Songs to Play at my Funeral

I want to start by setting the scene of where I am tonight, both physically and mentally. Heather is traveling this week and as much as I will miss her and given the extravert that I am comfortable being, believe it or not, I tend to enjoy the solitude of being home with no one around. It gives my creative side time to open up and explore options. Do I play my guitar louder than I normally would if she (or others) were around? Do I try to write some poetry or lyrics and get into that creative space? Do I plug in a mic and try to find my voice in a song that in my insecure way asks the question “how does this sound if others were listening?”. The answer tonight was to listen to my back “catalog” of music and decide which ones to share with my friends and family on this blog. I came across some cover songs where I had fun not trying to write something original or clever with regards to music or lyrics.

The first song is a Carpenters song and if you don’t know it (I’m looking at you Hailey and Hannah and anyone else looking over your shoulder in your age bracket) it is a cheezy song from the 70’s by a very prolific brother and sister duo, The Carpenters. What I am proudest of with this song is I just sat down, loaded the sheet music (tab) and hit record, so this is the first try and first version of the song I attempted. I am happy with my vocals on this one as they are a bit more emotive (as I tend to be more monotone in my delivery. A skill I am not happy with). I like the tremolo of the guitar that reverbs from ear to ear if you are listening on headphones as you should be (just an amp effect, nothing more) and it occurred to me tonight that this is a song from the perspective of a girl talking to a boy. I kept it as is, because frankly I didn’t think or care about that. I just think it was a simple, sweet melody and easy to play and sing on guitar. I’d like to think that is the progressive in me that didn’t notice that till tonight. I also like the musical breaks and vocal Ah Ah Ah’s starting at 2:03 into the song.

The next one is Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton. A simple, beautiful love song and one that Heather always mistakes for You Are So Beautiful by Joe Cocker. A song that I deemed “our song” one night when the moon was shining just right and the stars were aligned, but then six months later completely forgot I made that declaration when it came on again and Heather looked at me with a look like, “huh, our song, right….?” and I looked at her like, “What are you looking at?” A moment I will never forget or live down. But I digress. This is another song with a simple chord structure and one I wasn’t afraid to sing into a mic. I wish the mix was a little better, as I tried to blend higher vocals with lower range vocals. I think it still works and am comfortable sharing this as once again, I have no aspirations to do this professionally.