If I could really choose my talent, rather than let DNA and birth take care of it, I think I would choose to really excel at music--composition and even performance. Why? Because as good as writing can be to convey thought and vision and mood, throw in music, and it blows it open in a whole fundamental way. It's a language that hard to beat.
Maybe that's why over the years I've come across songs that feel like they could be my epitaph (at that moment, of course). The fascinating thing is how they've changed a bit over the years. But this song is one that has stuck with me for a while. Maybe I'll settle on it! (Not that I'm looking to need it any time soon.) It's Dante's Prayer by Loreena McKennitt.
Do you have musical epitaph?
Or feel free to make it an anthem! Let's hear what you've got!
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7 comments:
Quite a topic, this one! A couple songs crossed my mind immediately. None as beautiful as your choice, but it's hard to top Loreena.
My first thought for my epitaph was The Rainbow Connection. Then the Beatles popped into my head-- many possibilities there. Here Comes the Sun, perhaps. Or maybe, The Fool on the Hill. And finally of course, my greatest wish for those carrying on after me: Imagine.
Interesting thought on a day when the words of Rowling's most beautiful chapter "The Forest Again" are cycling through my brain...
Herm....probably Lost by Anouck.
Light and Day by Polyphonic Spree is my anthem! I remember still being sore from my c-section while I held my baby boy and danced with him in the living room of our wee little house. He loved it as much as I did. Then it went on to a cameo on Scrubs and exploded. This is the recording we have and my favorite, but if you do a search for it you'll pull up a gajillion different versions because the group has such an organic approach to music and composition.
For epitath, I can't venture a guess.
Here is the lyric:
"The son of a bitch had a life and he lived it"
No one has written the music for it yet.
Jason, what a topic, and so insightful! I've been picking out songs for my epitaph since I was a kid, LOL!
Loreena McKennit's music, all of it, are hauntingly beautiful and this one's no exception. Wierd that friends and I were talking about Dante's Inferno Friday night and it gave me the chills to hear this two days later.
My epitaph, since I've been a kid? "Skyline Pigeon" by Elton. Still makes me cry and be uplifted both at the same time.
jas
Skyline Pigeon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy6wntFzE-c
my choice of epitaph/prayer would probably be a Hungarian folk song. we have thousands of them for different occassions.
on a side note: lately i've done translating King Crimson's Epitaph.
When the River Meets the Sea, performed by John Denver & the Muppets. It's the certainty that all those questions in life will be answered, sooner or later...
And then there's this snippet from Browning:
...I was ever a fighter, so
One fight more, the best and the last!
I would hate that Death bandaged my eyes, and forebore
And bade me creep past...
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