Good choice. I would probably choose “Don’t Let Us Get Sick”, also by Warren Zevon.
Or Hell Broke Luce. Or Singapore.
Okay, fuggit. Just play the entire Waits catalog and serve a hell of an endless buffet.
Since I want a church funeral, I’m going with “Be Thou My Vision” and “Softly and Tenderly.”
Fly me to the Moon (the Sinatra version) or Lou Reed’s Perfect Day, and the middle part of Holst’s Jupiter, also used for the hymn I vow to thee my country and played at Churchill’s funeral - hey if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me!)
I’ve always been partial to Mason Williams’ “Classical Gas” as a send off for myself.
I’ve said it before – I insist on having “Rainbow Connection” sung at my funeral. That and I want a knock-knock joke. Not fussy about which one – but I want one.
Nice choice, I hadn’t thought of that song in that context.
But mine is still Elvis Costello’s Favourite Hour. I was privileged to be in the hall when he sang this at the end of a concert here in Sydney. He had them turn off all amplification and just filled the hall with his naked voice; he may not have a great range but he has great power - emotional and otherwise.
I’ve never really thought about it and I hate dreary funerals but there is one song about death that chokes me up. At Least, by Baby Dayliner (youtube)
I typed out the lyrics long ago and they may not be 100% right, but I still can’t find them anywhere else:
*The end of the line is lonely
Like a heart without a homie
Like a star without a galaxy
Like a star without a movie
*
AD-DC Highway to Hell.
If I wanted a whole catalog, it would have to be the two boxes of Eno sitting on the end table here. It would be a “celebration of life”, beginning with a toast to the classic, “the difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish wake is: one less drunk person”.
Nice one. For me:
When They Ring Those Golden Bells
**Blow Gabriel Blow **from the De-Lovely soundtrack
and in church a few, including Sing With All the Saints in Glory
Grateful Dead - Box of Rain
But, I’m in the burn-and-scatter club, so no viewing/music/service will never happen.
I don’t have any problem with music at my cremation. I’ve chosen the last movement of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy (soloist and conductor) and the Cleveland Orchestra.
Following this will be Porky Pig’s “Th-th-th-that’s all, folks!”
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” - Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
Or Sarah McLachlan’s version of “The Rainbow Connection”. (That’s been one of my favorite songs since I was a kid, and I LOVE her version of it!)
It’s not really going to matter to me. I won’t hear it. Whoever survives me can play whatever they want. If they want to remember me fondly, that’ll probably be some Grateful Dead - both Box of Rain and Ripple as noted above would be good selections, as would Brokedown Palace.
I don’t care. I’ll be dead.
I guess as a last final joke, I’d make everyone listen to something like “Christmas Shoes” or similar. My wife despises “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” , so that might be fun.
But it won’t be up to me, will it?