Music for my funeral

[clecklewyke]

I realise that I am reaching that stage in my life  when time is running out, peers are increasingly "slipping off the edge" and Plans Need To Be Made. 

 

So, to cheer myself up I am considering what music I'd like to have at my funeral. Shame I'll miss it.

 

So to start with, as my coffin is brought into the church (or humanist temple, which are distinctively lacking in Upper Wensleydale) how about something slow and meditative to make everyone nice and unhappy, like a Mozart slow movement or Bach's Air on a G String. Definitely not Pachelbel's Canon, which my organist friend Malcolm says is driving him nuts, it's so popular.

 

During the service I'd like members of the choirs I sing in to perform Mozart's Ave Verum - nice and simple so would not take much rehearsal.

 

Are you weeping yet?

 

Hymns? Haven't decided.

 

 

And for my departure? How about Tommy's Holiday Camp? The camp with a difference, when you come to Tommy's the holiday's for ever.   

 

What would you like? Please, not My Way!

 

Ian

[chriswright03]

Having just left the funeral industry there are SO many songs that I just cannot listen to any more!  There is of course a list in the Industry of the top ten songs played at a funeral and although I cannot recall all of them Angels by Robbie Williams is right up there.

[Horsetan]

....how about something slow and meditative to make everyone nice and unhappy....

 

Anything laden with misery should be fine, especially if the relatives turn up.

 

How about Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye? 

[Red Devil]

I'll go with,

 

The Stone Roses 'I am the resurrection'

 

Followed by

 

The Trammps 'Disco inferno'

 

And yes I am serious!

[4630]

I've suggested this to my 'nearest and dearest' when my time comes.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M

 

Courtesy of Eric Idle and Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Edited September 26, 2017 by 4630

[Stubby47]

A neighbour had Ken Dodd's "Happiness" as his final tune.

[Poor Old Bruce]

At one funeral I went to at the local crematorium the gathered assembly followed the coffin in to the strains of the Red Flag. Flanders and Swan's Transport of Delight was in the middle.

 

For my own do at said place, my thoughts so far are to go in to Norman Greenbaum singing Spirit in the Sky and end with Flowers of the Fields on bagpipes. In between, I'm still thinking, perhaps All Things Bright and Beautiful for one.

[Classsix T]

Long Shot Kick de Bucket, The Pioneers.

 

C6T.

[Phatbob]

Queen.  "Another one bites the dust"

[jjb1970]

I recommend anything by George Formby, but avoid anything by U2. God gets angry if you play anything by a band whose lead singer has elevated himself to being the second coming of the messiah.

[sp1]

Queen. "Another one bites the dust"

You forgot 'Who wants to live forever'

[Zomboid]

I'll have Cheap Trick's "Auf Wiedersehn". Or the Wildhearts' "Thunderf###" (bet noone else here knows that). Or maybe both. And I can't possibly leave without subjecting everyone to some Iron Maiden one last time..

 

The problem is if I picked everything I want, it would have to be a 3 day festival with multiple stages, and I keep finding new things...

[Ian Abel]

Not managed to consider/plan/contemplate the entire program, BUT, I've already requested the FINAL piece be "Don't Look Back" by Boston, played as LOUD as possible, should wake the sleepers

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VPLOVJ0u94

[monkeysarefun]

In case I get taken unexpectedly, I keep meaning to make a CD sound recording of me banging a wooden box lid while saying  "hey guys - it was a joke! I was joking and you fell for it.! Now let me out! Let me out!! Guys? Guys!" etc to be played over the crematoriums sound system as the curtains part to send my coffin into the flames.

[chrisf]

If I must have a funeral, and I don't see why I should have to have one, I would like "Only Remembered" sung by Coope Boyes and Simpson, "Telstar" by the Tornados and a track by Strawhead which I cannot yet bring myself to choose following their withdrawal from performing.  I do not want any input from religion.  The mumbo-jumbo brings me no comfort when I have to sit through it and I am not inclined to inflict it on anyone else.

 

Chris 

[Jol Wilkinson]

Ian,

 

my preference is for someting a little more modern.

 

"Who knows where the time goes?" Fairport Convention with Sandy Denny's equisite voice.

 

"Going down slow" Eric Clapton

 

Jol

[Horsetan]

If I must have a funeral, and I don't see why I should have to have one....

 

I'm all for the "dig a deep hole, drop the body in, then fill it in immediately after" approach. It's very cost-effective and saves a lot of time. I just need a deeper hole to contain all of my kits.

[Karhedron]

Meatloaf's "Bat out of Hell" would amuse me and is apt since it was released the year I was born.

 

If I want to get the tears flowing then Gary Barlow's cover of "Forever Autumn" should get the waterworks going nicely.

[chris p bacon]

My list is far too long.

 

I did attend that of a woman a year ago who asked for "The Dambuster March" as she exited the church.

[runs as required]

My mate - and the women in his life in particular - realised he was on the way out with Mesothelioma (from exposure to asbestos way back  in his thirties) and organised his funeral wake while he was still alive. Much better idea to be around to hear what folk really think of you than to be a stiff.

They organised a live band to play for dancing at his wake.

He only lasted a few very unpleasant weeks afterwards but was reported to have enjoyed his day.

dh

[grandadbob]

Meatloaf's "Bat out of Hell" would amuse me and is apt since it was released the year I was born.

 

 

A very dear friend of ours was an avid Meatloaf fan and picked that for her funeral. Her sister did not approve and left as soon as they started playing it at the end.

[Fat Controller]

'Meet on the Ledge'- Fairport

'Ripple' The Grateful Dead

'I'm alive' Jackson Browne

[Oldddudders]

There was only one possible tune for Deb’s funeral - Meet On The Ledge, as sung at a Fairport Reunion concert where she was one of the crowd. Not everyone gets to sing at their own funeral.

 

ISTR Peter Sellers left instructions that In The Mood be played at his funeral. The presiding cleric told the mourners that it must have had a special meaning for the departed. It certainly did - he absolutely hated it!

[Joseph_Pestell]

I realise that I am reaching that stage in my life  when time is running out, peers are increasingly "slipping off the edge" and Plans Need To Be Made. 

 

So, to cheer myself up I am considering what music I'd like to have at my funeral. Shame I'll miss it.

 

So to start with, as my coffin is brought into the church (or humanist temple, which are distinctively lacking in Upper Wensleydale) how about something slow and meditative to make everyone nice and unhappy, like a Mozart slow movement or Bach's Air on a G String. Definitely not Pachelbel's Canon, which my organist friend Malcolm says is driving him nuts, it's so popular.

 

During the service I'd like members of the choirs I sing in to perform Mozart's Ave Verum - nice and simple so would not take much rehearsal.

 

Are you weeping yet?

 

Hymns? Haven't decided.

 

 

And for my departure? How about Tommy's Holiday Camp? The camp with a difference, when you come to Tommy's the holiday's for ever.   

 

What would you like? Please, not My Way!

 

Ian

 

Just as simple questions usually lead to complicated answers, simple music can be very difficult to perform properly. I have heard Ave Verum murdered far too many times.

 

Both my parents had The Trumpet Shall Sound from Handl's Messiah. Most appropriate words and a super piece of music that lots of people like. We cheated and had it as a recording as top-notch trumpeters and bass singers are not that easy to come by.

[Oldddudders]

I just found myself listening to Resurrection, by Medway. There’s a title to strike fear into the mourners - they wouldn’t want me back!