Songs That Made People Laugh About Death

I'm pretty much an emotional wreck right now. I had one thing to do today, prepare my song list for Monday night, and I didn't get to it until a little while ago. The thing is, I couldn't get through anything without breaking down crying. What's kind of funny about it is the first thought I had was why not do a couple of old songs we've been working on with the kindergartners? Yes, that's part of my day gig. I have been wondering if the retired widow ladies would enjoy our new medley that consists of "Clementine," "Long, Long Ago" and "You Are My Sunshine." Well, would you believe, I couldn't sing three verses of "Clementine" without crying. With the kids, we're only going to do one verse and do the refrain before and after, but in the process, I have learned three of the verses I thought I might share with the ladies. They might enjoy singing along with it. They're fun like that. They enjoyed "My Bonnie" last year. I like "My Bonnie" too, and the kindergartners liked "My Bonnie." One thing I've been thinking about a lot this year is why some of these old songs seem to be trying to make us laugh about death? "My Bonnie" has a happy ending, but one verse talks about, "I dreamed that my Bonnie was dead." This one is not funny, but what about in "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" where every refrain says, "The Old Grey Goose is dead," but it has that verse about, "She died in the millpond standing on her head." And then there's Clementine. Clementine has some crazy stuff in it. Like how her shoes were "number nine," "herring boxes without topses..." and then how she "drove the ducklings to the water...stubbed her toe upon a splinter, fell into the foaming brine..." "Ruby lips above the water, blowing bubbles soft and fine, but alas I was no swimmer, so I lost my clementine. There are a couple of verses I've seen alternating for the last verse of that song (we don't do any of these verses with the kindergartners, don't worry). One of the verses is about "How I missed her, but I kissed her little sister and forgot my Clementine," and the other one about how she was buried in the churchyard where the roses and the posies were "fertilized by Clementine." So, you see what I mean about trying to make a joke about dying in "Clementine" and "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." The other song I was thinking about is "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" ("I don't know why she swallowed a fly, perhaps she'll die.") So, you must know that if you break down and cry over "Clementine" you've got it bad, right? So that's the condition my condition is in right now that has been progressing since September 10 when the assassin's bullet attempted to silence the voice of Charlie Kirk. I have done a lot of praying today, maybe more crying than praying, actually. There are other songs about death I am not really that familiar with, but one that is not funny, but serious that I like is "The Banks of the Ohio." I learned that way back in the 60s and I still like to sing it. I'm probably going to sing "Go Rest High on that Mountain." It's not funny at all, obviously. And I doubt if I'll do "Clementine," so don't worry, I haven't completely lost all of my marbles. I have felt like it a couple of times today, but it hasn't happened yet. I'm going to meet my childhood best friend for lunch tomorrow, and I am looking forward to that. If you want to listen to something wonderful, go and find "Tell Your Heart to Beat Again" on YouTube. It helped me when I lost my sister to suicide in 2018. So, life goes on somehow, doesn't it? There are a lot of hateful people in the world and, unfortunately, in our wonderful country, which I hope we can keep being wonderful. I think we can because I have faith, or should I say, more accurately, faith has me. I am going to call it a night. Thank God I can sleep easy, especially when I've been crying all day.