Song Lyric Sunday: Music To Die For

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Having taken a suggestion from Di, of the pensitivity 101 blog, this week for SLS Jim has invited us to share something we would like to be played at our funeral. His post about it is Life After Death, if you’d like to read more. Cue all sorts of inappropriate choices! To be honest, this isn’t something that I ever given much thought to, though it has crossed my mind a little more in recent months since my father passed away in January. There is one song that appeals to my sense of humour, which I’ll be playing later. To begin with, though – and my main choice for today – I’m giving you something which is so quintessentially, beautifully English that for anyone like me who is a lover of our summer sport – cricket – this just cries out to be played. It isn’t from a well known singer, but he and the song have a cult following here, and this video that someone has created for it is so restful and tranquil. This is Roy Harper’s wonderful song When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease:

You could probably make out the lyrics but if not here they are:

When the day is done and the ball
Has spun in the umpires pocket away
And all remains in the groundsman’s pains for
The rest of time and a day
There’ll be one mad dog and his master
Pushing for four with the spin
On a dusty pitch with two pounds six
Of willow wood in the sun

When an old cricketer leaves the crease
You never know whether he’s gone
If sometimes you’re catching a
Fleeting glimpse of
A twelfth man at silly Mid-on
And it could be Geoff and it could be John
With a new ball sting in his tail
And it could be me and it could be thee
And it could be the sting in the ale
Sting in the ale

Sting in the ale when the moment comes and
The gathering stands
And the clock turns back to reflect
On the years of grace
As those footsteps trace
For the last time out of the act
Well this way of life’s recollection
The hallowed strip in the haze
The fabled men and the noonday sun are much
More than just yarns of their days

When an old cricketer leaves the crease
Well you never know whether he’s gone
If sometimes you’re catching a
Fleeting glimpse of
A twelfth man at silly Mid-on
And it could be Geoff and it could be John
With a new ball sting in his tail
And it could be me and it could be thee
And it could be the sting in the ale
The sting in the ale

Songwriter: Roy Harper

Copyright: Harvest Records

Source: LyricFind

Wikipedia tells us that When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease is a “prominent example of cricket poetry.” It was released in June 1975 on Roy Harper’s album HQ, which peaked at #31 in the UK Albums chart. It was a single twice, in 1975 and 1978, with no chart success, and is possibly Roy’s best-known song. As Wikipedia goes on to say “The song captures the atmosphere of a village cricket match and is an elegy to the game as played during Harper’s youth.” It is backed by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, giving it that little extra traditional English flavour. It is indeed an elegiac song, the album’s closing track, with the game of cricket acting as a metaphor for death in its nostalgic sense for what has passed. The video shows a walk along the Leeds To Liverpool Canal near the village of Scarisbrick, close to the area in which Roy Harper grew up, and fits it perfectly. It is a beautiful song, so simple yet so meaningful, and I have loved it since I first heard it played by the late, great John Peel on his BBC Radio 1 show, shortly after I had finished my final uni exams. It would be a fitting way for me to go out, I think. I apologise to anyone baffled by the cricket references, and there are far too many to explain now! The most obvious one is that the area where the batsman stands is known as the ‘crease,’ and he has to leave it when his innings is over. We use the phrase ‘a good innings’ to describe a long and positive life: like my Dad, who was 95 when he passed and had definitely enjoyed a good innings. And if you really want to learn more about this great game of ours here is the Wikipedia article on it: just don’t blame me if you end up confused!

The second one I’d like played at my funeral is a little piece of whimsy, but I would hope that it would leave people in a positive mood. I’m sure you’ll know it from the Month Python movie The Life Of Brian but, rather than play that version I thought I’d give you an extract from the memorial service for Graham Chapman, one of the Monty Python team, who died in 1989 at the ridiculously early age of 48. This is in two parts, the first of which is some of John Cleese’s ‘eulogy,’ the second is Eric Idle and assorted Monty Python members and friends singing the song. It starts around two minutes in, but I do recommend that you watch the whole thing – Cleese is very funny:

Listening to these almost makes me want to be there. Almost…

See you again for Tuesday Tunes 😊

35 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: Music To Die For”

  1. You asked what song(s) we want played at our funeral? Well, first off, there will be no funeral. My partner and I see no reason to have one. Death, cremation, gone. Not even a bit in the paper.
    However, should anyone care to get together to celebrate my death, there is one song (actually 5, but I lost the list) that I would like them to play. It is the closing song from the now cult classic Phantom of the Paradise, which explains the overlong musical ending:

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      • Your blog. Your words. But no indictment. I was just explaining why I was posting the song.
        If I could remember the others I would post them too. I spent a week before heart surgery making the list, just in case, then I put it away where I would never forget. Haven’t seen it since!
        The Desiderata might have been one of them, just for the lines
        “You are a child of the universe
        No less than the trees and the stars
        You have a right to be here”
        Only I would change the “less” to “more” because in my philosophy all living things are equal — though the star being alive “may” be debatable. It fits my definition of life: coming into being, existing a period of time, growing and changing, dieing. But it shows no sign of consciousness, although I am not qualified to judge what consciousness looks like in all living beings!
        How is that for a mouthful?

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  6. Two from different sides of the pale there, but both memorable. It has made me think it’s about time for me to make some written request for the final ‘push off’ song or two. Better get ’em right, there won’t be a second chance; unless there is more to reincarnation than I think.

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    • I’m so pleased to hear that, Di. I think it is a good fit for your chosen theme. I’ve loved it ever since I first heard it: John Peel playing it on his Radio 1 show all those years ago…

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  8. We play baseball over here in the States and since we have baseball poetry, it is not surprising to find out that you have cricket poetry. John Clese is so funny, “Good riddance to him, the freeloading bastard! I hope he fries.”

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  11. Clive, you really always surprise me with your choices. There are so many classic rock and roll songs that are beautiful at a funeral. I had to pick the music for my son’s funeral, so I am familiar with this task. I am not familiar with your song being from the U.S., but its sensibility is beautiful.

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    • I know there are, Bernadette, but I’ve always loved this song and it is so fitting. What could be better than giving people seven minutes of bliss in which to reflect on life? I know how hard that must have been for you to do, and I’m sure you did him proud.

      I don’t expect many to know this song, whether from the US or anywhere else, but it is the right choice for me for this week’s prompt. It is beautiful, isn’t it.

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