There was one played at Mottsu’s funeral that was a song for me. You Got It by Roy Orbison

I loved that song, particularly the chorus.

Anything you want, you got it.
Anything you need, you got it.
Anything at all, you got it.

I used to be happy if Mottsu was happy, who wouldn’t have been?

There were other lines that echoed my feelings:
I pray that you are here to stay
and
I live my life to be with you

I also live my life without you now

This threnody is upbeat and not at all dirge like, and it was played at his funeral. It’s not part of my soundtrack now, but a special memory.

I’m looking for my karaoke song now. The one I can stand up on my own and sing badly while grinning…

Mottsu and I played the Jeff Buckley version in the car on weekends. We would throw back our heads and howl the words of the emotion laden chorus.

K D Lang sang a moving cover of the song too, but it was the Buckely version we enjoyed most.

Hallelujah was a perfect threnody for Mottsu’s funeral, particularly knowing Jeff Buckley also drowned in a river, albeit accidentally in Buckley’s case.

“Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya
And it’s not a cry that you hear at night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelu…”

The first was K D Lang’s rendition of The Air That I Breathe. Simple, languid, a threnody filled with longing. It became the first song played at Mottsu’s funeral.

“If I could make a wish, I think I’d pass, can’t think of anything I need…”

We heard the song at the Three Monkey’s Cafe on Monkey Forest Road in Ubud, Bali. Three Monkeys made great coffee and played K D Lang’s Drag CD day after day. The words from the Hollies song matched how we felt on that holiday.

“There’s nothing left to be desired….
Sometimes all I need is the air that I breathe,
and to love you all I need is the air that I breathe”

The simplicity of the air that I breathe, ironically, takes my breath away.

I have learned it is all I need. Well along with good coffee, the smell of a dog, and a smile that is – and I am still travelling light.

Needing only the air that I breathe is a secret for happiness that I started to learn over coffee with Mottsu in a place where we could breathe, and it took some years for the truth of the lyrics to really sink in.

I know of a couple of instances of people who selected the songs (or threnodies) to be played at their funeral. Trooper, who had lived through the war, chose a song from the era: Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye. He was much loved by his family and the community, people attending his funeral filled the local hall. His coffin was carried from the hall to strains of the song he chose, we all joined together to sing.

Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Cheerio, here I go, on my way
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Not a tear, but a cheer, make it gay
Give me a smile I can keep all the while
In my heart while I’m away
Till we meet once again, you and I
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Cheerio, here I go on my way
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye
Not a tear, but a cheer, make it gay
Give me a smile I can keep all the while
In my heart while I’m away
Till we meet once again, you and I
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye…
Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye

Trooper with his plucky humour, gave us cause to smile through our tears while singing a farewell, just as he wished. A jolly threnody that embodied how he lived his life.