If You're A True Classic Rock Fan, You Want These Songs Played At Your Funeral

We're all going to die. That's just a fact and a natural part of the lifecycle, but while you don't have any say on the matter, you can choose how you want to be sent off. If you're a true classic rock fan, we're sure you'd request a few tunes to be played at your funeral. Although musical tastes are as individualistic as personalities and there is a wide range of options, we've put together a list of a few classics that should make the cut. We've culled our choices from funeral-industry sites that have collected popular choices, social media forums where classic rock fans have shared their picks, and a deep dive into the themes and backstories of these songs.

One of the most popular classic rock funeral choices seems to be Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," but we're going with another choice from these rock gods, "All My Love," a song Robert Plant wrote following the tragic death of his 5-year-old son. Another we chose for its meaning and history is Jimi Hendrix's "Angel," about a dream he had of his mother. We've also included a number of other choices that any classic rock lover would want to help bring closure for family and friends when the time comes.

From its mournful opening acoustic guitar riff that David Gilmour played on a 12-string to the lyrics that give the song its name — "How I wish, how I wish you were here" — in the song's single chorus, "Wish You Were Here" has all the hallmarks of a funeral-appropriate song. Even the outro, which includes the sound of blowing wind, gives the tune a sense of loss. 

The song from Pink Floyd's 1975 album of the same name, like the rest of the album, is about absence, according to Roger Waters. The song, in part, relates to Waters' loss of his father when he was a child. "My father has been a central figure in everything," said Waters, the band's co-founder and main lyricist before his 1985 departure, in an AXS TV interview.

While "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," from the same album, is specifically about the loss of their bandmate and friend Syd Barrett to mental illness, "Wish You Were Here" also relates to that, although it has a broader scope. An emotionally distant Barrett, looking disheveled, unexpectedly appeared when the band was recording "Wish You Were Here." "I can't sing it without thinking about Syd,' Gilmour said in a 2012 documentary (via Christies.com). "Because of its resonance and the emotional weight it carries, it is one of our best songs." "Wish You Were Here" is a song ripe with meaning and emotion and is one any classic rock fan would want as a sendoff.

With lyrics redolent with allusions to the passage of time — "All these lines on my face gettin' clearer/ The past is gone/ It went by like dusk to dawn" — "Dream On" is another classic rock song that many fans would want to mark the end of their lives. The hit song from Aerosmith's 1973 debut album is actually about fighting to achieve a dream, specifically the band's. " It's about dreaming until your dreams come true," Steven Tyler recounted (via Andrew Rooney's "Aerosmith: Every Album, Every Song"). "It's about the hunger, desire and ambition to be somebody that Aerosmith felt in those days." But the song has come to take on a much broader meaning.

With the repeated chorus, "Sing with me, sing for the year/ Sing for the laughter and sing for the tear/ Sing it with me, if it's just for today/ Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away" it's hard not to interpret this song as relating to a celebration of life in the face of our inevitable end. Tyler and Aerosmith have used "Dream On" to memorialize a departed fellow musician, dedicating it during a concert in Georgia to Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, following his death in 2017. It's the perfect bittersweet tribute, and if it's good enough for Cornell, it's good enough for classic rock fans.

"Angel" may not be the best-known Jimi Hendrix song, but it was important to him. Indeed, so much so that some of the song's lyrics were used during Hendrix's funeral in his hometown of Seattle, Washington, on October 1, 1970, following his death in London, England, a few weeks earlier. This ballad features a bright, shimmering guitar sound that's somewhat unusual for Hendrix and lyrics about a visit from an angel, including a chorus with the words, "And I said, 'Fly on, my sweet angel/ Fly on through the sky/ Fly on, my sweet angel/ Tomorrow, I'm going to be by your side.'"

"Angel" appeared on Hendrix's first posthumous album, 1971's "The Cry of Love," and was inspired by a dream about his mother he had had years earlier. His mother, Lucille Jeter Hendrix, died at age 32 when Jimi was just 15. A few years before her death, Jimi had a dream in which his mother was riding a camel in a caravan and told him, "I'll see you," before riding off. At Jimi's funeral, his friend Freddie Mae Gautier read out some of the song's lyrics during the eulogy as a testament to its powerful message. The song's music and lyrics are haunting, but still uplifting.

There are a number of Led Zeppelin songs that classic rock fans might gravitate to for a memorial. Besides "Stairway to Heaven," there's "In My Time of Dying," for instance. But "All My Love" has a deep connection to the passage from life to death and is a powerful gift to those left to mourn the departed. Robert Plant wrote "All My Love," which appeared on the band's 1979 album "In Through the Out Door," following the tragic death of his son Karac, who was just 5 years old when he died in 1977.

"I think it was just playing tribute to the joy he gave us as a family ... And in a crazy way still does occasionally," Plant said in a television interview. "Every now and again he turns up in songs ... for no other reason than I miss him a lot." Besides its backstory, the song is filled with heartrending lyrics — "Should I fall out of love, my fire in the light/ To chase a feather in the wind/ Within the glow that weaves a cloak of delight/ There moves a thread that has no end." It's a song of reflection, love, and remembrance.

Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" has become a popular classic rock funeral song. And while Stevie Nicks wasn't thinking about death when she wrote the song, its lyrics about the passage of time and unstoppable change lend themselves to a reflection on the end of life and bereavement. Nicks wrote the song while in the Colorado Rockies in 1973 about her relationship with her boyfriend and bandmate, Lindsey Buckingham, as well as about her father. The song appeared on Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled breakthrough album, the first to include Nicks and Buckingham, and has become a timeless classic.

With lyrics like "Can I sail through the changin' ocean tides?/ Can I handle the seasons of my life?" and "Well, I've been afraid of changin'/ 'Cause I've built my life around you/ But time makes you bolder/ Even children get older/ And I'm getting older too," it's easy to understand why people are drawn to it during a time of deep loss. And like these other classic rock songs, "Landslide" is a perfect choice to both mourn and reflect.