I went to a funeral today - a friend in the village who died from cancer. I listened to the music being played and thought how uninspiring it was. So just had a chat over our evening meal about songs we want playing at our funerals, and I want stuff that reflects me (or at least my picture of me). It shouldn't be morbid!

Undertones - Teenage Kicks - just because it's ace
Toy Dolls - Nellie the Elephant - that will buck the trend
Daniel Pemberton TV orchestra - I want to ride my bike. (Was looking for a punk version of "I want to ride my bicycle" but this is better.)

What do you want played at your funeral?

I always said I wanted 'seasons in the sun' simply because it's a 'kin miserable song

However, I'm leaning towards Rave on by Buddy Holy and possibly Killed by Death by Motorhead.

I also want knocking sounds coming out of my coffin, and "it's getting hot in here" but Helen says that's not acceptable

The Benny Hill theme tune (well the one they played at the end of each show if that wasn't the actual theme tune)
Eric Idle: Always look on the bright side of life.
Sandy Denny - Who Knows Where the Time Goes? (not a silly one but it's one of my favourite songs and the first time I remember hearing it was when John Peel opened his show with it when Sandy died so I've always associated it with death)

this.

With a face like a crab's bus ticket
And skin like a llama's door mat
He was always gonna struggle
Nature had seen to that

He dreamt of those old-fashioned movies
Where Bogart gets the dame
But a lorry load of Lorre
Is still the score of pain

And he sings
I may be ugly
But I've got the bottle-opener
He may be fat but he's got the cork-screw
And in the party party politics of this ugly fame
There is no orderly queue

With a chin like a tramp's jukebox
And eyes like a rhino's ash-tray
It was always going to be pantomime
That made him sing and dance anyway

When you feel like London
And you look like Hull
You think Travolta pulled Newton, John
Who did John Hurt pull?

And they compliment the compliment
And it's driving you insane
It's like talking to a helicopter
When you know that you're a plane

Breath like a mountain goat's satchel
Nose like a pool of sick
But you always leave your flies ahoy
'Cause the world wants to suck your dick
Let it suck!

And he sings
I may be ugly
But I've got the bottle-opener
He may be fat but he's got the cork-screw
And in the party party politics of this ugly fame
There is no orderly queue

Nellie the Elephant

Given the topic, it feels weirdly apt that 2 rounds of this were recommended as the rhythm for CPR when I did my 1st aid training.

I'm not planning on dying any time soon, but this very week I've taken out a funeral plan, everyone here in Spain has one. I've no idea what music I want but it's something I need to have a think about.

Bearlegged wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 7:17 pm

Nellie the Elephant

Given the topic, it feels weirdly apt that 2 rounds of this were recommended as the rhythm for CPR when I did my 1st aid training.

Which ones?? Nelly the Ele and Staying Alive??

Well done doing the training once again. Lots of folks salute you

Similar beat, but apparently 2 rounds of Nelly for compressions, then mouth to mouth. Dunno how many rounds of Bee Gees would be equivalent.

I've always imagined having Joy Division's 'Atmosphere' play, but secretly hope there'd be a mix up and Russ Abbot's tune of the same name gets played.

slarge wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 6:30 pm Undertones - Teenage Kicks - just because it's ace
Toy Dolls - Nellie the Elephant - that will buck the trend
Daniel Pemberton TV orchestra - I want to ride my bike. (Was looking for a punk version of "I want to ride my bicycle" but this is better.)

What do you want played at your funeral?

I think I'll just share your funeral Steve, to save playing them again

Bob, was chatting to my FiL's director and he said they're very bored playing Bright Side now - everyone has it - so you'll have to come up with an alternative

My thought was to pick something cheerful, like Bright Side, but then I thought “Let ‘em get the misery out of the way first” so how about :-

Psalm 23, The Lords my Shepherd, and
“Abide with me”

Ya can’t get much more miserable than that. Then, for the wake, ceilidh music with maybe some country dancing…

If both spouses pop off at the same time a good one might be 'We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" by The Animals...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pclh ... xhY2U%3D

I have a list, they're all acquired listening / unlisteneable so no one hangs about after whatever goes for a service when I'm gone. I have to say though that I'm of a mind to have "They're coming to take me away" playing instead.

Slay the bastards and get them weeping, its my day after all.

Brian Eno, An ending (ascent) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlaTeXX3uH8

The Beatles, Across the Universe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90M60PzmxEE

Catatonia, Nothing Hurts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scKMellFRA4

Blur, Sweet Song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nS0v41kHKo

Eddy and the Hot Rods, Do anything You Wanna Do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK8pAfhC4Rk

I've always liked the idea of taking myself of into the woods with some pills and booze on freezing cold, star lit winter night as soon as i start pissing the bed at night. Hopefully the badgers and foxes with distribute my carcass into the undergrowth so that theres nothing left to find. Always hated the idea of a grave. Don't like other people much as it is without spending an eternity 6 feet away from some random stranger. I mean, what if they voted for Brexit?

Napalm Death - "You suffer" then everyone goes to the pub.

Edit - all of my friends will probably be dead too so scratch the second bit

Done Got Old by The Heartless Bastards
Its The End Of The World As We know It by REM

@ fatbikephil - +1 for ND. Short 'n sweet.

They can play what they want when I go...I won't be around to hear it. I wouldn't subject them to Pulse Demon or Space Metalizer...they'd want to die too. ; )

Greetz

S : )

On a not-quite-completely OT note, there was a TV advert on today, for a Cancer Research charity. They said that half of us will get a cancer of some sort in our lifetime but if we all contribute (to the charity) we can beat cancer. All well and good but that means that if we do, half of us will have to die of something else. Or to put it another way, what will we All have to die of. None of the other options appeal much - except maybe something sudden and catastrophic (think a submarine implosion at 2 miles deep).

I can see that for some people death can come too soon, but once you reach a certain age, why get paranoid about turning your toes up? It’s going to happen anyway so it seems to me, that at nearly 75, I can leave worrying about cholesterol, or stroke or obesity to you young ‘uns.

So to get back to somewhere near the Topic, it’d be better to work at a funeral playlist…

I've had a list for a few years now, ought to find and update it...

It's basically the soundtrack from "O brother where art thou", ok not all of it, but I definitely want "I'll fly away" at the end as the last one.

Agree, there should definitely be a proper miserable one at the start, let me have my moment and get all that out the way, then leave them with a smile and tapping toes...

I already have a Spotify playlist....

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6lbhy ... ImCEh5LdgA

Specialist Hoprocker wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2023 6:52 pm I already have a Spotify playlist....

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6lbhy ... ImCEh5LdgA

They’ll need an interval at your funeral if they play all that

The Parting Glass, Luke Kelly version, obvs.

I did my will a year or two ago, my three songs are...

Joy Division: Atmosphere

Primal Scream: Moving On Up

Black Grape: Temazepam Party

Been thinking about this lately and the best I can come up with is Tom Waits Shiver Me Timbers.
I might even record my own version that will clear the room.