Intro outro
I cannot, in all conscience, leave Louise at Sentiment Farewells lying around as a footnote in a yesterday’s blog. The four playlists she has put together, music for the soul, she calls them, constitute a brilliant resource for the bereaved and also for funeral celebrants. Do go over to her blog and see what she’s […]
One for the music buffs
This was played at the end of the funeral of Carl ‘Fat Boy’ Williams last Friday. I’ve not heard it used at a funeral before, but isn’t it rather good? Celebrants out there, you might like to add this to the songs you recommend to your clients. Just don’t necessarily tell em about Carl — […]
Simon Smith’s way-out playlist
It’s got to be a baby boomer thing, has it, this new wave of funeral directors whose most distinguishing characteristic is that they are nothing like (old school) funeral directors? Not necessarily. I can think of some who have not come fresh to funeral directing in middle age. This is not exclusively a counter-culture thing. […]
Attitudes to undertakers
There’s a very interesting blog developing over at Funerary Ramblings. If you’ve not been there, pop across. Today’s ramblings take an amble through attitudes to undertakers. It’s very good. So here’s to you, Funerary Rambler. You’ve probably not come across our Jake Thackray. Here are the words: I am a grave-digger, a […]
My Way sucks? No, it KILLS!
I am indebted to Pat McNally for this. And while I might have added it to my post about My Way, I feel it’s too good to bury. Over in the Philippines, it seems, karaoke is a popular pastime. According to the New York Times, after a hard day’s work, there’s nothing a weary […]
Worst funeral songs #1 – My Way
There was a little light larking at the Dead Interesting blog last week as we debated best funeral songs for atheists. Off the tops of our heads we came up with You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere – Bob Dylan, No God – Darkest Hour, Heaven is a Place on Earth – Belinda Carlisle, and, from Rupert, […]
Singers for Funerals
From their press release: Singers for Funerals is the brainchild of two professional opera singers, mezzo soprano Kirsty Young and soprano Toni Nunn. Both have performer with professional opera companies across the UK and beyond, including Kirsty’s own company, Hatstand Opera. Between them, the two ladies have sung in over 600 venues in the […]
WHEN I’M 64 – music for Babyboomer Funerals
Simon Smith of green fuse contemporary funerals had a piece published in October’s Funeral Service Journal, the undertakers’ trade journal, which, I feared, had something of a flower of the desert about it. Despite the best efforts of its excellent editor, Brian Parsons, funeral directors are not great readers, nor are they great writers. I […]
Got that summer’s over feeling? Grieve it.
Do the waning of days and the coming of autumn make you come over elegiac? It probably depends on the length and sunniness of the summer. If it was brief and wet, that first nip in the air leaves you feeling cheated. But if the summer was long and glorious, the coming of autumn feels […]
Exit strategy
This is not unusual these days: you see someone entranced by a song and when it’s done they say fervently, “I want that played at my funeral.” You’ve done it, too? When you’ve done it once it becomes a habit. Sometimes a new song displaces an old one. Sometimes you want it played as well. […]
