Day 24 – A Song You Want Played At Your Funeral
“Mull Of Kintyre” – Wings
I like the bagpipes, and I am not ashamed to admit it. This is one of the songs I was considering for day 4, but decided to hold it back for today. When I die, I hope the funeral will be short, but the wake itself would rage on into the night in proper Irish style. I’d like there to be a good mix of traditional Irish & Scots folk music, as well as some decent punk rock songs mixed in. Surprisingly, the energy is very similar. Just look at The Pogues.
And yeah, I’d like that band played as well.
So why “Mull Of Kintyre”? First is it feeds my affection for the bagpipes. It’s a melancholy song about going home, which is a sentiment appropriate for a funeral. Lastly, it can be done as a sing-along, which, at any proper wake, you have to have.
Growing up in the 70s it was hard not to escape the music of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles band. Somehow this song went by me. I never picked up “Wings Greatest Hits” which had the song, or the single itself which was released in 1977. It wasn’t until 1984 that I discovered the song at a Beatles Expo. One of the rooms was showing videos from the band as well as the post-Beatles projects. This meant mostly Beatles and Wings music videos.
“Mull Of Kintyre” came on and it was a complete surprise. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard the song before. I was blown away. As soon as I could I went out in search of the album that contained the song, but simply couldn’t. I usually resist picking up a band’s greatest hits collection instead electing to pick up the albums those songs are on. Not finding the album “Mull Of Kintyre” appeared on, I wound up picking up the greatest hits compilation. It wasn’t until a few years later that I learned “Mull Of Kintyre” was never released on an album, but only as a single.
To this day it is one of my favorite songs.