Is That A Tear In Your Beer, Or Did You Forget Your Right Guard This Morning?

My kemosabes Whisky Prajer and DarkoV have challenged me to a musical meme: naming my ten favorite all-time tear jerkin' sad songs. There's no doubt each of our lists will be a fair reflection of who we are, and which way our musical tastes flow.

It's hard enough to keep the list to ten, much less decide which tune is worthy of number 1 versus number 10, so each song posted shall stand on its own merits. WP has already done his postin', and you can drop by his joint to see a good list. And, DarkoV has put up his first of ten, an old goodie by John Lee Hooker.

So, to get my first bronc out of the shoot, I'll start with a tune that first became popular in 1938: "September Song" was composed by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Maxwell Anderson for the Broadway musical, Knickerbocker Holiday.



Recorded by numerous musicians and and singers, it has a haunting melody which always makes me think of falling leaves and a winter chill in the air. Though Sarah Vaughn and Frank Sinatra do the song proud, Willie Nelson's rendition of it really grabs me. "September Song" is on Willie's "Stardust" album, an absolute favorite in our collection. Perhaps the old song touches me more now that I am approaching my own September years...

Oh, its a long, long while
from May to December,
But the days grow short
when you reach September.

When the autumn weather
turns the leaves to flame
one hasn't got time
for the waiting game.

Oh the days dwindle down
to a precious few
September
November

And these few precious days
I'll spend with you.
These precious days
I'll spend with you.