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CD Mix for Memorial Service

It's usually fun to make a mix CD (yes, some of us still do that), but a friend died last week and I was asked to make a mix for the service. I made it, it worked out well....but it took a lot of thought. He wasn't particularly religious, though probably more than I am, but there would be lots of people there from every end of the scale. Here's my memorial mix. What songs would you choose if you were asked to put one together?

1. Home - Kamm and MacDonald
2. Waltzin' Fool - Lyle Lovett
3. Ships - Tom Kimmel
4. Water into Wine - Rebekah Pulley
5. Bell Ringing in an Empty Sky - Kieran Kane
6. Salvation Song - Bonepony
7. Silver Wings - Rory Block
8. Angelina - Tom Faulkner
9. Have I Told You Lately - Van Morrison
10. Travelin' Star - James Taylor
11. Lonestar - Nora Jones
12. Ripples - the Grateful Dead
13. Flyin' Shoes - Lyle Lovett's version
14. Take it With Me - Tom Waits
15. Beautiful Ride - Sally Spring
16. Way Over Yonder (in the minor key) Bill Bragg
17. Safe Home - John Smith

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Permalink Reply by Daniel T on January 2, 2013 at 11:33am

Sorry for your loss that led to this Forum. Not making light of the situation , but I've always thought the opening scene from "The Big Chill" was tragic/comic when JoBeth Williams played The Stones "You Can't Always Get What You Want" on the organ at the service before the fade into the Stones LP version. That will be on the short list of tunes I hope they play at my wake.

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Permalink Reply by Lucky Mud on January 2, 2013 at 11:46am

Daniel,

If we can't make light of death we're doomed even before we go. I was a pallbearer last week, hoping I wouldn't stumble....knowing my friend would've laughed from inside. When we finally deposited him at the site I looked ahead and, on the back of the marble headstone that was next in line at the cemetery, there...chiseled in stone...was, "This is the worst thing that's every happened to me!"

God, I love the South. The last time I visited him, a few days before he died, I stopped off in Quincy, Florida, and picked up from a chicken joint something that was being advertised on the sign outside, "Low Carb Special - 10 Piece Pork Chop Bucket."

The song for my wake will be, I hope, Tom Waits' song, "Take it with me." (from Mule Variations)

'There's got to be more/ Than flesh and bone

All that you've loved/ Is all you own

In a land there's a town/ And in that town there's a house

And in that house there's a woman

And in that woman there's a heart I love

I'm gonna take it with me when I go'

Mike

(p.s.....If I used a Stones' song for my going, I'd pick Paint It Black)

I see a line of cars and they're all painted black

The flowers and my love both never to come back