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The beautiful thing about music is that great music is timeless and can be a reflection of a person's life in the space of a simple three and a half-minute song. Choosing the songs that will be played at your own funeral is a matter of when in life you choose those songs. Certainly, when you are in your twenties, the songs will possibly be carefree and even smug perhaps. If you choose songs for your own funeral while you are in your sixties or seventies, the selections will be considerably different.

As for myself, my funeral songs have varied through the years. As of this writing, I am in my late thirties. My current funeral songs reflect how I feel right now. The top two funeral songs for me right now are "My Way" (Elvis's version) and the late 1970's counry music classic "Farewell Party" by Gene Watson. These two songs sum up how I feel about myself in this era of my life. If I should live another twenty or thirty years, the songs might change.

My Southern Baptist upbringing will certainly compel me to have Gospel songs played at my big going away shindig. When I think of the appropriate Gospel songs to be played, one automatically comes to mind. The Original Hinsons performed a song called "Call Me Gone." I have always loved that song. Maybe it'll make the playlist.

I want the songs that will play at my funeral to be an honest heartfelt personal interpretation of my life. I hope that those songs will be representative of my contributions to the world around me while I was among the living. I do not want my key funeral songs to be performed by live singers. I would rather have the origianl recordings played. Those are the ones that I fell in love with and add a certain meaning. I feel that another person performing those songs might take away the feeling that I want reflected at the time of my demise.

"Will The Circle Be Unbroken" is another good funeral song. A must-play on grave digin' day is Dave Cox's "Fun-eral."

"To All the Girls I've Loved Before" may be appropriate. (If they're in attendance).

By all means, I would love for my funeral goers to get together afterward and play and listen to my all time favorite songs and artists as a tribute to your's truly. Some of my all time favorite artists you might hear at my wake would be: Dwight Yoakam, Buck Owens, Wynn Stewart, Keith Whitley, Gram Parsons, etc. Songs like "Private Radio" by Billy Bob Thornton and "Long White Cadillac" by Dave Alvin might be some of the selections heard.

Funeral songs may be a bit morbid to ponder on, but I would rather choose them myself than have someone do the choosing for me. It will very well be the last decision I'll ever make.

Learn more about this author, Timothy Edward Jones.
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