With all the death going on from the plague, I figured it would be fitting to listen to some funerals. I honestly can't understand the reasoning behind recording someone's funeral. Do people wake up one day and say, "Hey, I'm in a really good mood! I should fuck it up and play my recording of Uncle Dan's funeral." Anyway, if these funerals are good enough to be recorded, I figured they'd be good for you to listen to. However, instead of posting the entire bloody thing, I'll just post the highlights. Yes, funerals can have highlights.
One thing I have learned about these funeral tapes is they are generally recorded by the church from the sound board, and then copies are made for whoever wants them. Perhaps I should start a mobile funeral recording business and make millions from selling the tapes. Then I could make enough money to quit blogging! Until then, we'll have to settle for whatever I can find in the thrift stores. Let's see what I've found thus far...
Volodymyr Iwasiuk
This tape appears to be in Russian, and it's not a recording of a funeral. I'm only guessing it's music that was used at the guy's funeral. I dunno. Anyway, I'll let you hear one of the songs from this tape. Perhaps one of my Russian readers can give me the gist of what this song is about. It's pretty upbeat for funeral music!
Listen to Volodymyr's favourite song!
George & Agatha Rempel
Starts off with announcements in Low German and English. Then some guy sings a song in German. Then he follows it up with another German song. After that, he follows it up with an English song so the rest of us poor peasants aren't left out. This guy is practically making a Rammstein album.
The guy promises the funeral will not last all afternoon which is a total fucking let down. He also said that the majority of the funeral will be in German which is also a let down. The only significant English portion of this funeral was near the end where some guy reads some bible verses from Romans. I learned a total of NOTHING about the Rempel couple other than the fact that they are dead.
Unfortunately, the only memory of George and Agatha that I'm preserving through the magic of this blog is the one English song that was performed. After all, English is the official language of Classical Gas Emissions (and maybe some Ukrainian).
Listen to the only English song
PJ Loewen
If you need TWO NINETY MINUTE CASSETTES to record your funeral, it's too long. But I guess the length of your funeral isn't your choice because you're dead. I wonder how many people died of boredom at this funeral? Since I don't want to kill any of my readers, I have edited down these two cassettes into a super-funeral which is only 13 minutes in length. It doesn't need to be any longer, trust me.
The reason why this dead guy's funeral is so fucking long is because he was a pastor and the old bastard lived until age 104, so the church obviously had to throw a big shindig. I wouldn't be surprised if God himself attended this one. Pastor Loewen's talentless grandson reads a crappy poem he wrote, and the granddaughter's singing voice is reminiscent of a live pig getting thrown into a tree shredder. Then we have a scratchy string quartet play some songs in German. There were way too many songs at this funeral. If I wanted to listen to all these terrible songs, I would stay at home and put a belt sander on my face instead of attending this funeral.
Attend PJ Loewen's Super Funeral
Mom Brandt
This tape starts with a shit ton of good ol' fun time organ funeral music. Then, the audio fades in and out while people are talking. Just as well since they were more concerned with reading from the bible than remembering Mrs. Brandt. Then, we have some lady singing a song with barely any piano and an abundance of audio problems. If the audio was this terrible at my funeral, I'd have to revive myself and kick the audio guy's ass.
Mrs. Brandt's legacy is covering thousands of coat hangers, her passion for horse manure, and she massacred lots of crab grass.
Side two is filled with Ken Griffith's Greatest Funeral Hits.
Attend Mom Brandt's Funeral!
Uncle Henry
After listening to the first 15 minutes of this one, I know more about the pastor's dead wife than I know about Uncle Henry. The guy couldn't shut up about his dead wife.
Uncle Henry was born in 1910 and died on April 17, 1978. He's been dead almost as long as I've been alive. There are also 10 kids in his family which probably took a few years (or decades) off his life.
Side 2 is an audio letter. The guy is obviously mailing the funeral to his friend so he can spread the joy. He also thought that more hymns is more better and filled side 2 with a bunch recorded from scratchy records. He also talks about other deaths and his visit to the foot specialist.
Listen to a compilation from the dead wife speech!
Listen to the eulogy
Listen to the guy on side 2
I'm fairly certain I have more funerals in my queue box, but five is enough for today.
Blog entries are a bit sparse right now due to the construction on my house. Things are a mess while they're building my new work space. It'll be exciting to have a bit more room to store all the junk I still have to blog about. And don't worry, the Junq Tour is happening in August.