Public Address | Cafe | What do you want them to play at your funeral?

David Slack

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 11:28:32 +1300

This morning's news had the poignant story of a Dutch woman who died next to the grave where she wanted to be buried. In her bag they found her will, arrangements for her funeral and even the music she wanted played.

I get the feeling that the choice of funeral?

andrew llewellyn

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 11:35:26 +1300

Shoop shoop diddywop cumma cumma wangdang.

no reason.

Hadyn Green

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 11:37:13 +1300

I always thought Highway to Hell would be good.

Joanna

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 12:10:56 +1300

'Miss World' by Hole

"I've made my bed and I'll lie in it / I've made my bed and I'll die in it"

Che Tibby

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 12:29:34 +1300

easy, "lay me down" by The Frames

bit soppy, but hey, i'm not having a funeral with any pesky skipping or dancing. misery damnit! and plenty of it.

David Cormack

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 13:04:19 +1300

If You Don't Know me by now...you will never ever know me!

Gold.

dc_red

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 13:06:21 +1300

"Hero" by Foo Fighters? Let everyone know how cool you really were.
:-)

Robyn Gallagher

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 13:43:06 +1300

I'd get a New Orleans jazz funeral. Mainly cos there's one in the opening scenes of "Live and Let Die", but surely it's a better accompaniment than "Lightning Crashes" or "Stairway to Heaven".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_funeral

David Slack

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 14:18:03 +1300

I'd get a New Orleans jazz funeral. Mainly cos there's one in the opening scenes of "Live and Let Die"

Yes! There's also one in Angel Heart that stays with you long after they've marched out of shot.

Russell Brown

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 14:23:11 +1300

'Know Your Product' by the Saints

DADAT-DAT-DAT-DAA!

'Oh What a Agony' by the Conquerors

Sweet lament for hard times

'Point That Thing Somewhere Else' by The Clean

They can lower me down to this ...

Don Christie

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 14:53:31 +1300

Russell, 'cause you seem to be here.

Do you really have to open this site up to everyone? I mean, your friends seem quite reasonable and all that.

Just wondering.

Very nice work, congrats from this tech to your techs.

David Cormack

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 15:01:47 +1300

I sense a Simply Red hater in our midsts

Don Christie

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 15:10:55 +1300

David Cormack, your suggestion was the funniest so far,

For irony you'd be hard pushed to go past the first line of the chorus to "Fame"...

David Cormack

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 15:12:25 +1300

FUNNIEST COMMENT ABOUT FUNERALS
HUZZAH!

On an interesting side note, funeral, is a delightful anagram of Real Fun.

David Cormack

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 15:12:25 +1300

FUNNIEST COMMENT ABOUT FUNERALS
HUZZAH!

On an interesting side note, funeral, is a delightful anagram of Real Fun.

Don Christie

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 15:26:59 +1300

heh, and you get the credit for the first double post...

Hadyn Green

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 15:45:25 +1300

I assume we all remember the funeral scene in _Man on the Moon_?

Get everyone up and singing!

Russell Brown

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 16:28:02 +1300

Do you really have to open this site up to everyone? I mean, your friends seem quite reasonable and all that. Just wondering.

Heh. Much as I'd love to run it as a social club, the idea is that it becomes so popular that I can work full-time on Public?

Doddery Oldfart

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 17:10:01 +1300

Since I won't hear buggar all.
The entire Bach B Minor Mass, played on massed recorders to bore evryone rigid. (as well)
Or,
Patience & Prudence

"Uh huh, uh huh, gonna get along without you now.
Got along without you before I met you
Gonna get along without you now.... "?

Yamis

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 17:57:31 +1300

I want to die in summer so my friends can cannabilise me on the BBQ over a few beers.

They can play whatever music they like.

ed pointsman

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 18:07:11 +1300

I'm a wonderful thing, Baby by the Blow Monkeys. I'd like to go out the way I have lived, with people laughing at me...
/ed

David Slack

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 18:21:30 +1300

I want to die in summer so my friends can cannabilise me on the BBQ over a few beers.
They can play whatever music they like.

You've Got A Friend In Me by Randy Newman?

Don't Touch My Hair by The Riptones?

Great Balls of Fire?

stephen walker

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 20:17:18 +1300

a meddley of Joy Division, of course!

– New Dawn Fades
– Transmission
– Love Will Tear Us Apart
– Atmosphere

and to finish, because it's got the best lyrics of any song I've ever heard:

– Twenty Four Hours
("Now that I've realized, how it's all gone wrong
Got?

Nick Kearney

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 20:37:38 +1300

'Staying Alive' by the Bee Gees.

Title says it all doesn't it?

Yamis

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:12:48 +1300

"I want to die in summer so my friends can cannabilise me on the BBQ over a few beers.They can play whatever music they like.

You've Got A Friend In Me by Randy Newman?
Don't Touch My Hair by The Riptones?
Great Balls of Fire?"

or maybe
__Pour Some Sugar?

David Slack

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:31:40 +1300

'Staying Alive' by the Bee Gees.
Title says it all doesn't it?

Reminds me of that story about a bunch of friends discussing what they'd like people to say about them at their funeral. They variously choose:

"He was a kind person"

"He was a visionary"

"We'll never see his?

Robyn Gallagher

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:58:47 +1300

is anybody participating in "Movember"?

If I could, I would. Believe me, there are days when I'd like nothing more than to grow some luxuriant moustaches, ala Hercule Poirot.

Che Tibby

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 07:15:48 +1300

movember? absolutely.

i'm sporting the 'errol flynn'. for, 'the ladies'.

sponsorship of this bad boy can be extended at:

http://dropkicks.blogspot.com/2006/11/movember.html

i thank you, and my 'old lady' thanks you.

Hadyn Green

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 08:47:34 +1300

is anybody participating in "Movember"?

I'm going for the "half-handlebar", where the bars don't reach your chin.

You can sponsor me at the same link Che put up.

Hadyn Green

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 08:48:41 +1300

Back to the music though...

I'm thinking now that _The Monster Mash_ might be good, for some reason.

Span .

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 09:46:50 +1300

I'm rather keen on the live version of There Is A Light That Never Goes Out on the Seven Worlds Collide CD, but it's kind of corny for a funeral.

As I'm in favour of being cremated I think it would be pretty special to have Smoke Gets in Your?

Craig Young

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 09:56:10 +1300

U2. Beautiful Day, because I like its edgy uncertain undertones.

Craig Y.

Alz

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:29:20 +1300

Queens – Another One Bites The Dust.

Dr Huxtable

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:38:14 +1300

It's a toss up between choosing something topically funny or something random and inappropriate and making your relatives sing it.

On the former front, it's hard to top Disco Inferno by the Trammps (for a cremation), Killed By Death by Motorhead, Let Me Die A Woman by Phoenix Foundation or?

Meech

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:38:53 +1300

I was going to go for Do you Realise by the Flaming Lips

Do You Realize
That everyone you know
Someday will die
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes
Let them know
You realize that life goes fast

Nice song, a little cheesy, sure to bring a tear?

Martha Craig

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:46:34 +1300

I quite fancy Jerusalem.

It isn't really appropriate, but always makes people cry at movies, and I want crying.

Janet Digby

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:52:59 +1300

Someone mentioned Simply Red before..."If you don't know me by now...you will never never know me..." seems appropriate.

Or Talking Heads – Road to Nowhere

or perhaps finally Mothership Connect by Funkadelic

and as Noam Chomsky is my idol and none of my friends listen to him.Captive audience ahhhhh.

Judi Lapsley Miller

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 11:25:23 +1300

Ding dong the witch is dead? :-D

Stephen Judd

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 11:53:11 +1300

I'd prefer "We don't know how lucky we are" to be played at mine.

TroyHoward

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:06:32 +1300

Mr Judd beat me to it. I too want "We don't know how lucky we are."

But I also want:
– "Dont worry, Be Happy" – Bobby McFerrin of course.
– "When the Levee Breaks" Led Zep
– "I Hate Cats" Rodney Rude.

And maybe some talented masherupperer could remix?

MaskedAvatar

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:10:26 +1300

What rocking funerals the Public Address System crowd will have. I think we should be notified of dates for these parties.

The tracklist for my alter ego includes:

Gorecki's 3rd
Arvo Part's "Fratres"
The Birthday Party's "Release The Bats"

Josh Addison

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:17:10 +1300

Shihad, "Home Again"

You should know I still love you, when I'm miles away...

Sarah Wedde

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:26:23 +1300

For some reason Don't Cry for Me, Argentina popped into my head, possibly exposing certain megalomaniacal tendencies on my part.

Craig Ranapia

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:27:11 +1300

Oddly enough, I've left instructions that I'm not going to have a funeral and anyone who wants to organise an orgy of insincerity (as opposed to trashing my house in a cataclysmic drunken bloat) I respectfully decline to attend. If I have to have a funeral, I'd really love to?

Emma Hart

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:29:00 +1300

A friend of my then-boyfriend who killed himself in a particuarly 18-24 male kind of way actually HAD Another One Bites the Dust played at his funeral. His mum took some persuading, but Rob was a huge Queen fan and it was clearly 'what he would have wanted'.

For me,?

Peter Darlington

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:39:20 +1300

It's gotta be Motorhead – 'Killed By Death'. Poignant, sensitive, smelly and noisy. Suits me perfectly.

Damian Christie

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:46:19 +1300

I agree with Meech – Do You Realize??? by the Flaming Lips. Wonderful lyrics as he quoted, but also:

...and realize the sun don't go down, it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning 'round...

Similarly, The Beatle's Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End is a nice little three-pack.

What?

Tristan

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:51:20 +1300

I cant belive it hasnt come up yet...

"Look on the bright side of life" – Monty Python.

And because you need a sad tune before going out on the high note

"Adigio in G Minor" Abaloine (sp)

Think Platoon and Gallipoli and if you listen really carefully one scene?

andrew llewellyn

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:54:49 +1300

For some reason Don't Cry for Me, Argentina popped into my head,

Mine too – I think it's some lyrics quoted by an earlier commenter that inspired it.

But it's a goer. particularly if the deceased has absolutely know link with argentina.

What's that hymn that goes "for those in?

Paul Rowe

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:00:31 +1300

Ummm,

I Don't Wanna See You Again by the Doublehappys.

Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment by The Ramones (it might just revive me)

$1,000 Wedding by Gram Parsons ("Why ain't there a funeral, if you're gonna act that way.")

As for last words? "Gosh, what a lot of elephants..."

ShaunP

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:07:56 +1300

So Many good'uns here
for me it would have to be High Plains Drifter – Beastie Boys
Another Travellin Song – Bright Eyes
and Eric the half a Bee – Monty Python

Keeps 'em guessing right?

LegBreak

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:09:27 +1300

I know it's over, by The Smiths.

"Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head..."

Gorecki's a good idea too...

Jeremy Andrew

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:15:10 +1300

Of course as someone, probably Woody Allen, said, I don't want to acheive immortality through my works, I want to acheive immortality by not dying.

But failing that...

Straitjacket Fits – Down in Splendour
– cause she speeds doesn't work so well for a bloke
Joe Satriani – Always With?

RiverHowe

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:22:52 +1300

I get fed up with mournful funerals and want mine to be a fun affair with laughter, dancing etc. a celebration of who I was and that everyone there is still alive. So having looked through my favourite dance music selection I just have to have

Its Time to Burn?

Craig Ranapia

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:39:16 +1300

"Adigio in G Minor" Abaloine (sp)
Think Platoon and Gallipoli and if you listen really carefully one scene in rollerball!

I think you mean Samuel Barber's 'Adagio for Strings' which was used to rather sinister/sentimental effect in David Lynch's 'The Elephant Man' but which is something of a cliche of?

TroyHoward

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:44:22 +1300

hmmm... last words also?..

"Oh my Chaffing Buttocks! Where's My Elephant?"

Craig Ranapia

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:51:35 +1300

But now I think of it, if you're looking for funerial Barber, you could do a lot worse than his setting for soprano of extracts from James Agee's prose poem t__Knoxville: Summer 1915.

The last section is heartbreaking, and both text and music are deceptively simple.

__By some chance, here?

Tristan

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:55:06 +1300

This is very strange

There is this entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_(Albinoni)

And this entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagio_for_Strings

with no refrence to each other..

The second is the most famed version but the first i think is closer to the orgrinal.

and yes you are right it's over used, although when i first listened to?

Richard Llewellyn

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 14:04:43 +1300

I'm with Jeremy, hard to go past the Fits 'Down in Splendour'.

Or REM 'Fall on Me"

Or Primal Scream, 'Moving on Up' – preferably with a full Harlem Gospel choir in attendance.

Chris Chambers

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 14:07:00 +1300

Talking Heads choice to put the situation into perspective is:

City of Dreams
"Here where you are standing
Dinosaurs did a dance..."

Of course the original BD version of Heaven helps one not slip into getting too spiritual "..it's hard to imagine, that – nothing at all, could be so?

Tristan

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 14:15:32 +1300

argghh i have found i have both adagio in G Minor and Adagio for strings and they are diffrent, I guess in my young head i merged the two and have never seperated the two

to be fair though they do sound close to one another and they both have?

Dave Waugh

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 14:53:12 +1300

Given my life (so far) it would have to be either Monkey Gone to Heaven or Where is my mind by the Pixies.

Cass Hesom-Williams

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 15:15:16 +1300

The Beach Boys' "You're So Good To Me" always breaks my heart (in a good way) for some reason. Those in the pews who aren't affected in this way can get up and shimmy in the aisles instead.

Hayden Judd

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 15:36:31 +1300

The fact that I am just about to see the fruit of my loins bought into this world I'm thinking of something for them to hear, and undoubtedly has to be Fleetwood Mac and "Don't Stop".

Peter Darlington

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:33:24 +1300

Oh Yeah, Crass would be good too.

"Don't believe in Jesus
Don't believe in God
I won't go to Heaven
I don't give a sod!"

That's beautiful man.
*sniffs*

mark baker

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:34:11 +1300

Hmmm.

Lots of music, which would model off what we did for my Mum ten years ago (though of course the music wasn't thie same as this...)

The obvious:

Live, Lightning crashes (creates sombre mood)
Crowded House, Four Seasons in one day (makes people reflective about their own lives)
REM,?

mic weevil

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:55:56 +1300

"asylum escape songs" by Renee Louise Carafice

Nick Howells

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:59:52 +1300

Someone else mentioned what I've always fancied – 'Mothership Connection'..
Either that or some piece of epic electronic space opera soundtrack by M83 (ideally as my coffin is blasted into space).

Kim Griggs

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:03:27 +1300

Talking Heads' "Road to Nowhere". My (many) religious rellies would be outraged ............"but it's all right"

And for the weepy bit, I'd like someone to read 'Heaven' by Brian Turner

Leopold Bloom

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:10:01 +1300

When I die, bury me with my boots on
And my blig black Steson hat
And dollar piece on my watch chain
To show the gang I died standing pat.
Six gamblers to carry my coffin
Six chorus girls to sing me along
And stick a jazzband on the hearse?

Stuart Coats

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:23:48 +1300

I would get someone to recite the lyrics to "The Gambler":

The gambler he broke even but in his final words I found an ace that I could keep

And then the entire congregation would recite the chorus back.

Then I'd get Peter Sledmere to recite the whole of 2?

Jackie Clark

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:46:48 +1300

What an erudite crowd! Hmm, I wonder if I'm going to turn into one of those old ladies who goes to peoples' funerals even when they don't know them. Oh, hang on. I smoke, so I won't make old bones. In that case, let's have "the otherside" by Breaks Co-op.?

stephen walker

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:47:10 +1300

The Birthday Party?
has to be Sonny's Burning
(Hands up who wants to die!!!)
Nick is a funural natural.

reece palmer

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:51:51 +1300

Matches (a drinking game) from either end of the hole, either that or the could roast marshmallows over the crematorium.

reece palmer

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:52:21 +1300

I'll be dead so I really don't give a toss.

Carl Hayes

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 19:58:18 +1300

The Flaming lips "Fibre Optic Jesus" song wouldnt go astray...

"Thank you Jack White for that FIIIBBBRRREE OOPPTIC JEESUS THAT YA GAVE ME..."

Lindsay Vette

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:56:18 +1300

For me:

Neil Young – Cinnamon Girl
Rolling Stones – Love in Vain
Beatles – While my Guitar Gently Weeps

Not that I expect such a thing at my funeral, but I attended a really uplifting funeral (strange to say but it was) this year after a wonderful elderly aunt?

Jackie Clark

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:30:34 +1300

What a fine Aunt, Lindsay. So glad she had a lovely send-off.

Muriel Lockheed

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:58:01 +1300

Always look on the bright side of life – Monty Python

hamishm

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 22:17:02 +1300

A song that encapsulates a lot of how I look and at life and is one of my favourites so manages to be veyr germaine whilst also too too appropriate "Goin' Underground" -The Jam.

Carmel B

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 22:39:08 +1300

I have stayed true to one song: Caribou by the Pixies
a fitting and beautiful lament
or celebration

or just the call of the wild

I just hope my family remember that's what I want ;-)

Kerry Annett

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 22:52:06 +1300

"Young wings can fly" by Johnny and the Attractions.
And they can play "Should I stay or should I go" by the Clash as they carry me out...

rob shearer

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 23:40:09 +1300

sympathy for the devil

Adrian Humm

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 23:52:33 +1300

Whilst working as a pall-bearer in the UK last year (I prefer the NZ way with families/friends doing it but I needed the dosh) I was told by the regulars in the top hats that the theme from The Great Escape is a popular choice.

My cheesy choice would be?

Matt Godfrey

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:29:43 +1300

Watermelon in Easter Hay – Frank Zappa

Lee Wilkinson

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 10:17:45 +1300

Shine on you crazy diamond
Ramones, I wanna be sedated
Cake, I will survive
and Im amazed no-ones added Bowies, Major Tom

Matthew Biggs

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 11:01:58 +1300

Do You Realise by the Flaming Lips is good but I'd go Feeling yourself Disintegrate." but life without death, is just impossible, oh to realise something is ending within us....feeling yourself disintegrate" For someone who's not religious it fits in nicely. Once you're dead, that's it, you're fertilizer mate.
Maybe?

Terence Wood

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 11:41:07 +1300

I reckon I'd let my firends and family choose.

Afterall, they'll be the ones listening to it – not me.

B Jones

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 12:25:39 +1300

I can't help thinking of the excruciating funeral scene in Love Actually reading some of the cheerier numbers in this topic :-)

The obvious choice for the fan boys and girls amongst us is Shore/Walsh/Lennox's Into the West. Not the Yulia version.

Russell Clarke

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 12:32:37 +1300

I would have to choose Rossini's William Tell Overture. More for the looks on the punters' faces than the tune.

Andre Alessi

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 12:51:38 +1300

I'm quite fond of Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah.

Though Tom Traubert's Blues by Tom Waits would have to be up for consideration.

Andre Alessi

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 12:53:46 +1300

"asylum escape songs" by Renee Louise Carafice

Being a friend of Renee from way back in the day, I'm pretty sure she'd be tickled pink by that.

Paul Rooney

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 15:32:52 +1300

The Joker- Steve Miller Band

kerry w

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 20:13:33 +1300

Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah for me too...followed by the Chilli's version of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground...

Tony Kennedy

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 14:06:32 +1300

"Phuck U Symphony" – Millie Jackson, my friends would get the joke.
Hope There's Someone – Antony & the Johnsons, because Antony Hegarty should be played at all funerals.

Roch Garner

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 15:35:53 +1300

"You are my light house"... By Amity Dry
great song and it really hits home when you sit and lisiten to it

you are my light house, leading me home ..........

Jose Barbosa

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 15:40:15 +1300

The Strokes – Ask Me Anything. Just to be nihilistic cause, you know, I'm angsty.

Louise Mercer

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 21:15:37 +1300

I'm going the short route so will naturally have 'All Fired Up' by Pat Benatar. Sort of fits the purpose, really!

Adrian Wills

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 07:33:55 +1300

Radiohead – Exit Music (For A Film)...

It's not so much the lyrics but the feeling that the song evokes.

Adrian Wills

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 07:35:38 +1300

Or Interpol – Untitled...

Gee now I just can't decide...

Mike Skinner

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 09:30:26 +1300

'Going Underground' by The Jam!!!

Jenny Campbell

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 12:17:37 +1300

For me – Johnny Cash with 'I Fell in to a Burning Ring of Fire'

Gregor Ronald

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 22:53:47 +1300

As a relic of the 60s & 70s;

"For a Dancer", Jackson Browne;
"Just do the steps that youve been shown
By everyone youve ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours
Anothers steps have grown
In the end there is one dance youll?

MaskedAvatar

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 06:02:31 +1300

Jesus Christ.

The "straitjacket fits" topic elsewhere has crept up on and overtaken this garden of funereal delights. Goths and Emos everywhere will be saddened by that.

I have added The Dandy Warhols' "Dick" on rotation midway through my service.

Di Mackey

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 08:27:37 +1300

I heard of a guy who had 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' play at his funeral. I kind of liked it.

antv

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 10:30:55 +1300

i see a darkness , johnny cash & bonie prince billy

Mike Skinner

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 13:10:39 +1300

My mother insisted on...and got...The Goons Ying-Tong song played at her funeral....confused a few of those in attendance!!!

Matthew Wynyard

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 16:36:06 +1300

Perhaps 'Can't you hear me knockin' or if it was gender non-specific
'Ding Dong the witch is dead' from the Wizard of Oz

Jackie Clark

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 06:23:05 +1300

My mother insisted on...and got...The Goons Ying-Tong song played at her funeral.

That's brilliant! She must have been an extraordinary character.

Matthew Reid

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 06:37:22 +1300

My vote is for Spooky – The 3d's.
I couldn't even feel you breathe
I think it's time to leave
Might be a bit literal but it's such a beautiful song.

Jon L

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:05:02 +1300

My ex wife wants "in the Mood", played very badly, on a trumpet!

Moi?......"Angel of Death"...by Slayer.....

Alec Morgan

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:23:37 +1300

Funeral ceremonies being what they are, even ?Louie Louie? would get someone blubbing so definitely go for the lighter touch as a rule.

A lengthy wake might be satisfying too. The bereaved could thus enjoy the entire contents of the departed ones ipod.

Sarah Nathan

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 23:10:07 +1300

Oh, I had this all worked out when I was 14. Everyone was to drink rum & CokeTM, wear grey and pink and listen to some rocking Elton John. Sadly, I still have the written evidence.

Now that I am much more... erm...sophisticated it will be margaritas ahoy, wall to wall?

81stcolumn

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:07:25 +1300

This had me and her in fits of giggles?

The shortlist:

Stranglers ? No More Heroes (pretentious)
Depeche Mode ? Walking in My Shoes (even worse)
Primal Scream ? Loaded (Cheesy)
Stranglers ? Hanging around (nobody would get the joke)
Wilson Pickett ? I found a love (bit gospel)
The?

Callum Valentine

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 15:04:43 +1300

Depending on the way I died, I would probably request Rage Against the Machine "Killing in the Name" or possibly their cover of Maggies Farm, something ironically brilliant in imagining a somber affair covered by Zack screaming "No I aint gunna work on Maggies farm no more!".

George Darroch

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 22:19:15 +1300

I'd like to go with TrinityRoots' – Little Things. It'd be a nice way to remember a life...

Felix Marwick

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 00:06:33 +1300

"Will the Last One to Leave Please Turn Out the Enlightenment" – TISM

It'd be like blowing a complete raspberry at a solemn occasion.

Juliet Hamill

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 03:33:57 +1300

too sad, but – Radiohead – No more laughs and no surprises.
i want them to CRY

Patrick Xavier

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 16:07:42 +1300

Crying's important. Preferably uncontrollably, and en masse. So:
Don McGlashan, This is London; Anchor Me
Dave Dobbyn, Beside You; Song of the Years (from Baxter)
Actually, thinking about it, just the last. Here's the verse (James K):

When from my mother's womb I came
Disputandum was my name
Weeping hoping?

Patrick Xavier

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 16:13:03 +1300

And guess what: the track itself is streamable here
http://www.cdkiwi.co.nz/rams/baxtertk1.ram

Maybe I could just have a wireless link from my coffin.

Peter Sledmere

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:24:29 +1300

I'm up for it. If I don't die first, of course. Maybe i could record it for you. Or maybe it's another Peter Sledmere....

Peter Sledmere

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:36:16 +1300

Then I'd get Peter Sledmere to recite the whole of 2 Out of Three Ain't Bad, and then the choir comes in with Libera Me from Faure's Requiem. Go from the ridiculous to the sublime, I say

Sorry, I forgot to put the quote inthe last post. Might make sense?

Patrick Xavier

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:28:07 +1300

Might make sense now

Yip, thanks.

Steve Barnes

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:12:49 +1300

There can only be one The Ying Tong song to see a bunch of friends trying to keep a straight face would be worth dying for. ;-)

Sofie Bribiesca

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:36:35 +1300

The hole of the moon- The Waterboys
Sprout and the bean or The book of right-On-Joanna Newsom
Elvis Presley blues – Gillian Welsh

Islander

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:37:05 +1300

Gah! No, no, no! Steve B, all my mates & a lot of family know all the words to the Ying Tong Song – and their falsettos are *really bad*-

Sofie Bribiesca

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:41:18 +1300

Neil Young- Harvest moon

Joe Wylie

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:42:00 +1300

The book of right-On-Joanna Newsom

I killed my dinner with karate
Kick 'em in the face, taste the body
Shallow work is the work that I do

Really?
Interesting funeral :)

Islander

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:45:44 +1300

And they'd all join in, especially with the explosions!

Sofie Bribiesca

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:50:29 +1300

Ok A forest -the Cure and One Love -Bob Marley, happy now, serenity now........:)

Sofie Bribiesca

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:52:07 +1300

My My Hey Hey

Sofie Bribiesca

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:55:39 +1300

Really loud. Harmonica

Islander

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:05:14 +1300

Actually, and seriously, probably "Recuerdos d'Alhambra", Segovia, solo guitar, in all it's scratchy vinyl glory – sic trasit etc. and aweful (in the original sense) music...

Sofie Bribiesca

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:05:16 +1300

Islander, I urge you (if not already) Gillian Welsh. Wonderful talent.

Islander

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:21:06 +1300

Sofie, I know of Gillian – you're right – brillant!

Sofie Bribiesca

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:30:06 +1300

Now I'm onto Ziggy Stardust. that can be at mine as well. No words, just lots of muzak. Cheers Long week, well worth it.:)

Sofie Bribiesca

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:40:42 +1300

Bit of Paul Weller.

Joe Wylie

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:03:47 +1300

For some reason I'm reminded of the story of how Laurie Anderson contacted the reclusive Thomas Pynchon with a view to creating an opera based on his magnum opus, Gravity's Rainbow. No problem, said Pynchon, on the single condition that it be scored for no other instrument than the banjo.?

Robyn Gallagher

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:03:56 +1300

Heh, I like that this thread has been brought back from the dead.

Steve Barnes

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:51:39 +1300

@ Sofie. That is not a funeral. That is a Disco.
;-)

Stephen Judd

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:20:26 +1300

I think we should acknowledge Peter Sledmere's willingness to help out.

I can't help but think that officiating at funerals might be an ideal line of work for the retiring news broadcaster. As long as it's going be a person who didn't know me, I think I'd rather have my?

dyan campbell

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:12:07 +1300

The time is... later than you think.

Heh, this reminds me of my Dad's descriptions of being a teenaged airman stationed in England during the war; in the mess the RCAF were forever playing that Con Conrad song Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)

... which always made him?

Stephen Judd

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:45:04 +1300

I heard it first via The Specials. Actually, that would be quite a good funeral song too.

steven crawford

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:55:23 +1300

Electric light orchestra. If anything unforeseen should happen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUpPlzeK7RM&feature=related

Hilary Stace

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:00:58 +1300

I can't help but think that officiating at funerals might be an ideal line of work for the retiring news broadcaster.

At my mother's funeral a couple of years ago we were fortunate to have veteran broadcaster Ian Johnstone as MC. He did it as a favour because he's my?

Kyle Matthews

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:19:25 +1300

But otherwise you would have to choose your news broadcaster pretty carefully for such an important occasion as you only get one go at it.

So wait, no Paul Henry?

"Dearly beloved we are gathered to farewell... no I have to say it. Look at the moustache on that corpse!?

Sacha

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:30:46 +1300

Heh. With mortified Aunt Ali on the front pew making gestures at him to shut up..

Islander

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:50:16 +1300

While some distraught grandson rushes up "That's my RAF grand-dad you fuckwit!"

Joe Wylie

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:16:38 +1300

. . . stick to the script and not ad lib, wink, smirk, or make smart asides to the funeral director.

Which, rather horribly, does happen, with both "professional" celebrants and clergy. As Hilary says, you only get one go at it, and unlike most social cringes, the funeral variety?

Sacha

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:25:17 +1300

That's my RAF grand-dad

All about the trousers..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwNQf08Kxsw&feature=PlayList&p=3F002CF99B9C37CC&index=0

Islander

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:42:51 +1300

Sacha- heh!
(I had an RAF greatuncle, and my father was a RNZAF supply sergeant.)

Sacha

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:38:45 +1300

Aha – a military brat. :)

Islander

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 02:26:43 +1300

Sort of, Sacha – we grew up with a lot of militaria stuff, including the behaviours and the ethos, all around(I was born in 1947)but most of family service people had been demobbed by the time I came to be alive. By the time my youngest sibs (I'm oldest of?

Jackie Clark

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 05:53:10 +1300

Electric light orchestra. If anything unforeseen should happen.

70's ELO? Right on.

dyan campbell

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:40:43 +1300

Thanks for posting that Sacha, I had relatives in the RCAF during the war – my Dad was a navigator on the bombers, my Mum was a wireless operator, and my uncle Kenneth was a wing commander. I will pass the sketch on to my Dad (the only one still?

Danielle

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:18:04 +1300

70's ELO? Right on.

ELO: underrated. I don't care how much everyone hates Jeff Lynne.

I have funeral music issues. I can't work out whether I'd want 'songs I think are awesome, which I am forcing everyone to listen to, no matter how inappropriate' or 'beautiful songs which would fit?

Sacha

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:54:51 +1300

Dyan, your Dad might also need to know what a chav is to get the other half of the joke.

Isabel Hitchings

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:29:21 +1300

Danielle- I think there's a middle ground of "this awesome song helped me through some tough times – maybe it can do the same for you." which is worth striving for.

dyan campbell

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:14:11 +1300

Dyan, your Dad might also need to know what a chav is to get the other half of the joke.

Thanks for that, Sacha, he would not know what that was.

Though I think the age of the guys alone will be enough to crack him up – if you?

Geoff Lealand

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:09:47 +1300

that Con Conrad song Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)

There is a very recent version by Jolie Holland, on "The Living and the Dead" (2008). She laughs a lot.

Jeez--how long has this been going on?

dyan campbell

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:11:41 +1300

There is a very recent version by Jolie Holland, on "The Living and the Dead" (2008). She laughs a lot.
Jeez--how long has this been going on?

It used to be called "The Continental Song" and was written by Carl Sigman and lyrics by Herb Magidson, and won an academy?

dyan campbell

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:12:56 +1300

and won an academy award for best song

Oh, in 1934 I meant to say.

Joe Wylie

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 22:17:28 +1200

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7-jZR1SI5Y
Sadistic Mika Band