Question of the Week: What song or songs would you want played at your funeral?

Local Spins’ Question of the Week (June 7, 2024)

What song or songs would you want played at your funeral?

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THE READER RESPONSES:

David Ellyatt – I have long thought “Beloved” by VNV Nation would be a great choice for a recessional.

Lisa Oldham – Theme from Midnight Cowboy, “Smile” by Nat King Cole, “Morning Has Broken” by Cat Stevens, “We’ll Meet Again” by Vera Lynn, “I’ll See You in My Dreams” by Joe Brown (in “Concert for George.”)

Terry DeBoer – Here’s one I would consider: “When I Get Where I’m Goin,” covered by several different artists, including a Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton duet.

Angie Chase – I know I want “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac played at the end of my service here at my farm. Throw in “Amazing Grace” and Grateful Dead and it will be beautiful. I would also like my musician children and some friends play something for everyone.

Matthew Porter – “Spirit in the Sky”

Don Clapham – “Gridiron Heroes” (Detroit Lions Fight Song) and “In Christ Alone” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend.

Stephen Aldrich – I have always thought a complete opera would be fitting. As you want to hold onto your final audience for as long as possible, Rossini’s, The Barber Of Seville, for instance, offers excellent value, clocking in at well over three hours. I’m sure there must be longer ones.

John Nowak – “Big Country” by the Flecktones

Quinn Baldry – “Going Out With Style” by The Dropkick Murphys

Jere Sorger – Streetwalkers/Family – “Toenail Draggin'”

Brenda Lavengood – “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. And of course, “Brenda Lee” by Mark Lavengood.

Bob Crissman – John Prine -“Please Don’t Bury Me.” Funerals always need some levity, at least in my world…

William Johnson – An unusual one, but “Quintet,” composed by Michael Kamen for the Canadian Brass. After Kamen passed one of the CB arranged the piece for wind band under the title Tribute. I spoke with Chuck Daellenbach about the piece once and he stated that he felt Kamen was composing this piece taking into account his impending death.

Bryan A Harrison – The Avett Brothers, “No Hard Feelings”

Mark DeWitt – I love the song, but “Funeral for a Friend” is heart wrenching.

Joel Schultze – “Resist The Urge” by Superwolf (Bonnie Prince Billy and Matt Sweeney)

Chad Michael Wedeven – “Pop Goes The Weasel,” at an ever decreasing tempo

Martin E. Hannah – “Walt Grace Submarine Test, January 1967” – John Mayer

James R. Murphy Jr. – I don’t care what they play, except for the last song, which I want to be “Badlands” from Bruce Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and I want it to play as a recessional, solely because of the lyric “it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive.” Hey, I’m dead, but don’t feel bad if you’re thinking, “Glad it’s not me”.

J Oscar Bittinger – “Spinning Away” (Eno and Cale), “The Final Trawl” (Archie Fisher and Garnet Rogers) sung by Drew Nelson, “So Do I” (Wally Page), and “Feels So Real” (Dougie MacLean)

Matt Jarrells – The soundtrack to my departure playlist on Spotify: “If I Die, For the Wake”

Dave Adams – “Old Days,” Chicago, “In My Life,” The Beatles, “It is Well,” Traditional Hymn

Joel Miller – I have a funeral playlist. Here’s one: “Lucky Man” by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Ken Schepers – “Tuesday Afternoon” – Moody Blues

Scott Chili Cavner – Steel Drivers, “Where Rainbows Never Die “

Thomas Leonard Saxe – Alan Parsons Project, “Time” – Goodbye, my friends, (Goodbye, my love; now I’m asleep), Maybe for forever, Goodbye, my friends, (Who knows where we shall meet again?), The stars wait for me, Who knows where we shall meet again?, If ever, But time keeps flowing like a river (on and on), To the sea, to the sea

Julie Bernat Swanson – “Is that all there is?” by Peggy Lee.

Randy Scott Marsh – “Entering” by Jan Garbarek.

Kathryn Rzepka Harris – “Spirit in the Sky”

Elaine Radloff – I’ve already officially chosen “Into the Mystic” by Van Morrison.

Robert Silarski – According to my kids, it’ll be “Kung Fu Fighting.”

Honest John Kowalko – “Let It Be” and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” Monty Python

Melodee Van Bogelen Horsford – The first one would be the theme song to my life… “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd. The second would be “Another One Bites The Dust” by Queen. Lastly would be “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw.

Michael Packer – “Good Night” The Beatles; “Time Out” Dave Brubeck

Justin Stover – So I hope to not die till I’m 97, but I have thought about this down to the last detail. I’d want Nathan Kalish to sing “Amazing Grace” but without the last verse. This song would follow a thoroughly secular sermon that would reframe “grace” as used in the song in accordance to the dictionary-type definition which is “a disposition to kindness and compassion.” The song takes on a really lovely meaning when heard this way. Also would be alluding to the fact that grumpiness, depression, negativity comes more naturally to me but learning to be kind, compassionate, “graceful” throughout my life thus far has helped me to become a more pleasant person. Then I want “Road the Nowhere” by Talking Heads to be sung by a gospel choir as I’m lowered into the ground. I hope the gospel choir isn’t AI.

AJ Dunning – Stevie Wonder’s “They Won’t Go When I Go”, and the entire 3rd Brandenburg Concerto, as well.

Scott Langford – “For A Dancer” by Jackson Browne.

Daine Hammerle – “Aqueous Transmission”

Barry Bazza Crawford – “Songs From My Funeral” (1999) by Snakefarm. My all-time favorite album.

John Matthes – “My Generation”

John Sinkevics – I’ve actually thought about this because my buddy Don and I have long insisted that the Detroit Lions fight song, “Gridiron Heroes” be played at our funerals. Of course, beyond that, “Funeral for a Friend” by my piano hero Elton John is a must, and it’d be nice to be serenaded on my journey with “Stairway to Heaven.” Oh, and “Time” and the last two tracks of “Dark Side of the Moon” along with “The End” by The Beatles.

Sheila Whittaker – Josh Groban, “I Did it All for Love.” I love the “Stairway to Heaven” idea. And always, “Amazing Grace” by Charlotte Church

Kelly Scott Kelly – “Kick Out the Jams,” MC5

Dave Polus – As I recall, “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” is about 12 minutes long and sounds great in multi-channel. Great choice. I’m going with “Keg on My Coffin” by Chris Trapper.

Kurt Ehinger – ” Last Train Home ” Pat Metheny

Mike Dodge – These are in my will: “Black Sabbath” by Black Sabbath; “Guardian Angel” by John McLaughlin; “Night and Day,” the original Fred Astaire version.

Hope Pearse – “In My Life” – Beatles

Kym Reinstadler – “These Are the Days” by 10,000 Maniacs

John Olszewski – “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” Monty Python. And I want everybody in the audience to whistle.

Dale J Dreyer – Doc Donovan requested “Carry On My Wayward Son,” Kansas: Fulfilled….

Eileen Briesch – “And When I Die,” by Peter, Paul & Mary.

Shannan Denison – “When I Go” by Dave Carter

Lori Davis – I’m the office manager at Memorial Alternatives funeral home so this kind of question comes up sometimes. For me, it’s a song I played at the end of my late husband’s funeral and would like played at my own. Annie Lennox, “Into the West.”

Thom Postema – “Wait for Sleep” – Dream Theater

Timothy Smith – “Lodestar,” by Sarah Harmer. “Alive,” by Meat Loaf, “You’ll Have Time,” by William Shatner, the end credits song from “The Carol Burnett Show,” “Keep Me In Your Heart,” by Warren Zevon.

Sylvia Brooks Taylor – “Going Up Yonder”

Adam Kenyon – “No Hard Feelings,” The Avett Brothers

James Paauwe – “Bridge Across Forever,” Transatlantic.

Eric Burmeister – “God Bless My Underwear.”

Chris Carr – Have to make everyone cry with “Barber Adagio for Strings”

Randy Cleves – Rush, “The Garden”

Robert Biggie G Gill – “Goodbye” by Night Ranger, “Days of our Lives” by Queen, “Little Boy Blues” by Triumph

Arja Partanen Chetrick – “Final Countdown” by Europe

Myrna Jacobs – I need more than one! I have always felt that James Taylor “Shower the People,” “Your Song” by Elton John, “Never Die Young” by JT, or just play “Birdland” by all the awesome jazz guys – Weather Report. Always the Stones: “Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

Timmy Van – “Always With Me, Always With You” – Joe Satriani

Daniel P Hudelson – “Prop Me Beside the Jukebox if I Die” by Joe Diffie (who died of covid).

Mike McCarty – “Michael Row the Boat Ashore”

Steve Secor – “Euphoria,” School of Fish

Lisa Enos – “Come Sail Away” by Styx.

Megan Dooley – I’ve always wanted “Subterranean Homesick Alien” by Radiohead and a bunch of my friends and colleagues doing a big “First Line”

Jennifer Westwood And The Handsome Devils – “Highway to Hell,” followed by the cantina bar theme from “Star Wars.”

Bob Harper – “Reflections of My Life,” Marmalade

Stacy Noonan – May Erlewine, “Rise Up Singing” and “Shine One”

Paul McWatters – “Los Endos,” Genesis. The last song at many of the best concerts I have seen to this day.

Kay Schiller Rose – “I Got the Music in Me,” Kiki Dee. The lyrics have always resonated with me & will so til the day I die.

Frank Tobin – Hendrix, Moody Blues, B52s, Iggy, Morphine, surf music, but no funeral for me.

John J R Robinson – “The Night That Paddy Murphy Died” by any good Celtic band.

Gerald Etkind – “Don’t Fear the Reaper” / “Dust in the Wind”

Michael Larry Hamm – “No Hard Feelings,” Avett Brothers

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