what's your dying song? [feat. Rachel's]
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Artist:
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Album:
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Track:Handwriting 1:50
What song plays in your head whilst you lay dying? This isn't too Poeish on a Sunday, is it? (Edgar Allan, not ~begone.) (Death is not grim, war is.) My own answer will likely keep changing, I am too much of a Libran like that, but the album tagged in this post gets me everytime. I listen and go: fuck, I want that in my head while dying.
I thought I'd start you off with track 7 of 7 in the lil red button. There just is no other way.
This expression, fills the air, is one that's so easy to find and use without meaning it. Handwriting fills the air. It's as if I am floating, orbiting. No gravity. Infinite space. By the end of track 2, 11:29, it starts to fill my lungs. I start feeling heady, euphoric, and it is is a preferable way to die. I will be following a rainbow of psychedelic colors, none of the fluorescent white light. By the end of track 6, 14:35, I am imploding. I try to stay combusting for at least another minute for the finale, the title track, but I fail sometimes.
It's true. The song Handwriting has a far lesser play count even though it is going to make you change your mind about death.
One more thing: the Digipak CD offers fragments of poetry such as --
He was saying .. "Somebody kill this pitiful night" .. then, he had a change of heart
-- and the one that killed me after I laid eyes on it --
it's not your fault it's how the air works
Fan video set to the songs All Is Calm and Handwriting
Comments (26)
Seratonin
Wikipedia - The group's work is strongly influenced by classical music, particularly inspired by the minimalist music of the late 20th century, and its composition reflects this. ... A key influence on the music of Rachel's is the music of the English composer Michael Nyman, whose music the group's work resembles in both instrumentation and compositional style.
(Btw, I love Michael Nyman, too.)
I posted a song from another Rachel's album, Selenography, here - http://mog.com/poebegone/blog/154570
Rachel's from Louisville, KY is among the best lesser-known groups to have come out of the nineties, in my humble opinion; albeit the earlier work more than the latter. The debut EP Handwriting, released in '95 out of Quarterstick, is my favorite of theirs (and an all-time favorite).
Southbound to Marion
I don't know, Ilay, I think as I lay dying I'd like to hear **Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35**
But at the services I'd like someone to play **Ripple**
I'm sittin' here in 85 degree sunshine, blue sky to kill for, a few fluffy white clouds......Sorry dear, this music ain't happenin' for me right now. How 'bout if I wait for a dark forboding rainy night?
Jeff, don't sweat it, i love fluffy white clouds and would hate to rob you of yours. i am in a dark place right now - literally, i mean, since it's late night here.
Blonde On Blonde is super awesome. i could bring only a limited number of CDs to Cambodia but i brought 4 or 5 of Dylan's. would that be Ripple as in 'Dead or Enrique Iglesias? (hah. made it up. ;p) funny, i have not thought as far as services, must be 'cause i want to be cremated.
i'm not all gray, yo! this was my wallpaper yesterday --
Thank you, it is mine now.
If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung
**Would you hear my voice come through the music?**
Would you hold it near as it were your own?
It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken
Perhaps they're better left unsung
I don't know, don't really care
Let there be songs to fill the air
(Chorus) Ripple in still water When there is no pebble tossed Nor wind to blow
Reach out your hand if your cup be empty
If your cup is full may it be again
Let it be known there is a fountain That was not made by the hands of men
**There is a road, no simple highway Between the dawn and the dark of night And if you go no one may follow That path is for your steps alone**
(Chorus)
You who choose to lead must follow
But if you fall you fall alone
If you should stand then who's to guide you? If I knew the way I would take you home
Well, ya know ilay, I really haven't thought of it to tell ya the truth(which is surprising even for me since I can be pretty morbid). Maybe I'd like "Enjoy The Silence" by Depeche or maybe just some real silence. If I'm gonna die, I'd doubt I'd want to hear music at all since it's something I listen to when I'm feeling good/decent. If I'm not feeling well, I tend to watch movies but doubt I'd do that if I were dying.
That red button song reminds me of something I'd hear in a Peter Greenaway film(you know, like 'The Cook, The Thief, The Wife & Her Lover') maybe that's why it sounds SO familiar to me. I LOVE me some Greenaway & he's quite the morbid chap.
Not heard of Rachel's, interesting music, very contemplative more than morose imho. The Seratonin song isn't working for me for some reason but was able to listen to the 3rd one.
only 1 song comes to mind. "There is a Light That Never Goes Out".
Not my real pick, but it seems the most obvious:
"Death is not grim, war is." love ya.
It would be Muse, definitely Muse. I'd love to get their melodrama into good {....?...} use. Now, the song might be changing.
Could be Time Is Running Out...
you will be the death of me
you will suck the life out of me
our time is running out
Apocalypse Now...
this is the end
of the world
and it's time we saw a miracle
come on, it's time for something biblical
to pull us through
Sing For Absolution...
Sing for absolution
I will be singing
And falling from your grace
Our wrongs remain unrectified
And our souls won't be exhumed
Map of The Problematique...
loneliness be over..
Dying should be the most lonely time in a person's life...
Take A Bow...
And burn, you will burn,
You will burn in hell, yeah you’ll burn in hell.
You’ll burn in hell, yeah you’ll burn in hell for your sins
Space Dementia, for the GLORIOUS piano alone.
The last time I gave this subject any serious consideration (must've been at least a decade), I decided to just put the whole of Roxy Music's Avalon on repeat. Course, nowadays, I seem to have a lot more melodrama to choose from :) Once again, It took my well informed contact on the oppisite side of the planet to tell me who was playing in the backyard. That's some spyscope you got...
Jeff - "Would you hear my voice come through the music?" IS all that. i love the entire lyrics, thanks for making me pay attention. and, hey, it actually says "Let there be songs to fill the air"!
Aug - "I can be pretty morbid" - that's my kinda Mogger, pretty and morbid. :} silence is good, too. maybe if i allow silence while dying, i might even hear something totally unexpected. you know, i haven't seen any Peter Greenaway - omigod, did i pass him up so many times? eek, must be rectified. yeah, Rachel's is not morose at all, i personally find it really beautiful.
Pat - kudos to you for being totally set on one song. There Is A Light... is defo one of my best songs to come out of the eighties. me, i will probably be breathing my last breath for a very, very long time just because i can't decide on my dying song, hahahah.
Matt - Hey from Doolittle is another one of my best songs ever - however, what is your real pick? i guess i was not really asking about death songs but songs you love in the way that you prefer dying to the sound of them. i guess that got lost in translation. so what is your real pick? (+
Anna - MOG muse sister loves Muse to death - everything falls into place, does it not? ;d the melodrama of Muse is just what certain occasions call for. and boy, are those fitting words, i am shortlisting Take A Bow for my funeral services! "Dying should be the most lonely time in a person's life..." - yow, if i muse over that one long enough, monsters will come out of my closet.
Scott - that's true! you are neighbors with Rachel's! (or, i'm not sure. i suck at geography.) if it turns out my dying is so last minute, i would sure have to grab an album real quick and loop it. i just hope it's nothing that would make me turn in my grave. did you make Avalon within reach by the heathens yet? i am becoming increasingly curious.
I'm with August here. Silence, Birds, trees, water.
I read (red) your meaning loud and clear, poe. Although I have, several times, felt the same way about some songs, I can't rightly recall, just now, what songs those were. In Heaven came to mind first because it reassures me of something I don't really believe in, it is conceptual, but one doesn't pick the songs they wish to die to, they realize it while listening, it is emotional, so I couldn't offer a real pick. Next time I have that sensation though, I will tell you about it here.
Yeah, Louisville is just 2 hrs SE from here, kinda surprised I never heard of Rachel's. The prob with the heathens is that if it doesn't have a fiddle or a few "Yee-haws!" smattered through it, it's as invisible as muzak :)
And Pizzolla's Milonga del Angel
Thought I posted this but it seems to have disappeared, Vivaldi's Double Concerto in G Minor, RV 531
I gotta think about this one for a spell Ilay...
I like Pat's "There is a Light..."
For me there would be several - "Corpus Christi Carol" or "Eternal Life" sung by Jeff Buckley; the other would be "What Happens When the Heart Just Stops" by The Frames.
Would it be wrong to ask the singers to change the lyrics of Danny Boy to Lizzie Girl ?!?
I would go with Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt," just to be able to try to really focus in on the moment, I mean it only happens once, I think I'd want to actually experience the finality of it. Not to be morbid, just you know, to be. I always think that Cash sounds like he's dying in this song, probably because he did it so close to his death.
As for the funeral, I'd rather not have one, but when my husband and I first listened to James Blunt's "Goodbye my lover" we both agreed we should play it during whoever dies first's funeral. I don't think there would be a dry eye in the place, it's very suitable to the occasion.
And as for Brand X mentioning The Pixies, Modest Mouse incorporates that song into their song"Workin' On Leavin' The Livin'" and we played it in Vegas at our wedding! :) It never occurred to me that it was a dark song, I guess it depends on your outlook when you listen to it.
Thanks for the post, for some reason I always find it kind of enjoyable to think about...weird I suppose.
Faure's Requiem is also on my list...
lakposhti - i especially like the rustling of leaves on windy days.
Matt - "one doesn't pick the songs they wish to die to, they realize it while listening" - you got me, i am going to need a paradigm shift.
Scott - "if it doesn't have a fiddle or a few "Yee-haws!" smattered through it, it's as invisible as muzak" - hahahahah, that certainly explains why Rachel's never floated through your window.
G, i don't think i recall any Vivaldi's from your publishing house, schloopy must've intercepted. thanks, and for the Pizzolla as well. i am looking forward to giving them a listen tonight.
Lizzieness - i am afraid that even my dead self will find Jeff Buckley sad. of course the Irishness wants The Frames and Danny Boy (i remember this to be a sad song). leave Danny to his song, sis - we'll find you a Mogger songwriter to write Lizzie Girl. (8
oh, and i remember playing my university dormmate's Faure's when i "created art" in another life.
broken girl - hey there, good choices. i think i would like Johnny Cash to be playing all devil like as i do my death march from when i follow the light through that long walk all the way to either the pearly gates or the one with lots of bones and a river.
you got wed in Vegas to the tune of Modest Mouse - for someone who enjoys thinking about death, you sure know how to have fun. (;
maybe that's why I don't mind thinking about death :)
Lakposhti, I think that listening to nature would make it harder to leave it all behind, not that I won't miss music but somehow it is at times a coping mechanism, does that make any sense?
Also, Danny Boy is a great choice! (Especially if the lyrics are altered)
Ilay...I love you. I have songs picked for a service favor but my mind is stuck lately...I can't place them at this particular moment. As for the moment of death, I'm not sure I can say either...the birds, breeze and water sounds good as our friend above mentioned.
broken girl - hahah, altered lyrics, yeah.
Helen - how ever did you get involved in picking songs for a service? i think i'd like to do something like that. oh and, i love you more. ;d