What Do You Want To Be Played At Your Funeral?

[Andrew Reckhart]

What Do You Want To Be Played At Your Funeral?

I know it is sort of morbid, but hey at least it's not "Is Thile the Best"!
I've been to a few funerals recently and the music has been so awful. It got to me, and I started thinking............ "If I were in that casket, what would the last earthly tones be?" What would it be for all of the fine folks here at the Mandolin Cafe?

[Flowerpot]

My wife already knows this. I want somebody to do a nice harmony version of "Angel Band." And if somebody plays dreary organ music, I'll come back and haunt them!

[glauber]

Some kind of jam session would be nice.

[evanreilly]

Play Monroe's "The Dead March"; sing "Gathering Flowers for the Master's Bouquet".

[makoto]

How about "Happy Trails To You?" At my dad's funeral a few years ago I played recordings of "Cool Water" and "Ghost Riders in the Sky" by the Sons of the Pioneers, (his favorite). I refused to let churchy music be played but did not think of "Happy Trails" until after and it was too late. But it will be played at mine...

[recklessmando]

A medley of the biggest BG tunes of 2057 would be fine for me.

[John Flynn]

Amazing Grace. I do a very soulful version of AG on the harmonica and I have been asked to do it at multiple funerals. I think I would like for a good harmonica player to do it at mine.

[mandopete]

Yeah, this is kind of an odd question. When my father passed away a couple of years ago I wanted to have a piece of music that both rflected my thoughts and that was appropriate for the ceremony. With that in mind I chose Lone Pilgrim from Tree On The Hill by Peter Rowan & The Rowan Brothers. It's a really nice acapella tune

[Jim Gallaher]

I'd like the fiddle player in my band, Anthony VanPelt, to play "Ashokan Farewell".

Wouldn't be a dry eye in the house!

[Peter Hackman]

There was an earlier thread on that same theme.
I believe I suggested Brilliancy, because I recorded it,
and because I thought it was the prettiest tune ever, when I heard it on radio in 1960.

A very beatiful and haunting piece would be the Loneome Moonlight
Waltz, with LOTS of variations and improvisation.



But, really, it would have
to be one of my own pieces, and I know a few appropriate ones.

[Fred G]

I'm thinking "my last days here on earth" would be good. with a string quartet.

[Andrew Reckhart]

I'm thinking 'Wayfaring Stranger'.

[mad dawg]

Danny Boy on pipes, followed by the Beat Farmers' Happy Boy; the former for tradition, and the latter because it's sort of the theme song for my life (sans dog guts # ).

[Andrew Reckhart]

Maybe 'When My Time Comes To Go' really up tempo

[sgarrity]

Ashokan Farewell, Midnight on the Water and Will the Circle be Unbroken

[JimRichter]

"The Dead March" would be a great choice (as would Last Days On Earth). For me, I think I would have a solo mandolin arrangement of Evening Prayer Blues (and if Mr. Compton were still around, he'd be the guy I want to do it).

Jim

[ShaneJ]

I prefer the "Heaven" songs to the dirges. I like "This World Is Not My Home", "I'll Fly Away", "No Tears In Heaven", and such. I'd also like to have one that I wrote played. It's called "I'm Going Home". More of a soulful Gospel tune than bluegrass though.

Here's a verse & chorus....

Well I'm going to meet ol' Abraham, and Moses'll be there too.
I'll have a talk with Solomon about wisdom and the truth.
I'm gonna rub elbows with Peter and Paul and the other apostles too.
I'm gonna bask in the glory of my Lord, and I'm excited - now how 'bout you?

I'm going home one day to see my Lord up in the air.
I'm going up to the land of Heaven where there's no sorrows and no cares.
I'm gonna sing with my brothers and sisters praises to the Lord all day long.
I'm gonna see my sweet Jesus one o' these days when I go home.

[Ken Sager]

quote:
"What Do You Want To Be Played At Your Funeral?, straight up serious question"

I want a $5-10 limit Hold-em poker game played at my funeral, with a $3/hand rake to pay for the expenses of sticking me in the ground on the cheap. Two tables of 8-10 players would be nice. That might even leave a little extra to buy the pretzels.

Seriously,
Ken

[toddjoles]

I'll Fly Away, Angel Band, Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown?, and to top it off Doyle Lawson's version of Go Rest High (I believe it was written by Vince Gill)sung accappella by a quartet.

[Jim Roberts]

Before I am cremated and my ashes spread from an airplane over the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California I want to have a wake in my honor (honor?) with my best friends carrying me (shuckin' and jivin') in a homemade pine box down Main Street with John Mayhall and Eric Clapton riding on a flatbed trailer playing "Hideaway" from their Bluesbreakers albumn...

[BigJoe]

I've already told my family and my pastor that when my time comes I want a party...a real celebration. #I want picking and a good jam session and not a tear in the place. #I don't want anyone to mourn my leaving. I want them to celebrate that I had been here and am now gone to a better place. #I love the hymns and the Ashokan Farewell and Last Days on Earth, but I'm not going to be here so I don't much care what they play as long as they do. #By the time they get their mandolins and guitars and banjos and fiddles tuned I'll already be playing in the praise band in Heaven and won't much care about what's going on back here. #I look forward to that day (though I'm not anxious to leave yet ).

[bsimmers]

I want Doyle and his band to sing "There is a God." And then have a mandolin play "Go Hither to Go Yonder." And since I'm calling the shots, I'd like John Cowan to sing "Hear Jerusalem Moan"

[Rob Zamites]

Hmmmmm....

Alright, three tunes played while scattering my ashes off the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland:

• "Drowning..." by Boiled in Lead
• "Today" by Ian Moore
• "Baneasas Green Glade" by Planxty

Plus the required beer drinking fest that will celebrate my life, not mourn my death.

[kudzugypsy]

i always thought that "Further Along" would be a good one - it has a positive outlook that one day, we'll understand this thing called life - and "walk in the sunshine"

...a great version was on a rare early 70's byrds lp (their last i think) with clarence white singing the lead...ironicly he was killed that same year. it seems they sang that at his funeral....or was it gram parsons funeral...oh well.

we played a graveside service last year...."the last roundup" - it was the guy's wish.

[GVD]

If I had a choice I'd have John Prine sing Please Don't Bury Me for starters.

GVD