Thursday, November 13, 2008

I'm gone, man. Solid gone.

This may be a morbid post but what the hell. I've been working on a list of songs that I'd like played at my funeral. I'm still young and (hopefully) that day is far, far away but I think it's a good idea to do something like that while one is young and lucid. Or as lucid as I can get.

At one point this list grew to over a hundred songs. Unless the funeral turns out to be an all day affair that's obviously way too many tunes. I think 20 is a nice number. That's roughly an hour of music.

One way of thinking that really helped narrow it down was to pull out songs that I had on the list because I simply liked and keep the songs that more told a story about me. In that sense the songs run from my childhood until now. This is sort of the soundtrack of my life.

I would love to see you guys take a stab at your own soundtrack. Let me know if you do.

1) "The Bear Necessities," Phil Harris - The earliest song I remember loving. I had a toy record player and this on a 45 and I would play this, sing along and dance around my room for hours. My parents must of loved that.

2) "I Don't Want To Be The Lone Ranger", unknown - I have no idea where we got this song but my mom dressed my brother and me up like the Lone Ranger and Tonto and we lip-synced this tune for a talent show.

3) "Star Wars," John Williams - My folks rented a van and took me and my friends to wait an hour and a half in line to see the first Star Wars movie. From the moment this theme started and the title march scrolled it was an out-of-body experience that led to a lifetime love of film.

4) "Star Trek," Alexander Courage - I would watch reruns of this show when I got home from school. It burned into my psyche.

5) "Every Little Thing She Do Is Magic," The Police - In my grade school class everybody had a favorite band. Mine was The Police. I liked the reggae/ punk fusion and Sting's raspy voice.

6) "Great Balls of Fire," Jerry Lee Lewis - I started to appreciate that there was cool older music. This song stuck out because I remember loving to sing the part that goes "kiss me baby, Mmmmmmm, feels good."

7) "The Last Time," The Rolling Stones - So many great Stones tunes but this older one is one of my favorites.

8) "Goonies R' Good Enough," Cindy Lauper - I'm not going to apologize for this song. This movie has a soft spot in my heart then and now.

9) "Raider's March," John Williams - Friends dragged me to see this film. It looked way to commercial for me. I wound up loving it.

10) "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me," Culture Club - I don't even like this song but when I hear it I have flashbacks to making out with some pretty girl in my old VW Rabbit.

11) "El Shaddai," Amy Grant - Laugh if you want but for a time I had serious intentions of being a priest. I think being in love with Amy Grant might have had something to do with it. Teenagers aren't known for their clarity of thought.

12) "Pachabel's Canon," Pachabel - If there's a more perfect piece of music I haven't heard it.

13) "We Got The Beat," Go Gos - Loved the Go Gos and loved dancing to the Go Gos.

14) "Mighty Oregon," unknown - University of Oregon was probably the best time of my life.

15) "Otis Redding Live At Montrey Pops Festival," Otis Redding - Technically more than one song so sue me. I vividly remember listening to this in a college dorm room the first time I smoked a blunt.

16) "No Woman, No Cry," Bob Marley - The first time I heard this song I took it to mean if you don't have a woman in your life you won't be shedding any tears. Only later did I realize he was trying to comfort his wife in the song. I like my interpretation better.

17) "Groovy Kind Of Love," Phil Collins - Our song so shut up. :-)

18) "La Valse D'Amelie," Yann Tiersen - This movie is too wonderful to describe. You either live your life alone or you share your life with others.

19) "Mosh," Eminem - I really thought we the kids would save us from Bush in 2004. They did. Just a couple of years later is all.

20) "Everlong," Foo Fighters - The acoustic version of this song gets to what it means to love someone. "Breathe out, so I can breathe you in. Hold you in."

19 comments:

Randal Graves said...

Since it's for our funeral, do we get to choose who we stab?

Oh, you didn't mean an actual stabbing. Groovy idea, I'll have to give this some thought.

I'd make fun of you for the Phil Collins song, but I don't want to you stab me like Conan. ;-)

Dean Wormer said...

Randal-

You can stab anybody you want. Personally I think stabbing them in the back works the best.

I would doubt you list would have Phil Collins anywhere near. Probably a bunch of death metal with the softest tune being some Van Halen ditty from the 80s.

Just a guess... :-)

Fran said...

Goddam you are good. This is an excellent "last stop playlist." I like it.

That said, do stay put for awhile. I have developed a certain fondness for you.

Tee hee.

BTW, I have many thoughts about the all the recent hubub that you mentioned in your comment at my blog.

Posts will follow. So stay alive!!

Dean Wormer said...

Fran-

Shucks. Thanks. I'm not going anywhere even though my bickering teenage daughters might kill me through stress.

I'll be checking your blog with baited breath (I really should have brushed my teeth today.)

I'm finding myself a bit stunned at how much homophobia exists, even among so called progressives.

Dean.

Lockwood said...

I'd never really thought about putting together a list, but one song I've known I wanted played at my funeral for the last 20 years is The Whole of The Moon, by The Waterboys. The thing that appeals to me so much about this song is its clarity along with an odd ambiguity: we all see others as having it easy and being insightful and successful. They see us the same way. So who is the song being sung for, or about? Why, each and every one of us. Its beauty and passion don't hurt either. I think I'm going to go post this right now.

And, in the immortal words of Monty Python (which one was he, anyway), I'm not dead yet.

Anonymous said...

A very nice list that sums you up quite well. (And that's a good thing.)

Don Snabulus said...

I hope we die when we are in our 90s with machine guns in our hands blowing the crap out of something evil together. Maybe by then I will have a song list put together.

Dean Wormer said...

lockwood-

That's really beautiful. When it comes to life the grass is always greener.

And, in the immortal words of Monty Python (which one was he, anyway), I'm not dead yet.

I the other hand: "this is an ex-parrot."

aaron-

Thanks, bud. I would've put up a song from a Christmas Carol because my co-star in that play was pretty damned good but it didn't have any music that I could remember.

don-

I like your thinking. We could go out Ash style killing Deadites with shotguns.

Spirula said...

Hard subject for me. Mid 50's with kids about to enter college. It's a bit too real I suppose.

I think I might want this or maybe this. But I definitely want this. It just makes me happy.

Spirula said...

(Okay. Some nano-god decided that my second link should become the third. The third link was Echo and the Bunneymen "Bring on the Dancing Horses".

I will dance on the graves of the quantum gods. I swear I will. I'm that pissed.

Dr. Zaius said...

I love the "The Bear Necessities"!

pissed off patricia said...

Funny, I just read Randal's list and didn't know most of them. Your's is more my style.

okjimm said...

Boy &Howdy.... I had this done years ago....

Ry Cooder
'I Think It's Going to Work Out Fine '

from the album 'Bop till you Drop'

...still makes me cry.

Dean Wormer said...

spirula-

Love me the Foo Fighters. Great choices.

zaius-

Me too.

Pop-

Thanks. I whittled it down to these few.

okjimm-

I don't know that song but I'm going to listen to it today. I assume it's on Youtube.

BAC said...

It's going to be a long service ... I'd better bring a snack ...


BAC

ps: what am I thinking ... I'll be checking out way before you!

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