September by Earth, Wind & Fire

It’s already Easter Sunday in New Zealand today, so it seems appropriate to cover a piece of music that I associate with Church. As soon as Church is over each Sunday, the vicar likes to hook his phone up to the sound-system and spin some tunes. Generally he makes good choices, and this song’s often featured.

‘September’ fits well into a Church setting, as it’s effectively an outpouring of joy. The lyrics are negligible, which just makes the feeling of joy even more palpable. The song bears a lot of the band’s hallmarks – Phil Bailey’s falsetto, and the lush disco sound.

There is no evidence that White’s unusual lyrics for the chorus have any concrete meaning. These lyrics were questioned by Willis: “I said, ‘We are going to change ‘ba-dee-ya’ to real words, right?’ … I learned my greatest lesson ever in songwriting from him, which was never let the lyric get in the way of the groove

‘September’ is also in the interesting situation where it’s arguably the band’s most famous song, but it didn’t appear on a studio album – it was a new track released on the band’s 1978 Best Of.

Leader Maurice White passed away in early 2016 and his passing was overshadowed by other prominent musical deaths around the same time, like David Bowie and Glenn Frey. But as the driving force behind one of the most popular bands of the 1970s, he probably deserved more attention.

Do you remember the 21st night of September?
Love was changing the minds of pretenders
While chasing the clouds away
Our hearts were ringing
In the key that our souls were singing
As we danced in the night
Remember how the stars stole the night away

Hey hey hey
Ba de ya, say do you remember
Ba de ya, dancing in September
Ba de ya, never was a cloudy day

Ba duda, ba duda, ba duda, badu
Ba duda, badu, ba duda, badu
Ba duda, badu, ba duda

My thoughts are with you
Holding hands with your heart to see you
Only blue talk and love
Remember how we knew love was here to stay
Now December found the love that we shared in September
Only blue talk and love
Remember the true love we share today

Hey hey hey
Ba de ya, say do you remember
Ba de ya, dancing in September
Ba de ya, never was a cloudy day

There was a
Ba de ya, say do you remember
Ba de ya, dancing in September
Ba de ya, golden dreams were shinny days

The bell was ringing
Our souls were singing
Do you remember, never a cloudy day

There was a
Ba de ya, say do you remember
Ba de ya, dancing in September
Ba de ya, never was a cloudy day

There was a
Ba de ya, say do you remember
Ba de ya, dancing in September
Ba de ya, golden dreams were shiny days

Ba de ya de ya de ya
Ba de ya de ya de ya
Ba de ya de ya de ya de ya

Ba de ya de ya de ya
Ba de ya de ya de ya
Ba de ya de ya de ya de ya

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