This song features Al Stewart on vocals and Richard Elliot on saxophone. Windows was a jazz group with Skipper Wise, Ed Cohen, Peter White, and others, but they asked Al Stewart to write the lyrics to this particular song. Here is what Al had to say about it (taken from the abum's liner notes):
* \"Write some words to a tune -- it's to be called 'Blue September,'\" they said. It being September, I looked around. What was happening. Hordes of East Germans were on the move -- to Czechoslovakia, to Hungary, even to Poland; thence to Germany, again, West Germany this time. Nothing unusual here, except this was 1989, not 1939. I got to thinking how Eric Honeker, the man caught on the wrong side of history, might be feeling. Lost I surmised! That was four long months ago -- four months that shook up all the old guard Stalinists except Alia of Albania. Roll over Alia tell, tell Ceausescu the news. *
Lyrics:
Looking out across the empty streets,
Wondering where did all the people go.
One by one, they're waking from their sleep,
Now they don't seem to need you anymore.
Long ago, it seems to me, I had a dream.
What becomes of dreams?
Blue September, the nights are closing in.
Blue September, a chill is on the wind.
Blue September, how was I to know?
Filing past the border guards of dreams,
Leaving all their memories behind.
Nothing here is quite the way it seems.
The clouds are painting questions in the sky.
Had I known this long ago,
I might not have come this way at all.
Blue September, the nights are closing in.
Blue September, a chill is on the wind.
Blue September, how was I to know?
Long ago, it seems to me, I had a dream.
What becomes of dreams?
Blue September, the nights are closing in.
Blue September, a chill is on the wind.
Blue September, how was I to know?
Blue September, lay the past to rest.
Blue September, a new life in the west.
Blue September, some things just get old.
