Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: The Walrus
Date: 10 Oct 06 - 03:11 AM

The Parting Glass?

W

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 10 Oct 06 - 07:42 PM

Tom Paxton again - "Can't help but wonder where I'm bound".
From "Steady boys, walk on" - "this will be the last trip home".
And Adam McNaughtan "You're all gonnae die".

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Oct 06 - 08:33 AM

Why does brocoli look like a cartoon fart?

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: GUEST,steve benbows protege off line
Date: 11 Oct 06 - 04:16 PM

What about "Burn Baby Burn" or the crap song "The only way is up"

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: Genie
Date: 24 Oct 06 - 04:31 PM

Can't Help But Wander, So I'm Bound

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: SharonA
Date: 24 Oct 06 - 06:52 PM

"I Don't Look Good Naked Anymore"

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: oggie
Date: 25 Oct 06 - 04:26 PM

Tom Paxton again 'Forest Lawns'.

'Life is a Lemon (and I wantmy money back)' Meatloaf (or 'Bat out of Hell')

All the best

oggie

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jan 19 - 02:09 AM

My Way
Auld lang syne
I'll be home for Christmas.

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Jan 19 - 03:39 AM

I've found nursing home audiences to be very enthusiastic. They don't seem to be fussy about anything - songs that mention death and old age are fine with them. They do seem to prefer songs that they know, songs that spark a memory.
In the first message, Genie listed

Try To Remember
Don't Fence Me In
Dry Bones
I Almost Lost My Mind
Urge For Goin'

I think nursing home audiences would like the first three, but they wouldn't know the last two and wouldn't relate to them. Familiarity is the key - they don't mind being reminded of being old or or facing death.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: GUEST,Andiliqueur
Date: 22 Jan 19 - 04:44 AM

I remember feeling very uncomfortable singing "All my Trials Lord soon be over" with my choir at a nursing home.

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 22 Jan 19 - 06:10 AM

Some years ago is was in the news that a nursing home had banned "My Way" (from its collection of vinyl disks?), arguing that it made the inmates depressive. The worst problems are not being old facing death, but being suggested that they (we)

1. are now no longer good for anything,
2. have failed to achieve a lasting impact on the world,
3. have failed to enjoy life "my way".

Songwriters should know that age has many more aspects, and that every year of our lives we face new challenges that ask us to make a new effort. A nursing home is not the waiting room for the grave.

Once I had the problem of selecting autumn songs. Almost all those I found talked about relaxing towards the end of one's life - this is not the right idea! Farmers nowadays know that there is work all year.

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Jan 19 - 06:46 PM

Our nursing home gigs have had universal success with the blues, for both secular gigs and church services there. They are the first-requested, each time we've returned.

Built for Comfort is big with elders!

~S~

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: GUEST,Dave D
Date: 22 Jan 19 - 07:04 PM

well outside the folk idiom, but -
The Jam's Going Underground
:)

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: Joe_F
Date: 22 Jan 19 - 10:08 PM

The Revel:
Then stand to your glasses steady.
This world is a world of lies.
Here's a sip to the dead already
And a cup to the next that dies.

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 23 Jan 19 - 10:31 AM

Catherine Tate is a much loved British comic actress/performer. here she is talking about performing to pensioners.

No pleasing those old folk!

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 24 Jan 19 - 04:56 AM

Has anybody mentioned ‘Old Friends’? That line “how terribly strange to be seventy” must be a bit disturbing when you’ve now got children nearly that age.

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 24 Jan 19 - 06:32 PM

I believe "Happy Trails to You" ... is one of the most recognized from radio dramas.

Two times, in the last 15 years, it has been sung at "alternative funerals."

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 24 Jan 19 - 06:38 PM

My partner Greg sez his blues requests are neck and neck for "... But she gave me gasoline..."

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 24 Jan 19 - 08:10 PM

Here's one right on that fine line:

https://youtu.be/HoRNN8kJ0AU

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: The Sandman
Date: 25 Jan 19 - 03:30 AM

hes old and only in the way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFF4ANolpAc

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 25 Jan 19 - 06:09 AM

John Shuttleworth's "God's Waiting Room":

"This is going out to my brothers and sisters
Well it would do if they still existed
But they're all dead now and I'm all alone
All alone in a residential home"

God's Waiting Room

LFF

Subject: RE: Songs NOT to sing in nursing homes!
From: Neil D
Date: 25 Jan 19 - 06:22 AM

Harry Nilsson had a song on his "Son of Schmilsson" album called "I'd Rather Be Dead". The chorus line being I'd rather be dead than wet my bed, on which the Senior Citizens of the Stepney & Pinner Choir Club No. 6, London, England provided backing vocals.