Perfect Playlist - It's Not The Cough That Carries You Off...
This is a blog, right? An online diary (with occasional pretentions to be a newspaper column if I'm in a mood). So I'm allowed to put some personal information in from time to time. Like now, when I'm writing this from a car on the way back from a family funeral. It was a lovely affair, really good to catch up with lost cousins and distant aunties and whatnot. And as is often the way, the music at the service was a mixture of the sacred and secular. Some hymns for the devotional bits, and some familiar songs to really get the tear-ducts doing their little dance.
And it really got me thinking...
Last time we did a Perfect Playlist, it was about songs you would put into a wedding scene in a film. This was partly because films are getting pretty rubbish with their ideas of romance, and partly because it's a bit premature for some of the younger ChartBlog readers to be thinking about getting married.
This time, it's even worse, so I'm not going to pretend it's about making films. This time it's about complete honesty, and being a little teeny bit of a drama-queen. Plus I'm going out on a limb here...
I'm going to assume that I'm not the only person who has ever thought about the song I'd like to have played at my funeral. AND I'm going to assume that this is the kind of thing which people like to talk about. If either of these assumptions turn out to be false, this thing is going to fall flatter than Flat Stanley's pancake batter.
I will add that I have heard amazing stories of the songs people actually do have played at their funeral. The most recent (and probably best) of which was the Crazy Frog song, and NO I AM NOT MAKING THAT UP.
So, assuming that this is a game we want to play, here's mine. It's not massively original a choice, or reverent, being largely a song that is less about death and more about the way in which new life is created (if you get my drift), but it SOUNDS right, and that counts for a lot. Plus, y'know...it's pretty...
Nick Drake - 'Northern Sky'
Over to you, playlisters...
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Previous Perfect Playlists
Perfect Playlist - Wedding Songs
Perfect Playlist - Happy-fication Songs
Perfect Playlist - Paramore fans
Perfect Playlist - Elliot Minor fans
Comment number 1.
At 28th May 2008, HG wrote:This is hard! We're not ignoring this entry, we're all still thinking...
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Comment number 2.
At 29th May 2008, HazelChartblog wrote:I'd have very un-funeral-y things at mine, since if I can't get my friends to listen to Miley Cyrus when I'm alive, they bloody well better once I'm dead.
Slightly more conventionally appropriate choices would include;
This Will Destroy You- A Three Legged Work Horse
(stunning postrock that builds very epicly; very emotional but not in an unpleasant way at all -please excuse the ridiculous video there and also SINGLE EDIT FAILURE since the original is nine minutes long)
'You're Not Alone' by Olive is also rather lovely and feels a little bit appropriate at least:
(WARNING: 90s dance alert, young[er] people may consider 'retro' or just 'embarassing,')
It's not really about death at all but 'Dreamy Days' by Roots Manuva has a nostalgic quality to it that I think would work quite well at a funeral-
Of course goths are always prepared for a funeral, like lacy boy scouts, so someone like 'Girls That Glitter Love The Dark' by Hannah Fury is always ideal:
And for all depressing occasions, there's JJ72:
I nearly suggested a song off the most recent Brand New album but I think that's about death in a different way.
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Comment number 3.
At 29th May 2008, Asp wrote:You're completely right - the last funeral I attended I also found myself considering my own playlist, I even blogged about it back then.
I stand by my thoughts at the time - 'Always look on the bright side of life' is a bit clichéd, but very appropriate if you want a service to be a celebration of life.
I also said a bit of poor humour as the curtains close would summarise my take on life perfectly. So, 'Smoke gets in your eyes' or even 'Disco Inferno' (The Trammps version, not 50 Cent) would be appropriate...
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Comment number 4.
At 8th Jun 2008, Kat wrote:Okay this was hard. I tried to find a song that would remind people of me.. but some were perfect but for a line, others were just inappropriate, and the rest sucked. I listened to a ton of my favourite songs but nothing worked out. And I'm obsessive so I wanted to find the song that I knew I honestly would be happy to have played at my funeral.
I'd pretty much given up and then played Eva Cassidy (who I won't hear a bad word against!). Long story short I'd probably have either Fields of Gold or I Know You By Heart, possibly leaning towards the second. Or Songbird, but I'd prefer to keep that for a first dance song or something :P
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Comment number 5.
At 10th Jun 2008, Kim-ley wrote:I honestly don't know what song I'd want to have played at my funeral. "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong would be quite amazing, though.
There has to be something else that would be more me personality-wise, but I can't think of anything right now. Will definetely think about it.
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