Never Was A Cloudy Day

Earth, Wind & Fire “September”

“September” is the kind of song that I had known pretty much my entire life but could never place. It wasn’t identified for me until just recently, and even that didn’t really stick with me. Oh, that’s Earth, Wind & Fire? Okay. It’s actually called “September”? Huh. Now it’s stuck in my head forever. There are two reasons: Most obviously, this is one of the most ridiculously catchy songs ever penned. Every moment of it is a glee-inducing earworm; each part of the composition has a legitimate claim for being the best bit. (My favorite could be the horn fanfare that punctuates the chorus. But please, don’t make me choose.) More personally, I’m just not ever going to forget Vicky’s face as this song — one of her favorites ever, more or less her personal anthem, the thing she blasts to counter the noise of her “DJ” neighbor — played on a jukebox, a total surprise to her. She looked so totally happy that her expression was cartoonish in its cheeriness. Dancing in her seat, smiling and mouthing the words, completely within the song. I’ve seen this sort of thing before, with her and others, but there’s just something so profound to me about witnessing someone love a piece of art so intensely, so purely, so fully. It’s one of the most beautiful things I can think of, and now it’s what I picture when I hear this song: Perfect adorable totally unselfconscious ecstasy.

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