she came.
But it's a long, long while from May to Decemeber
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 the waiting game
And the wine dwindles down to a precious brew
September, November - and these few vintage years
I'd share with you. These vintage years I'd share with you.
But it's a long, long while from May to December
And the days grow short when you reach September
And I have lost one tooth and I walk a little lame
And I haven't got time for the waiting game
And the days turn to gold as they grow few
September, November,
And these few golden days I'd spend with you
These golden days I'd spend with you.
When you meet with the young men early in Spring
They court you in song and rhyme
They woo you with words and clover ring
But if you could examine the goods they bring
They have little to offer but the songs they sing
And a plentiful waste of time of day
A plentiful waste of time
But it's a long, long while from May to December
Will a clover ring last till you reach September
And I'm not quite equipped for the waiting game
But I have a little money and I have a little fame
And the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November,
And these few precious days I'd spend with you
These precious days I'd spend with you.
