Remembering September 11th 2001
Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at 03:39PM Today is the 11th of September and of course, my thoughts go back to 2001; where I was and what I was doing when the world changed.
I was on the road solo, and was in Virginia. I was expecting to spend the evening at the home of a wonderful person who hosts an outstanding house concert series, Kelly Murphy (www.harriscreek.net), but I arrived in the area so late, I wasn’t comfortable calling, so I got a room instead.
I was awakened by my cel phone and the emotionally charged voice of my wife informing me that the World Trade Center had been attacked. I turned on the TV and saw the tradgedy unfolding before me. Did you know that even tho the WTC had been targeted before, Guiliani actually chose that site as the HQ of the Emergency Response Team. Peculiar.
In any event, I watched the horror unfold in mute amazement. I didn't know exactly what to do or where to go. My original destination that day was Washington, DC to visit my friend Donal Leace (www.donalleace.com) who was recording a new album that I was hoping to sing or play on. I, of course, could not get into the city. They had cordoned off the entire capitol some fifty miles out. I ended up driving all the way to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and staying with my friends Alison and Paul Coppock. We were all appropriately stunned by the incident and I welcomed the warmth and normalcy of their lovely country home.
Later I went up to the room they had provided for me and like all musicians, turned to my instrument for solace. After a while I found myself playing a little snippet of a piece I had started and abandoned some twenty years before; a poignantly beautiful melody with a few words that went, “last day of summer, like a ship, sails away” and a humming intro, all in ¾ waltz time.
I had no idea where to go from there or what it was about. But periodically the little melodic fragment would show up again and it happened again as I played for myself on that sad afternoon. This is the most amazing thing about music; how much comfort it offers us. It won’t stay down, no matter what the situation. I certainly didn’t go up there to write a song, but soon that’s what I was doing. I played around with the few lyrics I had and…
Suddenly, I knew what the last day of summer meant to me. September 10th was the last day of summer for our generation, for our country, for our world as we knew it. Everything would be seen differently because of that attack. Bush suddenly had an agenda and the misguided opinion that he had been placed there by God. No one of our time would ever watch a plane fly across a skyline without thinking of that day, and for me, back to that day and what would be my song about the tradgedy and the day before, September 10th, …the Last Day of Summer. This song would be about the day BEFORE 9/11.
I knew that I wanted the lyrics to be beautiful and even mundane images. Simple things that would boldly stand out in relief to the tradgedy itself. Simple images of our surroundings; simple images of nature; images that could be about anything kind and pure and clean… and the words just spilled out…
Last day of summer, like a ship sails away
And to listen to the wind,
You’d think summer’d never come again
Last day of summer sails away
Last day of summer, golden sky streaked with grey
Every other leaf is gone,
Just this one last leaf is hanging on
Last leaf of summer blows away
The sun is safe on the horizon
Long shadows falling, now it’s late afternoon
The daily news there at my feet
Blowing careless down September’s street
Now the long shadow’s stealing
The last day of summer
Gone too soon
Gone too soon
The sun is safe on the horizon
So far away…so far…
Words & Music by James Lee Stanley @2001 The Real James Lee Stanley Music, SESAC
From the album, Traces of the Old Road, @ 2004 Beachwood Recordings
Reader Comments (5)
i'm actually not sure if this post should have any replies...or at least if I should reply...I dunno...here's how I experienced September 11, 2001...
I was in my dorm room asleep exhausted from adjusting to dorm life and college the past few weeks...my phone rang...it was my mom:
"Oh my God Bobby they've Bombed us!"
Who what...I was still half asleep
"Mom what are you talking about?"
"Have you seen television?"
"No...hang on"
I dragged my phone into the common room/lobby of the dorms the tv was on and people were passing thru stopping watching tv...watching the fottage from earlier that day
it was noon September 11, 2001
i was semi numb semi apathetic...I had no idea that there would be profound reprocussions or that this was the beginning of the murdering of so many of my fellow country men and women...that we would invade Afganistan then turn around and invade Iraq...like a little kid lost...I didnt know how many Iraqi Afgani and people of other countries would also die...some of them soldiers some of them civilians...I didnt know that the appointed George Bush had not only bought the presidency...he had just bought a war...I didnt know how the country would divide or that I would become even mre of a leftish that I already was...that at the age of 23 I would grow up profoundly...I went back to my room...my mom and I not saying much I turned on my tv...it was on every station,,,every cable channel...I dont remember how much time pased but at some point I told my mom I loved her I vaguely remember her saying she was scared...my mom is a very tough lady... I told her it would be ok...had I known what was to come I would have been petrified...i hung up the phone sure that this was isolated ...like that last World trade center bombings...like the Oklahoma City Bombings...it would be ok...I got back into bed cos I didnt have any classes that day...I fell fast asleep...when I awoke the world would be changed forever
bobby, thanks so much for giving us your experience of that day. it affected us all in so many diferent ways, and i imagine that it will resonate in unexpected and tragic ways for the rest of our lives.
Jsmes, your choice of the words "simple things that would boldly stand out in relief to the tragedy itself" to describe your gorgeous lyrics is profound. That is the way most of us feel about that pivotal day. The mundane takes on a significance we never could have foreseen. I live in a suburb of Washington, DC and felt my bed shake when Flight 77 hit the Pentagon. I can't watch one of the frequent planes flying low over my house without wondering where it will come down. Or how. I can't hear a fighter jet careening high overhead without remembering that for a few weeks, those were the only aircraft in the eerily quiet skies.
Most of us have memories of that day. I feel it is important not to forget them--to honor them and each of our unique experiences, even to seek professional help if we are still a bit jumpy although we may have been one of the fortunate ones not directly involved in the events of September 11.
Thank you so much for sharing your eloquent lyrics. I look forward to the music.
suzanne, thank you for sharing your experiences of that day and the aftermath. i know how musical you are and i'm sure that these emotions will find their release in one of your songs down the road. (i met suzanne at a wonderul songwriter camp i taught at a few years ago. www.summersongs.com check it out)
as for last day of summer, you can hear it on the cd, traces of the old road. as a matter of fact, i'm changing the order of the cd in the next pressing and starting with that song. in the original it was the second song, but i realized that it really sets up the whole cd and should be the lead off song.
wow, it's amazing. i can make anything about me, if you give me enough time. back to you. thanks for the insightful post and the kind words.
james
James,
I remember that day well. I was home and watching GMA when the first reports came in. Then the second plane hit...then the Pentagon....then Shanksville. And who knew what next. I got phone calls from listerpals who heard "Pittsburgh" and were worried. I tried contacting friends in the NYC area.
After a while I took the puppy out into the yard to run a little. And, for the first time in the almost 50 years I had lived here, the neighborhood was absolutely silent. I mean literally. No movement, no sound. Not a bird chirping, a dog barking, a car passing, a person walking. Not even the bees seemed to be buzzing. Just a clear,sunny sky and an empty world. I didn't stay out there too long.
But....that silence stays with me and I remember it when I listen to "Last Day of Summer". I think of how nice and peaceful and enjoyable that kind of quiet was on September 10,and how eerie and even frightening that same silence became only 24 hours later. I love that song because it reminds me so clearly of what was and will never come again for so many of us.
I love reading your entries and the comments. There's so much here for everyone...not just the musical among us. So thank you :)
Eva