Funerary Music

August 24, 2015 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | LIFE, MUSIC | 7 Comments |

The Village Funeral (Frank Holl, 1872) Leeds City Art Gallery

THE ETHER IS AWASH WITH DESIRED SONGS FOR FUNERALS – THEY’RE COMMON AS MUCK, OR INTERNET KITTENS.

SO HERE ARE SOME MORE!

L WANTS:

Here Comes the Flood (Peter Gabriel)

UNITED KINGDOM - AUGUST 01: Photo of Peter GABRIEL (Photo by Peter Noble/Redferns)

UNITED KINGDOM – AUGUST 01: Photo of Peter GABRIEL (Photo by Peter Noble/Redferns)

Not Perfect Day (Lou Reed).

OUR FRIEND GRANT WANTS:

Funeral For a Friend (Elton John) at commencement

Comfortably Numb (the Pink Floyd original, not the Scissor Sisters‘ version – although we like that as well)

Roll Away the Stone (Leon Russell) at conclusion.

Leon Russell, 1973 (photo courtesy Shelter Records)

Leon Russell, 1973 (photo courtesy Shelter Records)

P THINKS A SAMPLE OF THESE MIGHT SUIT HIM:

It’s Time (Elvis Costello)

The Final Taxi (Wreckless Eric)

Trauermarsch (Richard Wagner)

+ (maybe) The deformed lady singing In Heaven on stage during Eraserhead:

"You've got your good thing, and I've got mine"

“You’ve got your good thing, and I’ve got mine”

P’s DAD WANTED (& GOT):

St Louis Blues (Glenn Miller Band)

Glenn

Of course, a funeral service is a great place to reflect, perforce, on an individual piece of music (as well as the inevitable new knowledge about the deceased, that you should have known and never did).  You can appraise it anew, by reference to the departed.  At a recent service, I wondered at the choice of Bright Eyes till I heard the reference to following the river of death downstream, and Brothers in Arms with its trite observation that every man has to die.  Songs about sleep often arise of course, which makes the popularity of Nessun Dorma somewhat odd, strangely counter-intuitive, like playing “Every Breath You Take” at a wedding.

We can’t snigger at choices like Tears in Heaven, Hallelujah, What a Wonderful World or Over the Rainbow: these mean different things to different people and it is not the point to apply one’s personal aesthetic to others.  You can argue about art and aesthetics till the sun blows up, though it is possible we have spoken of this before.  Come to think of it, there is a pertinent observation about art and artifice in that literary classic, Tranquillity: “Art…is just a process of extracting emotion through technique.”

P likes the observations on death by Kenneth Tynan, referring to the plays of John Webster: “For Webster death is a real and considerable presence; he is the ultimate and the immediate adversary ; he must be plotted against, cajoled, parleyed with, met in cunning and in battle, and, if strength and wits hold, defeated.  No matter what the turning of the plot, each character knows his real condition: black to play and mate in two.”

DeathBosch_morte_dell'avaroTVC is conducting research and will add results as they come in (and are collated) – please send us your requests and if you send jokes, please make them good ones.

Of course, there is also the tricky instance of selecting a suitable song for the not-so-dearly departed.  When Krushchev gazed at Stalin’s coffin, did he hum to himself the Cossack Song, or perhaps a few lines from the Fields/Kern classic The Way You Look Tonight?

7 Comments

  1. Reply

    Mark

    August 26, 2015

    i'd have 'Why does it always rain on me?' by Travis because i'll be dead and won't hear it

  2. Reply

    SPK

    September 2, 2015

    Does this one qualify...
    The Pogues - Body of an American
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOZHwWFjb30

    • Reply

      Lesley Jakobsen

      September 2, 2015

      Great suggestion Sean - we like the way its starts haltingly and then takes off at a cheery, violent speed before winding down - a good song to celebrate a well-lived life.

  3. Reply

    Janelle McCulloch

    December 17, 2015

    I would love Peter Gabriel's version of Randy Newman's 'I Think It's Going To Rain Today'. ("Human kindness is overflowing.."; how I love that line). It's far more soulful than Bette Midler's version.

    But then, to end the service, I would like something happier, such as Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole's version of 'What a Wonderful World' (much more uplifting than the normal rendition). He looked like a Sumo wrestler but sung like an angel. This song lifts my heart every time. It would send me off to Heaven with a smile.

    • Reply

      Lesley Jakobsen

      January 11, 2016

      Janelle, we here at TVC are STAGGERED to hear of a Peter Gabriel song which we don't know. We will certainly listen to that one and the Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole version of 'What a Wonderful World' (Yes, I admit, I cut and pasted the name). Thank you.


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