# Name Your Funeral Music **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2007, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049 "2007-01-23T04:05:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Theobroma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@Theobroma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theobroma)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049/61 "2007-01-25T13:04:45Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl] I don’t want people to be encouraged to feel happy that I’m dead. [/QUOTE] Well, no…the idea is to remember the good stuff, especially if the dying part was really awful. I want people to be happy that I was alive, and that I was a part (hopefully a funny part sometimes) of their lives. I imagine that anybody who was glad that I was dead probably wouldn’t bother to show up at my funeral at all. (After all, showing up just to gloat would be in really poor taste…) ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049/62 "2007-01-25T14:16:48Z")
_Firth of Fifth_ by Genesis, followed by _Why don’t we do it in the road?_, the perfect song for any occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049/63 "2007-01-25T14:56:21Z")
Morricone’s _Gabriel’s Oboe_, as done by Yo Yo Ma. Beth Nielson Chapman’s _Sand and Water_: All alone I came into this world, All alone I will someday die, Solid stone is but sand and water, baby, Sand and water, and a million years gone by. And _I’ll Fly Away_: Some bright morning when this life is over, I’ll fly away. To a home on God’s celestial shore, I’ll fly away. I’ll fly away, oh Glory, I’ll fly away (in the morning) When I die, Hallelujah, bye and bye, I’ll fly away. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049/64 "2007-01-25T15:20:14Z")
[QUOTE=Theobroma] I imagine that anybody who was glad that I was dead probably wouldn’t bother to show up at my funeral at all. [/QUOTE] Precisely. Since everyone at my funeral is ideally feeling sad, I don’t want them to be informed that they ought to be feeling happy. A funeral usually takes place within a week or so of the death, when the wound is still fresh. It’s a time to support one another in grief and take comfort in observing the proper rituals to pay respect. Remembering the good parts of the life of the deceased will occupy the future months and years as the grief is replaced by reminiscence. By all means, share happy stories of the deceased. We did that at my dad’s funeral. But we didn’t pretend that we were there to have a merry party and swap jokes; in brief we didn’t pretend that it was a happy occasion. That would have been hurtful to, well, us, the family of the deceased, in the front row, crying our eyes out. I hate being ordered to cheer up. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049/65 "2007-01-25T15:21:24Z")
My Step-father had - \*In My Life - \* The Beatles and _The Farmers Song -_ Murray McLauchlin One of my friends had _Courage -_ The Tragically Hip and another friend had \*Home Sweet Home - \* Motley Crue. All of these services were touching, sad and happy at the same time. We all smiled over memories of the person, while tears streamed down. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049/66 "2007-01-25T15:37:55Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] And _I’ll Fly Away_ [/QUOTE] That reminds me of another good one for me: Natalie Merchant’s version of “When They Ring The Golden Bells” We shall know no sin or sorrow In that heaven of tomorrow When our hearts shall sail beyond the silvery sea We shall only know the blessing Of our Father’s sweet caressing When they ring the golden bells for you and me When our days have known their number When in death we sweetly slumber When the King commands the spirit to be free Nevermore with anguish laden We shall reach that lovely Eden When they ring the golden bells for you and me ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049/67 "2007-01-25T15:38:08Z")
My Way - but only by Sid Vicious ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049/68 "2007-01-25T15:52:31Z")
My best friend has always said she wants “Amazing Grace” at her funeral… played on the bagpipes. She’s felt this way ever since 7th grade best as I can tell. She’s not a Christian… but her name is Grace. 🙂 For me, I dunno. It would probably be something from the band “Live,” which I tend to associate with The Meaning of Life ™ “Overcome” is a haunting ballad originally written about the tragedy of 9-11, but it contains a beautiful description of grief: These women in the street Pulling out their hair My master’s in the yard Giving light to the unaware This plastic little place Is just a step amongst the stairs And I am overcome I am overcome, baby Holy water in my lungs I am overcome So drive me out Out to that open field Turn the ignition off And spin around Your help is here But I’m parked in the open space Locking the gates of love But really the song that I most identify with myself is a little more upbeat, maybe not appropriate for a funeral, but really captures the way I think: We spend all of our lives Going out of our minds Looking back to our birth Forward to our demise Even scientists say Everything is just light Not created, destroyed But eternally bright Masters in every time Lord, in every place Those who stood up for love In spite of the hate… (“They Stood Up for Love”, Live) It’s cheesy, but if anybody gets any impression out of the life I have lived, I want it to be that I was one of the determined few who stood up for love. Or “Flow”: We’ve gotta find a way to flow In a host of things that grow Where babies become old And love is bought and sold But the mouth of god is wide So let’s just crawl inside And let the whole damn thing go… Flow… But yeah, it would pretty much have to be “Live.” ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2007, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049/69 "2007-01-27T00:15:03Z")
If we’re sharing lyrics: 1. “The Heart Asks Pleasure First” is a haunting classical piano piece, the theme from _The Piano_. 2. “Being Boring”: _…Now I sit with different faces In rented rooms and far-off places All the people I was kissing Some are here and some are missing In the nineteen-nineties I never dreamt that I would get to be The creature that I always meant to be But I thought in spite of dreams You’d be sitting somewhere here with me_ 1. “Seasons of Love:” _…525,600 minutes 525,600 journeys to plan 525,600 minutes How do you measure the life of a woman or a man? In truths that he learned, in times that she cried In bridges he burned or the way that she died It’s time now to sing out, though the story never ends We’ll celebrate, remember a year in the life of a friend How about love? Measure in love - measure your life in love._ ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2007, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049/70 "2007-01-27T00:51:49Z")
_Smoke Gets In Your Eyes_. _Ring Of Fire_. … as sung by Alvin and The Chipmunks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2007, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049/71 "2007-01-28T02:50:57Z")
_Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)_ by Joe Diffie [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-funeral-music/389049.md?page=3)