off topic.
our own tokyo terri has a great post over at kos. give it a read.
sane people are so needed at every level of this process
http://www.dailykos.com/story/20...1162/526/
498839
Off the top of my head, how about "Closing Time" by Leonard Cohen? 
"Anthem" by LC would be good, too.
On my gravestone, I would like this piece of James Douglas Morrison's poetry
[when he was writing poetry rather than singing, he preferred his full name]:
"Death makes angels of us all and gives us wings where we had shoulders smooth as ravens' claws"
John Renborne's My Johnny Was a Shoemaker" which is an instrumental piece and the most beautiful piece of music I've ever heard (keep in mind I have no memory and am tone-deaf).
and maybe Suzanne.
Not that I really care, since I won't hear it....
Ripple
i'm going for the outdoor version too jesse. a scaffold, high in the white mountains. no embalming, no dirt nap. i figure buzzards gotta right to eat, same as worms.
By their presence and who they are, Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama jumpstart conversations that we have needed to bring to the surface in America, to look at carefully and with compassion and speaking truth to each other. At our best, this is what Democrats do.
that's a lifting from terri's post. it's beautiful. i was inspired to finally register over at Kos (all that big blog stuff usually tends to give me a rash so i refrained) but they are already boring me with the amount of hoops i have to jump through, along with the "cooling off" period. i mean, christ markos, i'm leaving a comment on a bleeding blog, not buying a pistol.
The Clash, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"
Of course....
Also side one of *Exile on Main St*, especially "Rocks Off"
Hmm - my immediate impulse is to say "Dumb All Over" by Frank Zappa.
But since I don't wish to have either a funeral or a memorial service, it's a facetious reply anyway.
Probably because as Uncle Frankie himself said, I don't actually care if I'm remembered after I die. "It doesn't matter." He said a lot of very smart things, & I think that was one of the smartest ... because if you're enough of a straight-shooter, you don't need to fret over your legacy.
You weren't here before.
Now you are.
Later on you won't be.
Enjoy it while you can.
Minstrel--thanx for reminding me I have "American Beauty". I just added it to my PC's music files.
I want a choir to sing "A River in Judea" and "Remembrance", and a classical guitarist to play "Angelus" by Castlenuovo-Tedesco and the slow movement from Vivaldi's famous guitar concerto.
I don't ask for too much! But I also want to be cremated and my ashes scattered on Mount Diablo in California. That mountain was my adversary, my friend and my teacher.
And the last music I want to hear is Schubert's String Quintet. He wrote it when he knew he was on death's door.
Wrote an organ arrangement of Sir John Goss' "These are they which follow the Lamb" for my Mother-in-Law's funeral. When I go,......... I'm going with that.
Mintrel Hussein Boy - Like Edward Abby. Also, Ripple is one of the top two spiritual songs for me. I posted about it here...
http://myrtlejune.blogspot.com/2...le-
highway.html
Elizabeth Greene's take on that song just connected to my soul. Enjoy.
I have also always wanted Van's "Into the Mystic" and an old Pete Seeger song: "To My Old Brown Earth" by Pat Humphries. I was just looking for an online version of it today for my Earth day post but no luck. Here's the lyrics:
To my old brown earth
And to my old blue sky
I'll now give these last few molecules of "I."
And you who sing,
And you who stand nearby,
I do charge you not to cry.
Guard well our human chain,
Watch well you keep it strong,
As long as sun will shine.
And this our home,
Keep pure and sweet and green,
For now I'm yours
And you are also mine.
Words and Music by Pete Seeger (195
Ashes to ashes and all that. Just some friends playing music is about all.
That was supposed to be 1958... not a smiley :-O
I too wish to be cremated...but for any memorial service, I'd have a mix CD including:
Itzhak Perlman (violin)/English Chamber Orch./Daniel Barenboim - JS Bach, Adagio from Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major (EMI recording)
Walter Kraft (organ) - JS Bach, "Great" Prelude & Fugue in C Minor, BWV 546
Virgin Fox/Heavy Organ - Bach, "Komm, susser Tod (Come, Sweet Death)" (Winterland version)
Procol Harum, "Repent Walpurgis" (version from "The Long Goodbye")
Finally, Calexico, "Stucco/Black Heart" (the most awesome song I've heard in decades, from the "Feast of Wire" CD)
Randy in Baltimore -
I too, love Bach's Prelude & Fugue in C Minor. I especially love Palestrina, especially his lesser known works, e.g.: Missa Aeterna Christi Munera - Gloria, Palestrina (the Oxford Camerata recording).
RASTAMAN CHANT:
I hear the words of the rasta man say
Babylon you throne gone down, gone down
Babylon you throne gone down
Said, I hear the words of the higher man say
Babylon you throne gone down, gone down
Babylon you throne gone down
And I hear the angel with the seven seals
Babylon your throne's gone down, gone down
Babylon you throne gone down
I say fly away home to zion, fly away home
I say fly away to zion, fly away home
One bright morning when my work is over
Man will fly away home
One bright morning when my work is over
Man will fly away home
One brlght morning when my work is over
Man will fly away home
I say fly away home to zion, fly away home
I say fly away to zion, fly away home
One bright morning when my work is over
Man will fly away home
Me, I'd love to hear any of the old 16th or 17th century Lutheran hymns. (Oh, wait, if it's my funeral, I won't be hearing anything. Hm.)
Anyhow, top of the list would be Crüger, Christ lag in Todesbanden. I found a YouTube of some dude playing it. Not the best version, but given my economic class, I'd be lucky to have it played that well when I'm full of formaldehyde and laid out on display.
And I must be buried in my hometown cemetery, near my great-grandparents.
Although, truth be told, I'm unlikely to be in any shape to complain if they just box me up and dump me in the Willamette.
I want TWO (of course). One is "Right By Your Side" by Annie Lennox. (Video here.)
The other is "Gulf Coast Highway" by Nanci Griffith. I was born within the sound of Gulf surf, and this song mirrors my parent's life as well as mine.
And when I die I say I'll
Catch some blackbird's wing
And I will fly away to heaven
Come some sweet bluebonnet spring
Either the Nanci Griffith version sung with Willie Nelson (here it's with another guy) or how Emmy Lou breaks your heart with it.
My mother died during a sweet bluebonnet spring (anniversary coming up next week). So did her mother. I think I might, too.
Using brackets[] or braces{} instead of parentheses() avoids the "cool smiley" problem.
Eva Cassidy's version of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'.
"Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla," from Das Rheingold - Wagner
"Guide Me O, Thou Great Redeemer"
"Highway to Hell" - AC/DC
"Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken"
"Siegfried's Funeral Music," from Die Goetterdaemmerung - Wagner
And my absolute signature song ...
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" - Eric Idle
No contest: Isolde Liebestod, the conclusion of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
palestrina's super flumina babylonis is one of the more exquisite motets ever. it's severly spaced open harmonies and stately moving lines (8 separate lines SSAATTBB) create an intricacy out of austere simplicity.
i am even more intimately acquainted with it today on account of i'm backing a small choir that is singing it on the harp.
the early masters like palestrina totally amaze me.
i tell folks that palestrina is required study for anyone who wants to understand harmony. if you want to grasp the work done by david crosby, a barbershop quartet, or the beefuckinggees, study palestrina. without him, there is no them.
Dixie Dregs "night vs light"
Eva Cassidy's version of "Fields of Gold."
Im Abendrot (At Sunset) from Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs sung by Jessye Norman.
Casta Diva from Norma sung by Maria Callas.
Easy choice. 'When I Get To The Border' by Richard Thompson. It's the leadoff cut on the album I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight.
http://www.richardthompson-music...matic.asp?
id=44
The Allmans' "Blue Sky"
Side 1 of Exile is too raucous. Side 4 is better. End the funeral with the last two songs, but reversed: "Soul Survivor," then "Shine a Light." What a generous message to send your mourners as they leave.
I have thought of this.
Bright Eyes - Method Acting. My generations Dylan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o...h?
v=oec0Obekqx4
There is no beginning to the story
A bookshelf sinks into the sand
And a language learned and forgot, in turn, is studied once again
It's a shocking bit of footage viewed from a shitty TV screen
You can squint at it through snowy static to make out the meaning
And keep on stretching the antennae, hoping that it will come clear
We need some reception, a higher message, just tell us what to fear Because I don't know what tomorrow brings
It is alive with such possibilities
All I know is I feel better when I sing
Burdens are lifted from me
That's my voice rising
So Michael, please keep the tape rolling
Boys keep strumming those guitars
We need a record of our failures
As we must document our love
I've sat too long in my silence
I've grown too old in my pain
To shed this skin, be born again, it starts with an ending
So thank you friends for the time we shared
My love stays with you like sunlight and air
Oh I truly wish I could keep hanging around here
My joy is covering me
Soon, I will disappear
It's not a movie, no private screening
This method acting, well, I call that living
It's like a fountain, a door has opened
We have a problem with no solution but to love and to be loved
So, I've made peace with the falling leaves
I see their same fate in my own body
But I won't be frightened when I am awoken from this dream
And returned to that which gave birth to me
Gave birth to me, gave birth to me, gave birth to me
And the story goes, and the story goes, and it goes
On and on and on and on...
Palestrina's "Super Flumina Babylonis" is one of the more exquisite motets ever. Its severely spaced open harmonies and stately moving lines (8 separate lines SSAATTBB) create an intricacy out of austere simplicity.
Here is Palestrina's Super Flumina Babylonis as sung by the award-winning Taipei Chamber Singers in 2007 at the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing.
"Pop Goes The Weasle".
And on my tombstone, I would like to have the following, written in Ye Olde English script:
"All That Trouble For Nothing!"
Permanent Revolutions by All India Radio
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjec...792632&
s=143441
Just listened to the Taipei Chamber Singers singing Super Flumina Babylonis. Am weeping. Thanks.
No one's claimed John Lennon's "Imagine," so I'll go with that; though I think Wanderer's choice of "Bright Side of Life" was pretty inspired.
here's the text
psalmus CXXVI
Super flumina Babylonis illic sedimus et flevimus,
cum recordaremur Sion.
In salicibus in medio ejus
suspendimus organa nostra:
quia illic interrogaverunt nos, qui captivos duxerunt nos,
verba cantionum;
et qui abduxerunt nos:
Hymnum cantate nobis de canticis Sion.
Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini
in terra aliena?
Si oblitus fuero tui, Jerusalem,
oblivioni detur dextera mea.
Adhæreat lingua mea faucibus meis,
si non meminero tui;
si non proposuero Jerusalem
in principio lætitiæ meæ.
Memor esto, Domine, filiorum Edom,
in die Jerusalem:
qui dicunt: Exinanite, exinanite
usque ad fundamentum in ea.
Filia Babylonis misera! beatus qui retribuet tibi
retributionem tuam quam retribuisti nobis.
Beatus qui tenebit,
et allidet parvulos tuos ad petram.
I've always thought I would want a Jazz funeral - with the band playing the sad music before the funeral, and the celebratory music on leaving.
For my funeral, it's a tossup between Long Shadow or Burning Lights, both by Joe Strummer. But at the bar, it needs to be Warren Zevon's The Wind, and Flogging Molly's The Seven Deadly Sins.
The Waters of March
What a Wonderful World (gotta be the Louis Armstrong version)
-- and --
Goodbye Stranger
I plan on being cremated, but if I were to have a tombstone, I know what I'd want carved on it:
"What are you looking at?"
And if anyone's kind enough to hold a wake for me, I'd like them to end it with King Oliver's Dead Man Blues.
I know it's a cliché by now, but I want the closing music from Warner Bros. cartoons played, complete with Porky Pig's "Th...th...th...that's all, folks!"
I've always thought I would want a Jazz funeral - with the band playing the sad music before the funeral, and the celebratory music on leaving.
That's what we did for my mother - she was a big fan of traditional New Orleans jazz, so we had a jazz band at her memorial service. They played "Abide with Me", "Just a Closer Walk with Thee", "Down by the Riverside" and "When the Saints Go Marching In", all favorites of Mom's. Best. Funeral. Ever.
Truckin...got my chips cashed in...
I've thought about this. I am not "cool," so no doubt people will chuckle ... but so far I want Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World," Jackson Brown's "For a Dancer," and Lennon's "Imagine" at my funeral. I have told everyone I know, including my kids, this. But of course, I'm still deciding, so it's not, you know, definitive.
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