We can't all be as funny as the Brits, but we should all try.
Well, if not at my funeral then at the big party that I hope follows. Click links or buttons for audio and video and turn it up!
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
Too on the nose? Sure it is, but Elton John's masterpiece Goodbye Yellow Brick Road holds a distinguished place in the soundtrack of my formative years. Incense lit, we used to have seances in Mari's basement, trying earnestly to contact Marilyn Monroe between giggles, while this played on the tinny Hi-Fi. My older siblings scoffed at this album, 'too commercial' they said, but I love it still and what did my 10 year old sensibilities know of 'too commercial'?
Ashokan Farewell
Devotees of Ken Burns' The Civil War will find these soaring strings familiar. I just adore this piece of music. Jay Ungar's masterpiece is not representative of any one specific genre, as he describes it: "a Scottish lament written by a Jewish guy from the Bronx." And, if someone could read the Sullivan Ballou letter aloud and substitute whoever hasn't predeceased me for 'Sarah', feel free...
L'Enfant by Vangelis
This beautiful, haunting piece of music... it just goes right to your heart and just sets up there for good. Of course I adore this film too, The Year of Living Dangerously (Weir 1982). It reminds me of the early days of traveling in Asia in the 90s, at once exotic and elemental and the rain that comes down with a force that would shock Noah. Look for the arrow between Mel and Sigourney and press play. Here's what Roger Ebert said: "The Year of Living Dangerously achieves one of the best re-creations of an exotic locale I've ever seen in a movie. It takes us to Indonesia in the middle 1960s, a time when the Sukarno regime was shaky and the war in Vietnam was just heating up. It moves us into the life of a foreign correspondent, a radio reporter from Australia who has just arrived in Jakarta, and who thrives in an atmosphere heady with danger."
The Parting Glass
by the Wailin' Jennys. An 18th century Scottish folk song gorgeously rendered for modern audiences. These ladies are a wonder.
Just Breathe
I know Pete is close by when I hear this song.
Sitting Still Moving Still Staring Outlooking by His Name Is Alive
Cameron Crowe and wife at the time, Heart's Nancy Wilson, brilliantly scored Jerry Mcguire (1992) and put together a truly wonderful soundtrack. This small piece... I don't know... Someone please explain it to me — why it so stealthily gets inside and stills your disquiet. It's nothing short of magic.
Dark Was The Night, Cold Was the Ground
Maybe the coolest record cover ever
When the Voyager 1 probe was launched in 1977, this song went along with it. HOW COOL IS THAT. With the other music and images included on the Voyager Golden Records, we created the first intergalactic mixtape, which despite the desperate sadness of this song, reminds me of the greatness of humanity. Carl Sagan called the records: "a 'bottle in the cosmic ocean and says something very hopeful about life on this planet'. And I agree.
Debussy's Claire de Lune
Perfection needs no explanation.
And this little bit of opera...
Makes. Me. Weep. Instantly.
Forever Afternoon, Tuesday? from Days of the Future Passed, The Moody Blues
