This has always been pretty much my take on the whole “at my funeral” thing. Like I’m gonna give a shit - I’m DEAD!
But just to be on the safe side, play some fun, upbeat stuff just to make sure. If I get up and start dancing around to it, maybe they’ll want to postpone the whole burial thing…
It’s Raining Men
Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da
We’re Off to See the Wizard . . .
When Banana Skins are Falling, I’ll Come Sliding Home to You
The Good Ship Lollipop
Making Whoopie
I’ve Got Tears in My Ears from Lyin’ on My Back on My Bed, Cryin’ Over You
Mairzy Doats
It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want to
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
The Teddy Bears’ Picnic
It’s Raining Men (encore)
Of course, everything is a sing-along.
There’s only one possibility for me. From Keith Jarrett’s Nordic yet lush and astonishingly, hauntingly gorgeous Arbour Zena, his piece: Solara March (Dedicated To Pablo Casals And The Sun). It is the absolute best album I’ve ever heard, bar none. In fact, it’s so special to me I only allow myself to listen to it once every five years. How I cry and cry as its passions enrapture me! If that makes me a sentimentalist, so be it.
I would have an announcement asking the (certainly tiny) audience to close their eyes and for as much silence as they could muster and then play Solara March. The first half of the piece resounds with somber, even sepulchral acoustic bass and strings and achingly icy soprano sax. Then comes the surprise: the piece turns at half-point into a toe-tapping, very up-beat literal march, suffused with joy and wiping out the sobriety of the first half!
In other words, it sends just the message I want to send as my farewell gift to existence.