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Topic: At Your Funeral..., (What song played?)< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Bassman Offline




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Posted: Oct. 24 2008, 10:46

I was thinking about something Wiga said the other day that was intriguing.  He mentioned what he would imagine playing at his own funeral (I can't remember what his choice was... Wiga, please mention it again).

Some may think the subject is a bit macabre.  Those folks need not comment.  But I'm curious and I'd like to know what other peoples' picks would be.  I'd bet the choices would be varied and interesting (assuming, of course, that most folks gave it a passing thought).

Mine:  "Dawn Of The Day" by Steeleye Span.

(By proxy, my late wife's was "Shiver Me Timbers" by Bette Midler.  My late sister's was "The Dance" by Garth Brooks.)

Give it a shot.
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The Caveman Offline




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Posted: Oct. 24 2008, 12:15

Easy.TB as i was bought in.Cremation for me so it wouldn't be long ehough for the whole album (being pagan i'd have them avoid all the long winded stuff)and as my ashes were scattered on Salisbury Plain it's be Four Winds.Maybe.But definatley TB for the crematorium.I've given it a bit of thought.
 Wether you see it as a macabre just depends on your view point.I don't worry about it too much cos it's going to happen not matter what.I would have one of my guitars in the coffin going up in smoke with me though. :laugh:


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THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH.
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Harmono Offline




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Posted: Oct. 24 2008, 12:38

I was very impressed with Nearer My God To Thee when it was played in my grandfather's funeral (this was before L&S). I'm not religious but it doesn't really matter, I do like the song. Maybe an instrumental organ version would be the thing.

Also something by Bach would be nice, maybe Air on the G String.

The music would have to be something solemn and peaceful. I know that in some cultures funerals are about celebration, dancing and laughing and it does sound nice but that kind of thing would propably be a tad pretentious and akward for the Finns attending the ceremonial.

I don't think this topic is too macabre or morbid, there's no life without death. Someone might think that talking about death related subjects is only for people of somehow dark nature but that's just bollocks. I'm in good health but only today I've read the news, I've seen a smashed squirrel on a roadway and retrieved my delivery of sauce. Denial would mean closing my eyes and shutting down the brain (hey, isn't that death ;) ).
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Scatterplot Offline




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Posted: Oct. 24 2008, 13:43

Steve Hackett-In Memoriam

Renaissance-Cold is Being

Mike Oldfield-the climactic guitar solo and woman wailing about 2/3 way thru TB3.

Roxy Music-My Only Love

Moody Blues-The Day We Meet Again


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We raise our voices in the night
Crying to heaven
And will our voices be heard
Or will they break Like the wind
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Tati The Sentinel Offline




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Posted: Oct. 24 2008, 17:51

Quote (Scatterplot @ Oct. 24 2008, 15:43)
Steve Hackett-In Memoriam


This is the ultimate prog rock themed funeral tune.


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"But it's always the outsider, the black sheep, that becomes the blockbuster." - Mike Oldfield, 2014

"I remember feeling that I'd been judged unfairly and that I was going to prove them wrong." - Peter Davison, 2011
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Dirk Star Offline




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Posted: Oct. 24 2008, 23:02

How about The Hollies:I`m Alive?..Or Madonna:Die Another Day?..Or.. err yeah as Harry Hill would say.."And you get the idea of that one".   :p

I must admit I have thought about this question quite a number of times,but it`s not something I care to dwell on too long I suppose.I think it`s maybe kind of the "norm" that people only really get to choose what`s played at their funeral when they perhaps know that they hav`nt got long left to live.Or to put it another way I think given the choice most people would rather just "go" quickly without warning anyway,so they`d rather not consider it at all.And then if there is such a thing as an afterlife you could maybe hover over the church for a while during the service and say to yourself..."Man I can`t believe they`re playing that bollocks..I really wish I`d given this some thought now".

I know when Peter Sellers died he had this really crappy version of In The Mood played at his funeral,because it always cracked him up.So I think for me personaly it would have to be something along those lines.There`s a track by Martin Denny which I`m actualy struggling to remember the title of now that always makes me giggle like an idiot,so I`d maybe choose that one.For people who don`t know who Martin Denny was,he was kind of this really cheesy exotic rhythm based guy from the fifties.Although some of his music is quite alluring and interesting at the same time if you can stop yourself from laughing at it.But this particular track,it`s like this cha-cha-cha thing interspersed with "bad" percussive instruments and band members shouting out between the rhythm breaks etc..Impossible to describe really the sheer hilarity of this thing.But it`s funny thinking about it now because I know there`s like a couple of my friends who find it equaly as amusing.But then at the same time there`s other people I know who will kind of look at you bewildered wondering why you`re finding it so hilarious.You know with that kind of "Well I would`nt have said it was that funny"..sort of look.So yeah I think I would like that in a perverse sort of way.

I think my wife would be kind of sat there smiling but shaking her head a little bit at the same time in the way that she does with these things.So I think for her I would also have the Paul McCartney song My Love played.And then maybe as everyones leaving the church/crematorium/funeral pyre or whatever the hell it`ll be.I think Mike Oldfield`s Cook`s Tune would be quite a nice little thing to end on.
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wiga Offline




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Posted: Oct. 25 2008, 05:15

Well I did consider a section in "Mont St Michel" but have since changed my mind. I sure do like it for myself but realisticly speaking  I guess the purpose of funeral music is to support and comfort the living. Mont St Michel is a tad too "intense".

What particularly impresses me with Mike Oldfield's music is his skill to grab you by your lapels and make you engage - like he forces you to work through a process, and in this case -the grieving process.

Sections on the QE2 album would work ok:
Taurus1
QE2      
Celt      
Wonderful Land (end of service)

An extra tune (just for me) would be "Molly" - that would get them blubbing.


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Barn's burnt down - now I can see the moon.
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Scatterplot Offline




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Posted: Oct. 25 2008, 06:50

But after I'm dead, I don't want the living comforted and supported. I want them depressed and crying their eyes out, hence my selections. Oh well, I'm never gonna die anyway.....

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We raise our voices in the night
Crying to heaven
And will our voices be heard
Or will they break Like the wind
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wiga Offline




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Posted: Oct. 25 2008, 07:02

Ok then, "Mont St Michel" it is, - let them cry their eyes out - it's good to cry.

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raven4x4x Offline




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Posted: Oct. 25 2008, 09:20

This topic has got me thinking. I'd want something that fits the mood, but also a song that is (was) very special to me. Going through my collection I can suggest the following. Apologies for the long list, apparently my musical tastes are more melancholy than I realised!

Bloc Party - So Here We Are
Cat Stevens - Sad Lisa
Cirque du Soleil - Rideau (from the soundtrack to the show  Saltimbanco)
Editors - The Weight of the World
Harry Chapin - Shooting Star
Jeff Wayne - Forever Autumn
Andrew Lloyd Webber - Memories (must be Elaine Page singing)
Moby - Porcelain
Muse - Falling Away With You
Nick Cave - Into My Arms
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Sigur Ros - Viõrar Vel Til Loftárasa
Simon and Garfunkel - For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Life Without You
The Band - Whispering Pines

From Mike Oldfield, I would consider the fabulous piano section in Amarok after all the whispering (about 26 minutes onwards) and the end section of The Lake.

However my one final selection, the ultimate piece, is Joy Division's Atmosphere. Ever since I saw the movie Control, about Joy Division's lead singer Ian Curtis, this song gets me every time. I know if I heard it at a funeral I'd be a blubbering mess before the end. So that's my selection.


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Sir Mustapha Offline




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Posted: Oct. 25 2008, 10:32

I don't think I'd like having any music played in my funeral. I don't want people to think they're supposed to feel a certain way.

Come to think of it, I don't think I'll want having a funeral of any sort. I hate funerals - they always seem to fake and, in the very end, pointless. Why would I want a funeral? I'm just this guy, you know? I'm not Jesus or anything. I'm just a human being, exactly the same as the billions of human beings that have walked the Earth before. We all die. And if the people who love me and care about me (yeah, all six of them) can just get together and talk. They don't need my rotting corpse in the same room, I'm certain!

It's not even cynicism - a funeral is this thing when everyone cares about you for 30 minutes, and for the rest of the day, they're discussing each other's clothes.


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The Caveman Offline




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Posted: Oct. 27 2008, 10:49

Is that a quote from Gag Halfrunt there ("well Zaphod's just this guy,you know?")Sir M?Good point but it does depend on your point of view.
 The way i'd want (and i do want)my funeral to be is brief for the actual ceremony (as i said i am actually pagan so i couldn't be buried in a church graveyard and certainly wouldn't want to be so it's up the chimney i go)and then a damn good party for all the people that care to go.I've never felt that a funeral is meant to make you feel a certain way.Obviously there's grief but that's a natural human emotion that we all feel at some point when we lose someone we care about.The music played has never really been part of it.The only exception to this would be my grandfather's funeral when a hymn to the tune of Men Of Harlech was sung.That choked us all up cos he was a welshman.I too loath funerals but i think it would be a damn sorry thing if i were to be cremated and no-one was there.It should be a celebration of that person's life but,by there nature,funerals are sad affairs.


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Dirk Star Offline




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Posted: Oct. 27 2008, 11:56

[quote=The Caveman,Oct. 27 2008, 15:49][/quote]
Quote
i think it would be a damn sorry thing if i were to be cremated and no-one was there.


I`ve actualy been to a funeral/cremation where I was the only person attending.It was a very strange/sad feeling being there I must admit.This guy had been a friend of my wife`s uncle who was hospitalised at the time of his funeral,so we kind of took it on ourselves to handle all the affairs and such.He`d had some big falling out with his family who he never spoke to anymore,and his wife had passed away some twenty years previous.I had`nt really known him that well myself but he`d always struck me as quite a sad lonely figure really.And then when we had to go through his house and sort out his posessions etc,We found all these old photographs of himself with his wife and kids all smiling happy families and stuff.It was a real eye opener in a way for me because you just could`nt really imagine this guy being anything other than miserable.The family did kind of "come out of the woodwork" once they were aware he`d left a will,but he`d left all of his money to a children`s charity.Which did cause me to raise a smile at the time I must admit.

Like I said though it was a really awkward feeling being there,just myself and the guys from the co-operative funeral service.No words were said and barely a moment for contemplation before his coffin went down the conveyor belt into the flames.I exchanged handshakes and thank-you`s with the pall bearers and that was it.The whole thing was over in less than five minutes.
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Gladstoner Offline




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Posted: Oct. 28 2008, 03:44

Ray Lynch -- 'The Vanished Gardens of Cordoba'.

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manintherain Offline




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Posted: Oct. 28 2008, 04:08

The Path - Mike Oldfield

:D
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Philippe Tavares Offline




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Posted: Oct. 28 2008, 05:35

;) Cremation for me .

AC/DC  Highway to hell   :p


From Mike ?  All his works if possible ! .. but i would love to see my family listen to Holy .
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Oct. 28 2008, 06:45

Quote (Sir Mustapha @ Oct. 25 2008, 10:32)
I don't think I'd like having any music played in my funeral. I don't want people to think they're supposed to feel a certain way.

Come to think of it, I don't think I'll want having a funeral of any sort. I hate funerals - they always seem to fake and, in the very end, pointless. Why would I want a funeral? I'm just this guy, you know? I'm not Jesus or anything. I'm just a human being, exactly the same as the billions of human beings that have walked the Earth before. We all die. And if the people who love me and care about me (yeah, all six of them) can just get together and talk. They don't need my rotting corpse in the same room, I'm certain!

It's not even cynicism - a funeral is this thing when everyone cares about you for 30 minutes, and for the rest of the day, they're discussing each other's clothes.

For once, Sir M, I completely agree with you (if that means anything!;) A funeral for oneself would seem to be worthwhile only if you could be there to enjoy it, but you can't so it isn't. (That last bit sounds like part of the refrain from "Surfing", doesn't it?)
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Scatterplot Offline




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Posted: Oct. 28 2008, 08:23

That's why you want the mo-fo's as sad and depressed as possible for that 30 minutes. That's your last 30 minutes so enjoy it with depressing music.

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We raise our voices in the night
Crying to heaven
And will our voices be heard
Or will they break Like the wind
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Bassman Offline




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Posted: Oct. 29 2008, 13:00

At the risk of jacking my own thread, I want to say that all I was really after was peoples' ideas on what song they wanted played.  The idea being that the lyrical or melodic content would provide the mourners with your last "message" so to speak... the last words you would want to leave them with.  I was not trying to discuss the cultural or personal significance of the funereal concept.  That can be another topic.

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Scatterplot Offline




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Posted: Oct. 29 2008, 15:37

Hey man, you know what happens when you get us started up.............it's a thread frayed. It's a ribbon of chaotic lure.

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We raise our voices in the night
Crying to heaven
And will our voices be heard
Or will they break Like the wind
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