Ah, death!
It's one subject which is almost never discussed here. (Except for the time
an angry lister brought up the subject of *my* mortality!) But after spending
part of a dark and rainy Mother's Day at the cemetery planting flowers at the
graves of my grandmother, aunt and godmother, death has been on my mind
today. And since I always loved the use of the Stones' "You Can't Always Get
What You Want" in "The Big Chill," I think this is a great thread, so I'll
play!
As for what music I would like played at my funeral, I really can't decide.
Should I leave 'em laughing when I go? Or should I pick music that would
guarantee that's there's not a dry eye in the house? Or maybe try to
accomplish a little of both with music that's so enigmatic, they won't know
whether to laugh or cry? And of course, there's always schmaltzy and tacky,
which can be great at a funeral . . . So with that in mind, I've made a few
lists of my selections in those four categories.
For leave-'em-laughing music, I'd pick:
"Tubthumping" (I get knocked down, but I get up again) -- Chumbawumba
"Can't You Hear My Heart Beat?" -- Herman's Hermits
"Am I Blue?" -- Linda Ronstadt's Nelson Riddle arrangement
"Oh, What a Time to Be Me" -- Randy Travis
"The Air That I Breathe" -- k. d. lang
"Another One Bites the Dust" -- Queen
"Ring of Fire" -- Johnny Cash
"Say Something Funny to Me" -- Patty Duke
"Accidents Will Happen" -- Elvis Costello
"Zing Went the Strings of My Heart" -- by the choir!
For not-a-dry-eye-in-the-house music:
"Dimming of the Day" -- by Richard Thompson, but I'd like Bonnie Raitt's
version
"No Expectations" -- by the Stones, but I want Odetta's impossible-to-find
rendition
"Farther Along" -- by Dolly, Emmylou and Linda (from the first "Trio")
"Dream a Little Dream of Me" -- Cass Elliott
"Everybody Hurts" -- REM
"On the Nickel" -- Tom Waits
"It's Over" -- Roy Orbison
"Crying Game" -- Boy George
"Four Strong Winds" -- Neil Young
"Aloha O'e" -- by Peter Moon (the saddest song ever -- makes "Danny Boy"
sound like a Monkees tune!)
For enigmatic, what-the-hell-was-he-thinking music:
"Don't Leave Me This Way" -- Thelma Houston
"Small Town" -- Lou Reed/John Cale
"Miss Me Blind" -- Culture Club
"Nobody's Perfect" -- Madonna
"Louise" -- by Paul Siebel (about a whore who dies!)
"Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha" -- James Taylor
"Strange Fruit" -- Billie Holiday's recording
"Knock Three Times" -- Tony Orlando and Dawn
"Dancing in the Street" -- the Martha Reeves and the Vandellas version, of
course
"By the Time I Get to Phoenix" -- Glenn Campbell
And for tacky:
"If" -- Bread
"Yester Me, Yester You, Yesterday" -- Stevie Wonder
"From a Distance" -- Bette Midler
"My Way" -- Frank Sinatra
"The Way We Were" -- Babs
"Wonderful Tonight" -- Eric Clapton
"Is That All There Is?" -- Peggy Lee
"Twelfth of Never" -- Johnny Mathis
"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" -- Dylan
Plus "I WIll Always Love You," Whitney Houston's version, of course. Since
I'll already be dead, it won't exactly kill me if the damn thing gets played
one more time!
--Bob, heading for the Light -- Bud Light!
