All Hippies Must Die

Lyrics:

© WanHu
All Hippies Must Die

All of the hippies must die
They'll all pass away by and by
Should a life of desire, to get higher and higher,
Be marked out with a black suit and tie?

The Victorians, lived in the past
The miserable gits didn’t last
It’s more than carnal and humoral, let’s put the fun back into funerals
Let your final sendoff be a blast

Bury me under a tree, or
Carry me down to the sea
Burn a miniature longship, remember our friendship
All the drinks in the bar are on me.

Where do the dead hippies go
I'm guessing that we'll never know
Some hippy valhalla or maybe, inshallah,
A garden where spirit flowers grow

Perhaps they go back in the ground
And the great wheel of life turns around
Ashes to ashes, stardust to stardust
The secular's also profound

© W Ian Young (WanHu) Feb 2017

This song has its roots in a personal crisis of a few years ago, when my restaurant wasn’t doing very well and I was seriously thinking of retraining as a funeral director. I had the idea that the societal changes which took place in the 60’s were about to work themselves through to the funeral business and the whole black suit and top hat set up was looking a bit tired. It never happened: the cooking picked up a bit, but I still think it was a sound idea.

I later came across the story of an American bloke who’s wife wanted a Viking funeral. You, know: misty mornings, longships, burning arrows the whole Tony Curtis/Kirk Douglas malarkey. He was told to piss off by the authorities, but went ahead and did the whole thing in miniature, with his wife’s cremated ashes. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/widower-fulfils-wifes-dying-wish-818352

I’d tuned my guitar to open G and was about to bash these words out in a more jaunty fashion, but came across Tom’s beautiful template. Some of the chord changes are a bit subtle for me, but the kids are home, so no chance of any more takes.

I’d love to hear a bit of harmony singing on this. If you don’t do it, I might have a go myself and the other ‘Loopers will never forgive you.

Finally, it’s not my intention to belittle anyone’s religious beliefs, so my apologies if I offend. Words is words, and this is just the way they came out.