Dress Sexy At My Funeral Lyrics
What better way to send off your dead husband than by celebrating the moments when as a couple you lived the most?
And isn't that what Bill's saying, that helping your fellow man and giving to charity is great, but nothing compared to that amazingly close companionship?
I want this to be my wife. And then, almost as if he's crying out in a way that doesn't even fit into words, that Tweedy-like falsetto. Awesome.
"For the first time in your life" is the only thing that throws me. It says that either A) The whole song is a fantasy, or B) His wife's sexuality has always been reserved for her husband alone and now, as a eulogy, he wants her to tell the world. I'm going with B.
I think it is a fantasy. When he dies, he wants his life exaggerated. He wants the lasting memory of him to be a sexy wild wife and all their exploits. And sure, mention his charitywork too. Hilarious song, brilliantly written.
It may just be some rambunctious recount of their romps. But I've always kinda thought this song was a subtly sincere and beautiful one, I feel he wants her to be happy. Truly and honestly, that's all he wants in death. Obviously remembrance comes into the equation:
"Tell them about the time we did it On the beach with fireworks above us On the railroad tracks With the gravel in your back In the back room of a crowded bar And in the very grave yard Where my body now rests"
But "Dress sexy at my funeral, my good wife, for the first time in your life" suggests to me he may know how loyal and graceful she wants to be in his passing, possibly enough to remain in chaste for the rest of her days. He's saying, fuck that, remember me, but move on, he wants her to find another love in her life. Possibly he died young and doesn't care for the idea of this beautiful girl growing old and turning into a spinster.
"Wink at the minister Blow kisses to my grieving brothers"
This is a bit of fun with that idea of moving on, which obviously wouldn't be with the priest or his brothers. A personal joke between he and her.
One of my favorite love songs ever.
On the morning of my husbands funeral my sons and niece and myself were sitting in the car ready to leave for the funeral and this song came on the radio. I had never heard it before or new of the singer smog. We were all overcome and bought to tears. I will never forget that moment.
I don't think it means postmortem sex; sex in the graveyard is a retrospective, like on the beach. It seems too good a song for that.
It's about a couple who were outwardly conservative, (in the nice way), were proper and modest and gave to charity. She never dressed sexily or flirted. They were very conventional.
But secretly between them, they had a very passionate sex life, really loved and desired each other. Now he's dead, he wants her to show that. To let everyone know what a passionate woman she really is, how very attractive she is, at least in his eyes.
A couple who were well behaved but had a very hot relationship. Now he wants her to shine so everyone can know her, a bit, as he did.
Also he's showing off a little bit himself, post-mortem. Them fucking in the graveyard just gives it that nice contrast that sums it up.
It's a very romantic song, considering the guy's dead.
It's a song about celebrating the intimate relationship of a man and his wife. It's also a song glorifying his sexual prowess, which the singer is emphasizing in a tongue-in-cheek way.
The man's death also has a transformative effect on his wife---she can exude her sexuality as a statement to the world about her newly deceased husband.
He's saying, dress sexy for the FIRST time in her life at his funeral...