Music for funerals
Choosing songs for funerals can be perilous. Anything you choose gets bestowed with added significance. Anything you choose will likely trigger people to cry - which is normally a good thing. Some funerals I've been to had amazing, and purely subconscious, choices of music. Free fallin' for a drowning victim. I believe I can fly, for someone runover whilst running across the road. On neither occasions did i consider the irony of the music until afterwards.
All this is a preamble for the choice of music for my own funeral. Lets say there are spots for two songs at either end of whatever ritual Lou or the kids decide to have. I had thought about having Ken Ishii's brilliant "Endless Season" (not in itunes) which encompasses beautiful circle-of-life rhythms. The only problem is that at 10 minutes its a bit long. The same kind of feel is available in Air's "Alone in Kyoto" but I find that a bit too melancholic, but the piano bit at the end with the sea would be super-appropriate at a funeral, just maybe not my funeral.
So they're OK, but on they're own they are a bit too pretentious - so I need something to balance it up. To cut a long internal story short, as my concentration span is nearing its 15 minute borders, may I suggest this. Totally seriously.
Coming in to
"Sexy motherfucker" - Prince
Please don't chicken out.
Going out to
"Endless Season" - Ken Ishii
I choose this in the full knowledge that everyone will have left after the first minute, and I'll be listening to the next 9 minutes on my own. Thats OK.
All this is a preamble for the choice of music for my own funeral. Lets say there are spots for two songs at either end of whatever ritual Lou or the kids decide to have. I had thought about having Ken Ishii's brilliant "Endless Season" (not in itunes) which encompasses beautiful circle-of-life rhythms. The only problem is that at 10 minutes its a bit long. The same kind of feel is available in Air's "Alone in Kyoto" but I find that a bit too melancholic, but the piano bit at the end with the sea would be super-appropriate at a funeral, just maybe not my funeral.
So they're OK, but on they're own they are a bit too pretentious - so I need something to balance it up. To cut a long internal story short, as my concentration span is nearing its 15 minute borders, may I suggest this. Totally seriously.
Coming in to
"Sexy motherfucker" - Prince
Please don't chicken out.
Going out to
"Endless Season" - Ken Ishii
I choose this in the full knowledge that everyone will have left after the first minute, and I'll be listening to the next 9 minutes on my own. Thats OK.
posted by Mark Williams at 9:16 am
2 Comments:
lol. How morbid is this post. After a little time in iTunes I'm torn between:
"Dead Man Walking" by David Bowie for the way in With "Play Dead" by Bjork And David Arnold on the way out. Or
"There's No Drinking When You're Dead" Paul Weller and "Pretend We're Dead" by L7
"Dead Men Tell No Tales" Cypress Hill for the way in and "Back From The Dead" by House of Pain on the way out. (Rap funeral)
"Time To Burn" by Masters Of Reality and "Into The Fire" Deep Purple (70's cremation)
"Goin' Up In A Smoke" by Eddie Kendricks with "danger high voltage" Electric Six (Disco cremation)
"Who Wants To Live Forever" by Queen and "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" by Moby (Just in case I want a few more peole to cry)
"Dig Deep" by Blokka (as opposed to "Dig Your Own Hole" The Chemical Brothers) and "Resurrection" by PPK (Techno funeral)
Real choice(s)
"Almost Dead" by Ennio Morricone and "The Death of a Soldier" also by Ennio Morricone (Western funeral.) or
"Fanfare of Life" by Leftfield and "Smokebelch II [Beatless Mix]" by The Sabres of Paradise.
Strangely these two choices both have the added benefit of haveing both tracks on the same CDs. Maybe it's a sigh!
ITALIANS demand Mozart, Germans want heavy metal and Brits must have Robbie Williams, according to a survey yesterday of the most popular tunes for funeral services across Europe
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