Dying as We Live?
James Blunt Ballad Voted Most Popular at Funerals
British singer James Blunt has topped yet another musical chart, with his song Goodbye My Lover voted the most requested tune at funerals and memorial services in the U.K.
[snip]
The poll surveyed 5,000 people and, rather than unearthing a slate of dirges or elegies, turned up a list of mostly contemporary picks.
"The top 20 really shows how far we have come in terms of saying goodbye," said group founder Mark Roy, according to Reuters.
"Everyone has a favourite song that means something very special to them, often connected to a particular time and place. When the song is played, this can be a very emotive reminder of that person," he said in a statement.
The top 10 most requested songs were:
- Goodbye My Lover, James Blunt.
- Angels, Robbie Williams
- I've Had the Time of My Life, Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley
- Wind Beneath My Wings, Bette Midler
- Pie Jesu, Requiem
- Candle in the Wind, Elton John
- With or Without You, U2
- Tears from Heaven, Eric Clapton
- Every Breath You Take, The Police
- Unchained Melody, Righteous Brothers
My first response: can this possibly be true?
My second response: in England?
My third response: who exactly did they ask?
Now, let me try to make myself clear. Although I am, in many respects, an elitist, I am not (I think) a snob. I love popular entertainment, in theory and practice. Indeed, I think that much of the best art is (or was) popular entertainment. Shakespeare, to pull a name out of a hat, wrote crowd-pleasers.
I wonder, in fact, if it is possible for any work to become a "classic" if it does not have certain degree of popular appeal. (This is not to say that everything that appeals to the popular imagination has staying power. But I'm not sure staying power is possible without such appeal. C.S. Lewis wrote about this question, far more eloquently of course, in his essay A Panegyric for Dorothy L. Sayers). One of the things I think we are in desperate need of as a society is better popular entertainment. Also, I quite enjoy several of the songs on the above list.
But at a funeral? It just seems careless somehow.
I guess what bothers me about this is the attitude of "lightness" it would seem to indicate. That isn't to say that death is all mourning and weeping; I've had some of my best laughs at wakes. But so many people today are living and, it would seem, dying without a sense of dignity or tragedy or nobility or purpose or grandeur. And if you don't have those things, what does the lightness lighten?
De gustibus.
And for my own funeral? I honestly haven't given it much thought. I guess I'm going to have to go for a good old fashioned Dies Irae, just to bring a little balance to the universe.
Comments