Well, Jeb suggested it in another thread. So, I’m blatantly stealing his idea. What song(s) do you want played at your funeral and why?

I’ll start…

For Those Who Died – Cradle Of Filth : Great song. One of the few where you can actually understand what the man is saying and it’s just a rambunctious good time.

Kiss Me, I’m Shitfaced – Dropkick Murphys : Nobody wants to be sad at a funeral. I’m a firm believer that people should be celebrating my life, not mourning my death. Seriously. I’m taking a really long nap. Get drunk. Beat merry. And kiss me. I’m shitfaced.

Now, GO!

Shit, this is hard. But I believe I’ve reduced it to the right 3 songs. (ask me again next year, I bet it would be 3 completely different ones)

1. Beastie Boys – Girls: Well, if there’s a thing more important than girls – I missed it. I can see the smiles forming on the faces of my friends. Yes, I believe they would even dance a bit :)
2. Lordi – Hard Rock Hallelujah: The hell was invented to make people nice and sweet. Guess it didn’t work on me. Rock on, mothafucka!
3. Queen – Crazy Little Thing Called Love: Love kicks ass. That’s all you need to know, now you drink yourselves to death. I’ve obviously beat you to it.

All 3 songs simple. And well known. Everyone who nkows me will understand. I don’t wan’t people using their brains. It’s not a lecture on my philosophy, it’s my last party, so better make it fucking great!

At the risk of sounding glib… how about Another One Bites The Dust or Going Underground.

For cremations, Disco Inferno.

Hargh hargh.

Having always firmly believed in no after life, if I’m wrong I’ll owe an apology to a lot of people.
So, “Ït’ll Be Me”

Well, if you hear somebody knockin’ on your door
If you see something crawlin’ across the floor
Baby, it’ll be me, and I’ll be lookin’ for you

1. “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead” (Wizard of Oz)
2. “Spirit in the Sky” (Greenbaum)
3. “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive” (Hank Williams)

I’d also like to be rigged to a pulley so I can wave goodbye to everyone. :P

At my brother’s funeral last year, Freebird was played at the end. It was moving and extremely uncomfortable for anyone over fifty in the church. The song does go on for quite a long time.

I want lots of tear-jerking country songs played, and I want everyone to bawl enormous, insincere buckets. The general consensus needs to be that I was misunderstood and really a great guy.

Then the Indian kid, whom I sponsor for the price of a Venti at Starbucks a month, needs to make an emotional appearance. He should sing something simple like He’s got the Whole World in His Hands.

And then, of course, more buckets should be distributed.

I’ve never been to a funeral where they’ve played a song. I mean, there are songs, but in the form of hymns that everyone sings. Perhaps it’s just not the normally done thing in Blighty, although admittedly I’ve not exactly been to loads of funerals :/.

I guess if I did get to choose one I’d want something silly and very obscure. The theme tune to “The Flumps” springs to mind.

Yes, trismugistus! Might I commend you on both your fine name (taken from Lawrence Sterne, I believe) and your fine point.

I have never heard music at a funeral, barring hymns. It would be awkward to hear heavy metal in a room filled with mourners and family members wanting your money.

Then again, it would be worth it to spook the life out of them. I want the complete unabridged reading of Beowulf at my funeral, in the original Anglo-Saxon.

Make ‘em pay.

PS There is a haunting quality to the theme music to the Clangers. Heck… it’s almost profound.

Freebird is, I believe, played at every biker’s funeral, not that it isn’t a fantastic song. Hell, if I ever become a biker, not only will,they play Freebird on my funeral, they will also have to include Bad to the Bone. Not by ZZTop.
trismugistus, remember Andy Kaufman’s funeral in Man on the Moon? That was ubercool in my book.

Hey all! I suppose I’d want to make the situation kinda one big easter egg for all those guys in the audience who know me best, so they’d all be esoteric

“White and Nerdy” by Weird Al so all my gamer peeps know whassup.

“You Never Know” by Immortal Technique… ah, Kandi… Might be called “You Never Really Know”… can’t remember.

“Cherub Rock” By the Smashing Pumpkins… I’ll take money over honey any day of the week =)

“Mood Swing” by Asheru… Continue the struggle from beyond the grave.

Finally, “"Radical Dreamers” by Nusumenai Houseki…Only the mega-nerds who played Chrono Cross (like me) oughtta recognize it, and everyone else will think it’s just a really pretty song. BWAHAHAHAH… >_> Yeah. That’s a good mix. =)

~Poet

Do the hookey Pokey
If you are happy and you know it
Mambo Number 5
Muskrat Love
The lion sleeps tonight
El Rey
Theme music from Twilight Zone

Just a partial list

SH- your funeral will be like a birthday party at a skating rink :) There are worse ways to go out.

A good friend’s viewing/funeral was comprised of all Johnny Cash. I think I heard Ring of FIre three times before I left. It didn’t do it for me, but it wasn’t my event. Still strikes me, though, when I head that song I immediately think of her.

That was probably the point, dear.

I don’t want a funeral. I want to be buried in a field somewhere with a tree planted on top of me. My friends and family can listen to whatever music they want while they’re doing that.

But if I HAD to have a funeral, I’d have “We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place” by the Animals.

Incidentally you musos you, my husband found a very excellent internet based music site called www.last.fm Once you download it, you pick an artist you like and it will play you a succession of similar artists. If you like any tracks, you click on “Love” and it saves them to a playlist allowing you to build you own radio station. It’s cool. Under ‘music likes’ I typed in The Prodigy and Ella Fitzgerald and it found a series of excellent jazz remixes. Have a look…

last.fm is sooo last year, girlfriend!
No, really, since they redesigned it, it sucks much more (the old design was supersweet). And the “similarity” feature is one of the saddest things I have ever had the misfortune of seeing. It’s like freaking robots designed it, not music-listening people.
I actually like the Yahoo radio. It has a terrible, terrible design, crapload of infomercials and a few bugs, but has the revolutionary option of “never play this song/artist/album AGAIN”. Click. Goodbye forever Kaiser Chiefs. Bwahahahhaa!

What if I were to give a banquet before the eulogies and all other crap at my funeral – all meals with beans. And install microphones in the seats (preferably a chapel). Imagine the farticularity of THAT music. MTV kids would eat it up!

Hey, go for variation. Record a few belches as well.
Or give them all food poisoning and get some really varied sounds.

playlist.com

Choose your own music. Searches the internet for it. Make a playlist with up to 100 songs. Search other people’s playlists and blatantly steal their music choices.

I have one playlist that has everything from Cradle Of Filth to GnR to Beethoven.

Because llamas are just that cool.

I want “Powerhouse” by Raymond Scott played while I’m lowered into the ground/put into the incenerator/flung from a cliff, whichever way I end up going.

I want my funeral held in the 300 year old Baptist Church at the center of the little town where I grew up. I want the church choir to sing three lovely hymns, and I want the Junior Choir to have a soloist, a young girl with a voice as pure as sunlight. Pastor Bates will lead everyone in the 23rd Psalm of David, and Evelyn Hartman will play the old pipe organ we bought from Radio City back in the 1890’s. At the end of the service, Sylvia Hendrikson will make announcements from the third pew as she has done since I was a baby. All my close friends will be up in the bell tower snorting cocaine and smoking hash, and when the crowd is leaving Billy Schwartz will hang on the rope and ring the bell, just as he did one candle light service at midnight, Christmas Eve, when we were fourteen and the snow was falling.