Daughtry – September

 

How the time passed away? All the trouble that we gave

And all those days we spent out by the lake

Has it all gone to waste? All the promises we made

One by one they vanish just the same

 

Of all the things I still remember

Summer’s never looked the same

The years go by and time just seems to fly

But the memories remain

 

In the middle of September we’d still play out in the rain

Nothing to lose but everything to gain

Reflecting now on how things could’ve been

It was worth it in the end

 

Now it all seems so clear, there’s nothing left to fear

So we made our way by finding what was real

Now the days are so long that summer’s moving on

We reach for something that’s already gone

———————–

Background

Daughtry wrote the riff for “September” while he was on tour with Bon Jovi His bandmate Josh Steely sent Daughtry some lyrical ideas and Chris sent back a lyric based on Steely’s outline, which Steely said was “exactly what he was going for, remembering the summer and going back to school”. According to Daughtry, “every time I hear that song it takes me back to my summers in Lasker. I loved growing up there, but I knew I’d have leave to make something of my life.” The song’s lines, “Yeah, we knew we had to leave this town / But we never knew when and we never knew how / We would end up here the way we are” inspired the album’s title. Daughtry wanted “September” as a single, and that it should be released “at the time of the year when it will have meaning“.