Funeral Songs

[kateln]

My uncle passed away about 2 months ago. I managed to hold it together pretty well until at the buriel, they sang "Danny Boy".

It was a beautiful, sad, wonderful moment.

I also love Death Cab for Cutie's "Follow You Into the Dark".

[Binky]

At a memorial service for a beloved high school teacher of mine, they played a number of instrumental pieces from many cultures (he was very worldly). They played "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof. I'm only remotely Jewish but all of sudden I realized my Israeli former roommate was looking at me, and we were suddenly both this_close to losing it together. Little cultural things like that - they hit unexpectedly hard. The teacher was African-American, but the love that song communicates is cross cultural.

[hobocamp]

kateln said:

I also love Death Cab for Cutie's "Follow You Into the Dark".

My biggest regret is that I didn't get to play Death Cab's "Styrofoam Plates" at my dad's funeral. I fantasize about it every now and again though...

You're a disgrace to the concept of family
The priest won't divulge that fact in his homily and i'll stand up and scream
If the mourners remain quiet, you can deck out a lie in a suit but i won't buy it.
I won't join in the procession that's speaking their peace. using five dollar words while praising his integrity. and just cause he's gone it doesn't change the fact... he was a bastard in life thus a bastard in death.

[Sunnyhorse]

I'm sure I've mentioned this in one thread or another, but as I was sitting with my dad in the ICU, for some reason the Green Day song "Time of Your Life" popped into my head (we were told that Dad wouldn't last the night, although he pulled a Lazarus and stuck around for three more weeks). I'd never been a Green Day fan -- in fact, I'm not sure I could pick out another of the group's songs if I had to -- but the song was so fitting. It would make lovely modern funeral music, I think.

[monkey]

The hymn that they play at many Catholic funerals - "The Songs of the Angels" - always makes me tear up, but I want Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" played at my own funeral.

We had a bagpiper at my grandmother's funeral. He played at the beginning of the Mass and at the cemetery.

[chonies]

I'm listening to Roxy Music, and I wonder if "More Than This" is appropriate for funeral music. It seems like Viking funeral by sailboat, sort of.

[Auroranorth]

I want Benny Goodman's "Don't Be That Way" and "Loch Lomond" from the Carnegie Hall concert, Glenn Miller's "Let's Dance" and the Andrews Sisters doing "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B."

It should be a lively funeral.

[monkey]

auroranorth said:

I want Benny Goodman's "Don't Be That Way" and "Loch Lomond" from the Carnegie Hall concert, Glenn Miller's "Let's Dance" and the Andrews Sisters doing "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B."

It should be a lively funeral.

Ooh, I love all of those. Big Band funeral - what a great idea!

[Deleted]

casinobride said:

I wanted "In My Life" by the Beatles played at my mother's funeral, but they forced me to go with some dude playing "Amazing Grace". I am still angry every time I hear that song.

Heh-my father told my sister and I that if we allow "Amazing Grace" to be played at his funeral, that he will rise up out of the casket and blow the entire church sky-high.

For my grandmother's funeral this summer, instead we played a version of the old Irish blessing, you know, the one that goes, "May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind always be at your back..."

My sister cantored and said she'll never do another family funeral again-you could hear her breaking down a bit during "Ave Maria".

[chonies]

monkey said:

The hymn that they play at many Catholic funerals - "The Songs of the Angels" - always makes me tear up, but I want Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" played at my own funeral.

Oh, I love Bill Withers! And not to be a freak, when we got our electricity back five days after Special K, "Lovely Day" came on, and I about lost my gourd sobbing. Now it's more of a "it's okay, boo-boo, everything's going to be alright" song than anything else.

We had "On Eagle's Wings" at my dad's funeral, but I think that was because he was military.