I recently saw musician Pieta Brown post a list of her five favorite September songs.
Don’t Lose Your Cool - Albert Collins
Out Of Left Field - Percy Sledge
Lovers Rock - Sade
It’s All Good - Bob Dylan
Shiny Shoes - The Pines
The Dylan and Sade songs do not mention the word September.
I don’t know, but I hope that September Song by Kurt Weill qualifies no matter what.
‘September Gurls’ by Big Star should also get a look in.
Maybe it’s a song exploring that ‘summer is over, playtime/the easy life is over, time to get back to school/work’ feeling everyone here in Canada/northern USA gets as September approaches? I’ve never heard the expression before.
Yes! And “Try to Remember” from The Fantasticks.
Nobody is answering my question. I don’t know what a “September song” is. I thought The Straight Dope message board was for trying to get answers to questions.
Close. This is the rock/pop version, of which the best example is “A Summer Song” by Chad and Jeremy. (One of the best, prettiest, and most underrated pop songs of the 60s, BTW. And they wrote it.)
I’ve already heard the expression applied to songs that used September metaphorically as September of one’s life, i.e. the time before old age when one looks back at the transitory pleasures one rushed through and instead turns to a true companion for the trip through old age and unto death.
“September Song” by Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill is the most famous example. Sinatra’s “When I Was 17” by Irvin Drake is along this line, although it’s all about looking back.
The songs in the OP seem to use the motif of finding the right companion, but it’s hard to see in them the September metaphor except obliquely. I wouldn’t put them in the category of September Song but musicians may have a different or more specialized vision of it means.
ETA: drewchas, you’re complaining because people didn’t completely answer your question after 42 minutes? Get off the meth and onto something mellower. 
I’m not sure there is a definitive answer to what a “September Song” is. Since I’m an old fart :), I don’t know who Pieta Brown is and I’m not familiar with her five songs.
But, if one is to judge by THE “September Song” by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson,** Sunspace ** is on the right track. Look at it as a metaphor for one’s life, not one season.
Yes but it’s also a place where tangential discussion is hard to resist. You did get some guesses. If you wait a while someone who knows the answer might see your thread. Be patient.
It might help to have some context. Where did you see this post? Can you give us a link?
Moving to Cafe Society from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Yes, but sometimes it takes longer than 42 minutes, especially with a vague or ambiguous OP.
I’m going with the entering-the-latter-stages-of-one’s-life theory . . . about where I am right now, at 63. In fact, I may be about ready for an October song.
freckafree’s and Exapno Mapcase, is what I was thinking when I read the OP.
More specifically, I would associate the Summer with youth. When the Summer begins it feels endless, like you have all the time in the world. When it’s over, you wonder how it could have gone so fast, an whether you really made the most of it.
Of course, that’s just my general impression, not necessarily the correct answer.
Boy are you impatient. It’s a message board, not a chat room.
I e-mailed Pieta Brown through her agency and received this reply:
Always go to the source, boys and girls.
You’re ready for “When I’m 64”.
“September When It Comes” by Roseanne & Johnny Cash. Prophetic, as he died in September.
of “September Song”
*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 make a couple of whirls
While I plied her with tears in lieu of pearls
And as time came around she came my way
As time came around, she came
When you meet with the young girls early in the Spring
You court them in song and rhyme
They answer with words and a clover ring
But if you could examine the goods they bring
They have little to offer but the songs they sing
And the plentiful waste of time of day
A plentiful waste of time
Oh, it’s 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 *
Panache45 has it right-a reflection on the passing of love’s seasons; not much time left if you are at the “September” era of your life.
Good “September” song–"Is That All There Is’’ --Peggy Lee’s version.
For me? “Happy Birthday to You.”
Yeah, sure, in the north. Down here in the Southwest, September is cause for celebration: the daily temperature finally starts dropping below 100. 
Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day…although that would technically be an October song.