The Final Playlist

I was thinking about funerals the other day, and I had this crazy idea. So here's how it works. What if, at your funeral, when you were being lowered into the ground, or as they're playing a slideshow of pictures of your life or something, they started playing some really crappy music? Like what if they broke out some Kenny G? I can tell you right now that I would definately not be okay with that. I mean it's not like you would mind because you would be dead, but it would certainly be a comforting thought right now if you knew they would play music you liked. Seriously folks, this stuff is important. I mean not only should it be music that you like, but it should be appropriate for the occasion, and then you want to consider the message you're going to send with the lyrics or lack thereof. So I started making a list on Monday afternoon and by 3:00 Tuesday morning I had whittled it down to 30 songs (2 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds of music). Now these were all great songs, but as I starting looking into funeral rites (wondering how I could acommodate so many songs) I began to realize that I would have to pare this number down significantly (as in under ten songs (or even less)). Another thing I realized is that the deceased doesn't really have any say in how their funeral is conducted, their family has the final say on pretty much everything. So I had to make the list actually fully appropriate for the occasion (and trust me, there were a lot of songs that definately weren't) so that there would hopefully be no objections. Some of the songs (Running To Stand Still and Heroin) are explicitely to do with drugs, there's good reason for this. Songs like Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds or Purple Haze are explicitely to do with drugs and provide a fairly unique experience because of the state in which they were written, but in essence they're condoning drugs (which I'm not cool with). However an important distinction needs to be drawn between them and songs like Running To Stand Still or Heroin (although Heroin may or may not have been written under the influence) which are written from a sobered perspective and expose the dark side of the drugs (in both of these cases, heroin). To me songs like these provide an exraordinary impetus to live and do something with your life. Whenever I finish listening to Heroin I have to get up and do something because the portrait of the wasted life displayed in it is so powerful. Now one could make the arguement that to listen to songs that are about the life well lived are even more powerful, but this particular breed of anti-drug songs are the shadow which proves the sunshine, we need both. However, if there is truly a lot of objection on the inclusion of these songs in my funeral, all the most potentially controversial songs have been included in the first category, from which songs can be taken out if absolutely necessary. So without further ado, here's the actual list of 10 songs.

Anytime during funeral, reception, etc:
Matthew Good - Champions Of Nothing
The Velvet Underground - Heroin
Bob Dylan - It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
U2 - Running To Stand Still

If on a Sunday:
The Velvet Underground - Sunday Morning

Important songs (slideshow or something):
Pixies - Where Is My Mind
Kings of Leon - The Runner
Jason Wade - You Belong To Me
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were

Casket lowering:
Josh Garrels - YHWH