Inappropriate funeral songs

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 06:08 PM

"Jingle Bells." The wife of the deceased requested this song for her husbands graveside service, as it was his request that it be sung at his graveside. After the service she asked the funeral director if that indeed was what she requested and he replied in the affirmative. She then explained that she had been so distraught that she had made a mistake in her request. The song her husband actually wanted played at his service was "When They Ring Those Golden Bells For You And Me.

Best Regards

Daryl

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 08:22 AM

When 'Big' Pete Roger [of the Taverners ] died it was arranged as his coffin went through the curtains at the crematorium, that we would hear his recording of "Here's to you and our time together", well we heard 'Big Pete" singing true, but "Seven drunken maidens from the Isle of Wight"!!!

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: G-Force
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 09:23 AM

I wouldn't object if I got Jez Lowe's "You can't take it with you when you go" at my funeral, but as a piano accordian player I think I would draw the line at "Welcome to Hell".

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: foggers
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 09:52 AM

I clicked on the title of this thread in order to share the true tale of my dad's choice of tune for his cremation... and b*gger me if it ain't the first tale from the OP!

Dad was a Geordie with a sick sense of humour - people looked really embarrassed as the strains of Smoke gets in your Eyes rang around the crematorium; I think they thought it was some ghastly mistake. We had to explain to folks at the bunfight afterwards that laughter would have been fine...

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 10:00 AM

Going back to the disco era, how about

I Want to Kiss You All Over
I Love to Love You Baby
Pick Up the Pieces
Last Dance

and of course

Stayin' Alive

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: frogprince
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 05:08 PM

How about a little something from Tom Lehrer?

I hold your hand in mine, dear,
I press it to my lips.
I take a healthy bite
From your dainty fingertips.

My joy would be complete, dear,
If you were only here,
But still I keep your hand
As a precious souvenir.

The night you died I cut it off.
I really don't know why.
For now each time I kiss it
I get bloodstains on my tie.

I'm sorry now I killed you,
For our love was something fine,
And till they come to get me
I shall hold your hand in mine.

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: Trevor
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 08:04 AM

I remember reading that all his close friends knew that the tune that Peter Sellers hated more than any was 'In The Mood'. At his funeral the priest announced that they would play a piece of music that Sellers had specifically asked for and which obviously meant a great deal to him. Sure enough, 'In The Mood' rang out, resulting in all his friends collapsing in laughter.

That's the way to do it - carrying on making people laugh after you've gone.

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: Clontarf83
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 11:23 PM

Thanks again all posters on this--lots of fun. Fascinated to hear Foggers saw "smoke gets in your eyes" being used by a Geordie. The funeral was down in Kent, so it looks like a case of great minds thinking alike!

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: Amergin
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 11:26 PM

AC/DC's Highway to Hell would be a good one....

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: GUEST,Curtis
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 11:35 PM

I know of one funeral where "She thinks my tractor's sexy" was played.
A little bit unusual but certainly not inappropriate.

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 07:33 AM

I suppose it would be possible to play "Bat out of Hell" backwards!

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: Billy Weeks
Date: 03 Feb 11 - 05:42 AM

We're off to see the Wizard

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: GUEST,Guest UK
Date: 03 Feb 11 - 07:10 AM

My mom wants 'Cracklin' Rose'
Yeh you've guessed, she's being cremated ............... and her names Rose.

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: bubblyrat
Date: 04 Feb 11 - 05:15 AM

I remember fondly the "send-off" for "Dr Rosie", at her "humanist" funeral at Reading Crematorium ; she went into the flames (in a wicker basket) to the rousing sounds of "Bold Riley-O " from the assembled mourners, who later left the premises to "Chelsea Morning" ; unforgettable !

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 04 Feb 11 - 09:24 PM

What strikes some as "inappropriate" is often the best fit for the people (deceased, friends and family) directly concerned, as most of the above thread demonstrates.

When my father's best friend died, his son had a couple of specific requests for tunes to be played at the beginning and end of the funeral service. Both were initially rejected as unsuitable for the venue (his local Church in Stirling) by both the minister and the organist, a well-known anthem because it wasn't Scottish and a ragtime tune because it was secular (or possibly even "profane").

However, the family's insistence prevailed. As we gathered in the church "The Entertainer" brought a vision of my dad's friend bashing away at the piano (and a smile to all who had heard him play in life), and "Jerusalem" rang out as we followed the coffin out.

Ross

Subject: ADD: Bones (Libby Roderick)
From: Barbara
Date: 04 Feb 11 - 09:37 PM

I really like this one by Libby Roderick:

BONES
(Libby Roderick)

I come from a long line of dead people
I come from a tall pile of bones
My people lie sleeping all under the world
Their souls turn to roots leaves and stones

My grandpa went by whiskey in an LA hotel
His dad died of Ohio coal
And before him and before that they slipped under the ground
Fewer bones walk above than below

My great grandmother's eyes look out of my face
Her skinny bones dance around in my clothes
You can almost hear the whisper of her sweet southern song
In this voice I've been calling my own.

A toast to the living
Watch us walk down the aisle
So these bones can be married
To this flesh for a while
A song, a song for the living
Though this flesh worries when
These bones will be leaving
To join family again...

Repeat first verse.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: CapriUni
Date: 04 Feb 11 - 11:45 PM

My mother always liked this song (by Lee Hayes from The Weavers:

If I should die before I wake,
All my bones and sinew take.
Put me on the compost pile
To decompose me for a while
Sun, worms, water shall have their way
Returning me to common clay.
When radishes and corn you munch
You may be having me for lunch!

And then, excrete me with a grin,
chortling: "There goes Lee agin."

(We didn't actually sing it at her memorial, but we did scatter a good bit of her ashes over the compost pile).

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: GUEST,lovelock
Date: 06 Jul 11 - 08:34 AM

on a modern note blame it on tom by brokencyde the lyrics are totally innapropriate look it up and for something different id go the hokey pokey

No disrespect intended

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 06 Jul 11 - 08:38 AM

"16 men on a dead mans chest.. yo ho ho and a bottle of rum"... was not designed to be sung at the funeral of an alcoholic!!!

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 06 Jul 11 - 08:57 PM

For an (IMO) embarrassingly serious discussion of this question, see Douglas R. Hofstadter, _Le Ton beau de Marot_, pp. 461-465. A good friend of his died, and he found himself dreadfully conflicted on seeing, in the program for the memorial service, a couple of rock and roll pieces that the dead man had loved. Of course, he saw the appropriateness of honoring his friend's tastes. But -- "..._I still hate rock_ and _I still love jazz_.... To me, one is sacred, and the other is profane. To put it very bluntly, how can _crude trash_ -- even if the dear departed loved said trash -- do honor to a person's memory?..." And on and on.

In the commune I lived in in the '70s, a sweet man died, and we buried him, and after that there was a deafening dance such as (to judge from his motions while alive) he would have found sacred. I would have recoiled from the suggestion that there was anything undignified about that, tho I dare say that, if such things could be measured, it would turn out that I hate rock as much as Prof. Hofstadter does.

Subject: RE: Inappropriate funeral songs
From: Artful Codger
Date: 07 Jul 11 - 03:18 AM

"Poor Howard's dead and gone, left us here to sing this song..."