What song do you want at your funeral?

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 07:49 PM

oops..My nick here is Dave'sWife, not MrsDave.. MrsDave is my old IRC Chat handle. I haven't been on IRC Chat in years! WHat was I thinking! From my Nick's, you'd think I've been married forever, but nope..just 8 years. So, I drive the 'Dave' of "dave'swife' crazy with my everchanging choices.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 07:40 PM

I drive the 'Dave' of MrsDave quite nuts with this. As it happens, I have an illness that at times has threatened to make this subject matter pertinent. Anyhooo..it's always after one of these bouts, after I've recovered and am all fine that I say....

"You know, I would like....... played at my service"

And since my choice is ALWAYS different than the last time, Dave screams:

"ARRGGH, make up your mind woman or please God let me die first!"

Since I cannot bear the thought of him dying first, I figured I'd post my current choice:

For a Dancer
by jackson browne
and..

Ripple
Grateful Dead
(not because I'm a Deadhead..that would be Dave! But, it's lovely song and much more suited for a memorial than wedding. Why DO couples play this one at weddings anyway??)

last year my choice was 'Homeward Bound' - Paul Simon

Before that it was that old Mowing Song...

the one that goes:

The sun has gone down
and the sky it looks red..
and down on the pillow,
where I lay my head.
I lift up my eyes for to see those stars shine
and the thought of my True Love still runs in my mind...

(Roger Eno has nice version with a harmonium but he only sings one verse!)


hey, what's that Sacred Harp song that goes:

Fare thee well, I'm Going Home..
My savior come to take me home..etc etc.
And I don't care to stay here long....

?????

That would be a right fine song to sing at a service but then, we don't know any Sacred Harp singers. best to stick to folk tunes.

If I remember to find the lyrics to some of these, I;ll post them. I missed this thread the last time it swung around. Lest anybody think I'm overly maudlin in actually thinking about this..I'ver buried more than one friend a year since the age of 14 and it's getting tiresome not knowing what they would have liked us to sing! I'm 41 now and darn it..I want Ripple and For a Dancer if I predecease my pals. I'm gonna print this out and staple it to my Life Insurance policy!

I don't find this depressing. I think its good to talk about this in advance. I've already told my husband to see to it that I am nothing more than ashes before any of the Old-time Irish in the family get any wild ideas about a 3-day Wake in NYC. That would be enough to make me haunt somebody.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 07:34 PM

You won't be there. What do you care, already?

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Capo da Monty
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 07:32 PM

There can ONLY be one:   

LOVE and MEMORIES by JACK HUDSON.

Cannot reproduce the lyrics here for copyright reasons but anyone who has heard Jack singing this at a gig will know what I mean.
(No I'm NOT suggesting his gigs are funereal!!)

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Alaska Mike
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 06:51 PM

I would like a medley of my greatest hits.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Mar 05 - 06:47 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: GUEST,Com Seangan
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 03:42 PM

Great reading through the thread - gives a little insight to the personalities behind the pseudonyms !!

I'd just love if Regina Nathan coulkd make it to the Mass and give "Hail Queen of Heaven" (an old time hymn). And maybe one of my sons to recite "Young and Old" by Charles Kingsley. I taught it to all my kids when they were small. Never liked Kingsley much as a person (mainly because he was so biassed against Ireland!) but he got some feeling into that little poem in the Water Babies.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 09:09 AM

Let's see, last summer we put together a set of songs for father's remembrance special event:

1. When You and I Were Young, Maggie

2. Gone, Gonna Rise Again

3. Lonesome Dove

4. Nobody's Knows You When You're Down and Out

5. Come Along Home

My point is to spend some time thinking about the person and his/her life and what songs would reflect that.

We also selected several people to tell specific stories and then had an open time for more spontaneous memories.

I've written my own song, "Pastures of Memories,"
but who knows what friends and family will come up with after I reach that farthest shore.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Lanfranc
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 08:07 AM

In my various social capacities I attend rather more funerals than I would wish. The choice of music varies from the sublime to the ridiculous, but one time when the sobs from the attendees were audible was when one elderly gentleman chose to say farewell at the funeral of his wife of sixty-odd years with an old recording of Kathleen Ferrier singing "What is life to me without thee" from Gluck's "Orpheo". Not a dry eye in the house!

For me? "Lay down your weary tune" will do nicely!

Alan

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: GUEST,Rusty Dobro
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 07:48 AM

Must be 'When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease' by Roy Harper, then both of my friends can file out to the instrumental coda from 'Layla' by Derek and the Dominoes. Adnams Ale will feature largely shortly thereafter.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Dewey
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 04:51 AM

My Way, Frank Sinatra (LOL)

Actually, I don't think the song fits well at a funeral, but I must confess I do love its over-all message of self-reliance and determination. It would be my ultimate fantasy to have Frank himself sing for me, but he's too dead to sing.

Love that song!

Great Wisdom in It!

Dewey

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: GUEST,punkfolkreflectingaboutmortalityrocker
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 10:17 PM

my dad wanted and got "Peanut Vendor" Stan Kenton

sound clip:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/clipserve/B000003DA1001005/026-2583809-4346002

that saw me old man off up the chimney quite nicely..

not sure yet what my dear old mum wants..
probably "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine"- Frankie Vaughan
or "Ace of Spades" - Motorhead..

my wife can have whatever tune she wants
as long as she shuts up long enough
to let the vicar get on with the ceremony uninterupted..

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: GUEST,Scoville at Dad's
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 10:03 PM

Never thought about it, but my mother wants "Who Will Sing For Me?" and Howie Mitchell's "Dipper of Stars".

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: GUEST,punkfolknotdeadyet rocker
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 09:56 PM

only the greatest song ever written
is good enough to see me off into the firey furnace..

i must get round to recording an appropriate kareoke backing
before its to late..


A Windmill In Old Amsterdam:
-------------------------------
A mouse lived in a windmill in old Amsterdam
A windmill with a mouse in and he wasn't grousin'
He sang every morning, "How lucky I am,
Living in a windmill in old Amsterdam!"
Chorus:
I saw a mouse!
Where?
There on the stair!
Where on the stair?
Right there!
A little mouse with clogs on
Well I declare!
Going clip-clippety-clop on the stair
Oh yeah

This mouse he got lonesome, he took him a wife
A windmill with mice in, it's hardly surprisin'
She sang every morning, "How lucky I am,
Living in a windmill in old Amsterdam!"

Chorus

First they had triplets and then they had quins
A windmill with quins in, and triplets and twins in
They sang every morning, "How lucky we are
Living in a windmill in Amsterdam, ya!"

Chorus

The daughters got married and so did the sons
The windmill had christ'nin's when no one was list'nin'
They all sang in chorus, "How lucky we am
Living in a windmill in old Amsterdam!"

Chorus

A mouse lived in a windmill, so snug and so nice
There's nobody there now but a whole lot of mice.

(Dicks & Rudge)

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Bill the Collie
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 09:28 PM

At my cremation it was going to be:
"With my deerstalker hat and my folthediddledee, I was the lover of Lady Chaterlee" But I haven't heard it since yon time so it might be extinct by now.
A few years back, I thought maybe "Sail on" by Dick Gaughan but Mrs BtC said she doesn't like it and as I'll be gone anyway she says...

I think now that a gig by the George Formby Appreciation Society in our house would be nice; but first I'll have to find out if they also know all the words to "Nellie the elephant"

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Cruiser
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 09:46 PM

I'm not too sentimental about such things and don't want a funeral. I plan on being cremated so I don't take up more space or arable land on this crowded earth. They can dispose of my ashes in any acceptable, legal way.

However, should I grow sentimental in my old age, I would want my ashes scattered with a spray of desert wildflowers across a high mountain desert wilderness near a favorite spring of water. A fiddler in the background playing the lilting, slow air "The Methlick Style"(in E-flat) would be nice.

Cruiser

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: GUEST,Paranoid Android
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 09:12 PM

Cremation acc. by "Great Balls of Fire"

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: harpgirl
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 03:55 PM

My friends and I have recorded our wishes in a book together but have I mentioned I want "Dyin's Crapshooters Blues...and Delia and Old Time Riverman and Aeroplane and Paper in My Shoe?

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: MaineDog
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 03:17 PM

"I'm Going to a Better Land" -- Sacred Harp, and perhaps a few others
MD

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Peace
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 03:13 PM

I was hoping to have something I write in thirty or forty years as the song at my funeral.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Nick
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 03:11 PM

My mum wants 'Smile (Though Your Heart Is Breaking)' sung by Rod Stewart. She's only been a Rod fan once she got over 80.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 01:53 PM

Everybody Hurts by REM.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From:
Date: 21 Dec 04 - 08:57 PM

I would want a son by Joseph Arthur called "In the sun"

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 21 Feb 04 - 09:58 PM

Just noticed your post, Gareth.

Do you think you could use Cyril Tawney's "Six Feet of Mud?"

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: GUEST,smokinbill
Date: 21 Feb 04 - 08:48 PM

"St. James Infirmary" is a good one. "Satisfied Mind" is also an excellent choice. Mabye Woody's "So Long, It's Been Good To Know Yuh" (with new verses, I suppose).

Just last week I wrote a song touhcing on this very topic.
The song is called "Green Lake Road."
You can listen to it in .mp3 format at my site, Smokin' Bill's Digital Depot. I'm fairly new at songwriting, so I'd appreciate any feedback from the esteemed likes of all ye Mudcatters.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Firecat
Date: 21 Feb 04 - 03:47 PM

actually, I've found another two that I'd like:-

Say Goodbye by S Club and Hello by Evanescence

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: matai
Date: 21 Feb 04 - 01:26 AM

I could spend the rest of my life having a great time at all your funerals. if any of you get to mine could you please sing Joan Baez 'Love Song to a Stranger'
....if love means forever expecting nothing returned/ i hope i'll be given another whole lifetime to learn........

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Lil Dog Turpy
Date: 21 Feb 04 - 12:41 AM

Not a song, but at my mothers funeral last year my brother played the Attingham Waltz by Helen Torpy

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: dianavan
Date: 20 Feb 04 - 11:13 PM

Cremation, please. BIRD ON A WIRE sung for me please. For my brothers, sing SWING LOW, SWEET CHARIOT (our favorite song as kids). What a sad thread. Never thought about this before. I may change my mind.

d

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: andi
Date: 20 Feb 04 - 05:33 PM

I want to be cremated and scattered in the Cape Breton Highlands.
At the service I want to hear
Neil Gow's lament, Played by Ian MacDougall
Finnegan's Wake...As done by Rankin Street
Ivy's Wall, Bruce Guthro
to name a few.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Rasener
Date: 20 Feb 04 - 01:24 PM

I want to be created (oh sorry I meant cremated).
I want my ashes scattered on the pitch at Villa Park, preferably after Aston Villa have beaten Birmingham City.

The songs that I would like are:-

We are the champions - Queen ( and hopefully Freddy would come back and sing it live)

Three Steps to Heaven Eddy Cochran

Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin

Bat Out Of Hell - Meatloaf

Walking Song - Kate and Anna McGarrigle (As they walk around the pitch paying homage to my urn)

Blowin In The Wind - Peter Paul And Mary (As my ashes are strewn on the pitch)

Then they can all go and have a nosh in the Executive Lounge and get absolutely Pi**ed.

What a way to go :-)

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: GUEST,Li'l Aussie Bleeder.
Date: 20 Feb 04 - 01:48 AM

"Good-bye Cruel World"

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 01:26 PM

Anything by Chubbie Brown.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Crane Driver
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 10:37 AM

Anything I can join in with .....

Andrew

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 10:35 AM

"Always look on the bright side of life"

Subject: Lyr Add: DOWN TO A RIVER (ALAN'S SONG) (C Kaldor)
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 10:23 AM

"Glory, Glory, Hallelujah (When I Lay My Burden Down)" - recorded by Doc Watson and others. I sang it at my father's funeral in 1987.


A beautiful song by Connie Kaldor

DOWN TO A RIVER (ALAN'S SONG)
Connie Kaldor © SOCAN         
        

There are dinners, there's music
There is laughter there were tears
There are memories that go back
Over the years
There are the marks made in a life
Like only good friends do
Now I must choose to make a mark
For the things I loved in you

    I'll go down to a river
    And plant a tree
    Something strong, wild and living
    Those are my memories
    And I'll go up to a mountain
    And sing to the stars
    Can you hear me
    Where ever you are.

And there's phone calls and there's crying
And there's clutching to the chest
And there's singing songs and throwing dirt
And laying down to rest
And there's carving words on stone
And making church bells ring
But the river when it freezes over
Still thaws and runs each spring

    Chorus

Do you hear the ones who loved you
And who were glad they knew you well
Do the hearts you left that miss you
Ring like a bell

    Chorus

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Bobjack
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 09:08 AM

Raindog. You are just trying to frighten me aren't you.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Rain Dog
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 09:03 AM

Bobjack you might be able to hear it.

But if you do you will be unable to tell anyone.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Bobjack
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 08:59 AM

Don't care because I am not likely to hear it.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 08:58 AM

I plan to have a nice quiet back ground as the mourners enter, Glen Miller with Moonlight Serenade, then while seated, The Pilgrim by Kristofferson, finally, as the lift me shoulder high, Glen Miller again, with 'In the Mood'. I have been inspired by scenes of New Orleans Jazz funerals.. I wanna dance all the way to the here-after!

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 08:47 AM

Slight aside heard on the radio last week about an undertaker arranging a funeral for a very elderly lady called Sally. She had always been a fan of Gracie Fields so not surprisingly the family chose 'Sally' as her parting song - however the man working the CD got so choked with emotion that he neglected to turn the machine off at the end of the song so the poor old dear passed through into the furnace to the strains of 'Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye'!

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Rain Dog
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 08:38 AM

I would like to have two by Tom Waits

Come on up to the house

and

Time

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: SueB
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 01:40 AM

Maybe Sara and Maybelle Carter - "I'm leaving you this lonesome" song", or maybe "Are you tired of me, my darling"

or maybe "Streets of Glory", the version with the verse "I'm gonna tell God how you treat(ed) me" followed by the verse "God's gonna set this world on fire"

or maybe Sippie Wallace, "Up the Country Blues"

actually now that I think of it, a whole set full of blues would be good, with a lot of Rory Block thrown in -

wow, this is hard. thank goodness I'm going to be cremated.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Alaska Mike
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 07:40 PM

A medley of my "All Time Greatest Hits".

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: freightdawg
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 07:03 PM

Don't know that this will ever get back to the Mrs. Freightdawg, but if I could plan my own funeral it would be like this:

While people are being seated the organist would be playing Kansas' "Dust in the Wind." Few would catch on, and those that did would hopefully bust out laughing, knowing what a twisted, sarcastic sense of humor I had. Then move on with the sounds of John Denver's "Eagles and Horses." This would remind people that I was a free spirit. My obituary would be read in between JD's "Rocky Mountain High" and "I Guess He'd Rather Be In Colorado," two truly biographical songs saying what I would like to be said. Then, in memory of the love of my life there would be JD's "A Song For All Lovers." Just before the preacher gets up to wax eloquent about my life there would be a rendition of "Life's Railway to Heaven," and the Isaacs'"Is Not This The Land of Beaulah." Then, just when everyone was thinking that this was a real serious event, the service would be dismissed with a rousing rendition of "Forest Lawn" and everyone would file past my now lifeless body to inumerable rounds of Mac Davis' "It's Hard To Be Humble."

"Oh Lord its hard to be humble,
when your perfect in every way,
I can't wait to look in the mirror;
I get better lookin' each day.
To know me is to love me,
I must be one hell of a man;
Oh Lord, its hard to be humble,
But I'm doing the best that I can."

Then everyone could go out, hoist either a beer or an iced tea, and remember what a cantankerous old galoot I really was, regardless of what the preacher said.

Freightdawg

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 05:04 PM

I want a viking funeral with all that entails.
On the shore a good band singing "Smoke On The Water"
to be followed by "What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been"

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Compton
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 12:26 PM

Ideally a song not written yet!

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 07:06 AM

Recently due to various personal reasons I have been thinking about what I would like as a funeral! I want to be cremated and I don't want people to mourn my death. I want people to gather in a pub (size of pub depends on how many people I have pissed off at the time of death!) I want food to be availiable and lots of beer...and Gin for Morty and Dead Horse! I want people to laugh, tell jokes, tell stories, sing and play music. I want my passing to be a celebration of life and wheel of life, death and rebirth.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: GUEST,Alice McSweeney
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 12:43 AM

Ralph Funaro wrote this one which is my favorite.It epitomized my dad,and when performed @ his funeral, left not a dry eye in the congregation.
My New Life Has Begun

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2683&alid=-1


Countless letters of gratitude to Ralph Funaro, composer of the most popular Christian funeral song requested in the Northeast, are indicative of its power. WBZ-4 Boston incorporated it in the 2001 Edgewater Memorial Service broadcast. It has also been aired on channels 7, 5, 68, 56 and 27 (New England) along with many radio broadcasts. More poignantly, it has consoled thousands of the grieving faithful with its powerful message which embodies the essence of Christianity.

Subject: RE: What song do you want at your funeral?
From: GUEST,Topcat
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 08:36 PM

Sally Garden sung by Clannad is perhaps the most moving and evocative. It is as deeply moving as the last scene in the film Gladiator when that awesome effect of passing over is presented with such quality. When my wife died along with instructions for the painted box-wood casket was her request for Clannad.