Watch The Taillights Fading...
I don't normally read celebrity stuff but the "Top Funeral Songs" headline of the WaPo celebrity blog caught my eye as did the lede:"Britain's Bereavement Register announced that James Blunt's "Goodbye My Lover" tops a list of songs played at funerals. A look at the full list (below) makes it clear that a British funeral is now officially as boring as the music piped into my dentist's office."
And that list is:
1 "Goodbye My Lover" - James Blunt
2 "Angels" - Robbie Williams
3 "I've Had the Time of my Life" - Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley
4 "Wind Beneath my Wings" - Bette Midler
5 "Pie Jesu" - Requiem
6 "Candle in the Wind" - Elton John
7 "With or Without You" - U2
8 "Tears from Heaven" - Eric Clapton
9 "Every Breath You Take" - The Police
10 "Unchained Melody" - Righteous Brothers
11 "Danny Boy" - Daniel O'Donnell
12 "Time to Say Goodbye" - Sarah Brightman
13 "What a Wonderful World" - Louis Armstrong
14 "Knocking on Heaven's Door" - Bob Dylan
15 "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" - Aerosmith
16 "Bright Eyes" - Simon and Garfunkel
17 "Eternal Flame" - The Bangles
18 "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" - Bon Jovi
19 "I Want to Live Forever" - Fame
20 "Reach for the Stars" - S Club 7
First of all, BON JOVI'S I'll Sleep When I'm Dead!?!?!?! WTF is up with that? And any list that includes James Blunt or Sarah Brightman should be thrown out without further reading. And Every Breath You Take? A song about stalking as a funeral song? Huh?
As with most guys my age (the dark side of mid-40's as of tomorrow), Elton John's Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding was my first choice when I was in high school and we started thinking about this (certainly not Candle in the Wind - too bloody sweet and didn't become a funeral song until the whole Diana thing). But by the time I'd been in college a couple of years, I'd settled on my song and it hasn't changed - The Rolling Stones' Before They Make Me Run. What could be better than having Keef's nasal drawl singing "Well here's another goodbye to another good friend"?
Watch the taillights fading, there ain't a dry eye in the houseThe article suggested that we should come up with 1 to 3 songs, in which case I'd go with Send Lawyers, Guns and Money from Warren Zevon ("Dad, get me out of THIS one!") and Oingo Boingo's Dead Man's Party and throw in It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine) as the recessional/staggering out to the cab song.
They're laughing and singing
Started dancing and drinking as I left town
Gonna find my way to heaven, `cause I did my time in hell
I wasn't looking too good but I was feeling real well
After all is said and done
I gotta move I had my fun
Let us walk before they make me run
I don't intend to need this answer for some time to come, but I suspect Mick and Keef will still be the tune of choice no matter how much longer I hang in here.
2 Comments:
Among the odd scraps of thoughts I've compiled about my own funeral are these:
Anthem of Resurrection and Comfort for the Bereaved: "Bad," U2.
Recessional: Solo bagpiper playing "Amazing Grace," cuz I'm Scottish like that.
Cold beer, good eats and a blues band at the wake, of course.
The best funeral song (if that's not an oxymoronic concept) that I ever heard at a funeral was "Blue, Red, & Gray" by the Who, a song I'd never heard before at the time. I've thought about using it myself.
I could also see using Mark Knopfler's "Going Home" from Local Hero, since it was the processional at our wedding.
And I've considered such wistful tunes as the Kinks' "Oklahoma U.S.A." and such thematic statements as Robyn Hitchcock's "Alright, Yeah" or R.E.M.'s "Electrolite."
Then again, there's a perverse streak in me that demands I ask for "You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here" by Frank Zappa & the Mothers.
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