Inspired by the thread on wedding music, What do you want played at your funeral?
I’ll rise from the dead and personally strangle any relative that orders that stereotypical dirge you hear as the background for any TV death scene. I have a short list of traditional hymns I’d like played for the service, but the kicker is that when I’m brought to my grave, I want someone to play the closing theme to Dr. Stranglove, We’ll Meet Again. Johnny Cash did a great cover of this on his last album…
I won’t be having a funeral, but when the family and friends gather to remember me, I’d hope they play lots of Beatles, Annie Lennox, Ricki Lee Jones, Cream, Hendrix, and anything else out of my collection.
I’d settle for Back In Black, The Rain Song and some Norman Greenbaum.
Highway to Hell.
At my funeral
Crash Test Dummies
Pearl Jam’s “I’m Still Alive.”
The version of “The Muppet Song”, by Skin.
“People Are Strange” but the cover by Echo and The Bunnymen. Always been kind of a theme song for me.
Follow it up with “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”
Prop Me Up Beside The Jukebox by Joe Diffie
;j
“Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!”
And other verses of the Navy Hymn.
If it was good enough for FDR and JFK, it’s good enough for me.
“Siegfried’s Funeral Music” from Richard Wagner’s Die Götterdämmerung.
Don’t want a traditional funeral. I want my friends to hang out someplace, wearing casual, comfortable clothes, listen to music, eat, and chill. The Playlist:
“Rainbow Connection” – the Kermit the Frog version.
“Dear God” – XTC
“Forever Young” – Alphaville
“Brown Eyed Girl” – Van Morrison
“Runaway Train” – Soul Asylum
“Country Roads” – John Denver
And the very last song at whatever you’d refer to the above as must be Don McLean’s American Pie. No exceptions whatsoever, and if this order isn’t followed, I will forever haunt the world as an unresting soul.
Brass Monkey
By bagpipes…
no brainer :
VNV Nation - Beloved
It’s colder than before, The seasons took all they had come for.
Now winter dances here, it seems so fitting don’t you think?
To Dress the ground in white, and grey
It’s so quiet I can hear….
My thoughts touching every second I spent, waiting for you.
But circumstances afford me, No second chance to tell you,
How much I’ve missed you
My beloved do you know, When the warm wind comes again
Another year will start to pass,
And please don’t ask me why I’m here,
Something deeper brought me Than I need to remember.
We were both young and blessed with wings,
No height we did not reach, there was no heaven in which we did not soar.
There’s something deeper burned in us
I don’t regret the choices that I’ve made, I know you feel the same.
My beloved do you know, how many years I stared at clouds
Thought I saw you dancing there.
Well these are feelings that do not pass, so easily, how I can’t forget what we claimed is ours.
Moments lost in time remains I’m so proud of what we were
No pain remains No feeling, just Eternity awaits.
So grant me wings that I might fly, my restless soul is longing
No pain remains, No feeling Eternity awaits.
My beloved do you know, when the warm wind comes again
Another year will start to pass.
Please don’t ask me why I’m here, well something deeper brings me,
Than I need to remember.
My beloved do you know, when the warm wind comes again
Another year will start to pass.
Something deeper burned in us,
I don’t regret the choices that I’ve made, I know you feel the same.
Moments lost in time remains, I am so proud of what we were
No pain remains No feeling Eternity awaits
Grant me wings that I might fly, when My restless soul is longing
No pain remains No feeling Eternity awaits
Moments lost in time remains when I’m so proud of what we were,
No pain remains no feelings, Eternity awaits
Grant me wings that I might fly, My restless soul is longing
No pain remains no feeling, Eternity awaits
Moments lost in time remains when I’m so proud of what we were,
No pain remains no feeling, Eternity awaits
Grant me wings that I might fly, My restless soul is longing
No pain remains no feelings, just Eternity awaits.
“Victory in Jesus,” with an invitation at the end, though thankfully I’d know I’ll be seeing pretty much everyone again.
High five to A Curious Writer!
NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN here.
and also OLD AND WISE by Alan Parsons Project
Never Say Goodbye, by the Stranglers
Never say goodbye
For we’ll all be with you some day
Fond adieus, but never say goodbye…
In High Fidelty the main character names the top five songs he wants at his funeral.
One of them is Many Bridges to Cross. That’d be a good one.
St. James Infirmary (I want people to cry)
When the River Meets the Sea (from Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas)
and from the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack
O Death
I’ll Fly Away
Amazing Grace - preferably on a bagpipe…