Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Funeral Music

Today Morgen tagged me with a meme on his blog, and I'm all excited about answering it. It's this: What five songs do you want played at your funeral?
Here were Morgen's answers...
I probably shouldn't admit it but I had a lot of fun coming up with my list. (Even though my computer kept freezing up when I tried to search for lyrics).
I have all these on CD, and spent a few tearful moments listening to a couple of them this evening...
I interpreted the term "songs" loosely, as one of my selections is a choral requiem, and another is completely instrumental.

(I won't include ALL the lyrics for EACH song, but I will include a link so you can investigate further if desired.)

Here we go:

1) AT MY FUNERAL (by the Crash Test Dummies)
I'm still young, but I know my days are numbered
1234567 and so on
But a time will come when these numbers have all ended
And all I've ever seen will be forgotten

Won't you come
To my funeral when my days are done
Life's not long
And so I hope when I am finally dead and gone
That you'll gather round when I am lowered into the ground

When my coffin is sealed and I'm safely 6 feet under
Perhaps my friends will see fit then to judge me
Oh when they pause to consider all my blunders
I hope they won't be too quick to begrudge me

Won't you come
To my funeral when my days are done
Life's not long
And so I hope when I am finally dead and gone
That you'll gather round when I am lowered into the ground

If I should die before I wake up
I pray that the Lord my soul will take but
My body, my body - that's your job

Well I can't be sure where I'm headed after death
To heaven, hell, or beyond to that Great Vast
But if I can I would like to meet my Maker
There's one or two things I'd sure like to ask

Won't you come
To my funeral when my days are done
Life's not long
And so I hope when I am finally dead and gone
That you'll gather round when I am lowered into the ground


2) KEEP ME FROM THE COLD (by Curtis Stigers)
I have wandered through the mountains
I have searched the streets below
But all I ever really wanted
Was someone to need me
And keep me from the cold


3) EMPTY CHAIRS AT EMPTY TABLES (from the Les Miserables soundtrack)
There's a grief that can't be spoken,
There's a pain goes on and on.
Empty chairs at empty tables,
now my friends are dead and gone.

Here they talked of revolution,
here it was they lit the flame,
here they sang about tomorrow
and tomorrow never came.

From the table in the corner,
They could see a world reborn,
And they rose with voices ringing,
And I can hear them now;
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On the lonely barricade, at dawn.

Oh my friends, my friends forgive me
That I live and you are gone
There's a grief that can't be spoken,
There's a pain goes on and on...

Phantom faces at the window,
Phantom shadows on the floor,
Empty chairs at empty tables
where my friends will meet no more.

Oh my friends, my friends don't ask me
what your sacrifice was for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friend will sing no more.

4) LACRIMOSA (from the Mozart Requiem)

5) ADAGIO FOR STRINGS (by Samuel Barber)


Morgen tells me I'm supposed to "tag" someone now, someone who gets to try this next, so I guess I'll try tagging Dr. Benton Quest.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, Empty Chairs from LesMiz is great!
You'd have to play the instrumental pieces for me.
Don't forget: you're my memorial service DJ -- I hope you copied down my 5 songs!
After those 5, feel free to put in the Priscilla Queen Of The Desert Soundtrack -- you know people are gonna need some pick me up after my 5 songs!

And you didn't tag anyone!!!!
That's half the fun of a meme!

Janna said...

Morgen: Yes, I printed out your list, just like you asked!
And I tagged Dr. Benton Quest.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for printing my list!
Did you let Dr Quest know that he was tagged?

Speaking of Tagged, since you did such an awesome job with the funeral music meme, I've tagged you AGAIN for my new Halloween-Theme Meme!

Boo!

ps, don't forget to tag at least one person when you've completed this one!!!
Have fun ~ mo the creepy scary ho mo

Anonymous said...

Hey Janna, the party is on for Friday. Fritz said the more the merrier. He said that it might start around 5 or 6..but I can't get there till like 10:30ish. I don't know if everything will still be going on by then..but we'll see.