cooltunes

Recently, a priest has come forward to complain about the use of pop music at funerals. Further, he states that there’s little religion at these services. I won’t go into the latter, but there’s a lot of online space devoted to the former.

He came down pretty hard on Tina Turner, whose Simply the Best he found particularly galling. I think most will agree that funerals are very personal, and there’s quite a mix of ages and backgrounds sitting there dressed in their good clothes in a most uncomfortable setting. At the average funeral, there is the deceased right in front for the duration. To buffer this, an appropriate selection of music is comforting and cathartic at the same time.

For my mom’s service, several pieces were picked for their sorrowful qualities. The menfolk in my family bottle up most of their emotions, and one, especially, needed to let go of some of this. At the end of the ceremony, you guessed it. The only dry eyes belonged to the guys.

I was a mess. But then I cried all through putting together the playlist, which included some of the songs in the above links. But if a person had specified that certain songs be played, however enthusiastic and supposedly out of place, then I sure think those wishes should be honored.