Tom Paxton sempre soube de tudo

Essa semana lembrei demais de uma grande música do Tom Paxton, que se chama... Forest Lawn! Foi composta há uns 30 anos, e está precisando ser atualizada com urgencia: o que ela propõe é muito singelo para os tempos atuais.

(Levei um susto visitando o site do TP: Pete Seeger acabou de fazer 90 anos! E Billy Bragg já é um senhor de cabelos brancos. Ó céus.)

Forest Lawn
Tom Paxton

Oh lay me down in Forest Lawn in a silver casket
Put golden flowers over my head in a silver basket
Let the drum and bugle corp blow taps while the cannons roar
Let sixteen liveried employees pass out souvenirs from the funeral store

I want to go simply when I go
They'll give me a simple funeral there I know
With a casket lined in fleece
And fireworks spelling out "Rest In Peace"
Oh take me when I'm gone to Forest Lawn

Oh lay me down in Forest Lawn they understand there
And they have a heavenly choir and a military band there
Just put me in their care
I'll find my comfort there
With sixteen planes and a last salute
Dropping a cross in a parachute

I want to go simply when I go
They'll give me a simple funeral there I know
With a hundred strolling strings
And topless dancers in golden wings
Oh take me when I'm gone to Forest Lawn

Oh, come, come, come, come,
Come to the church in the wild wood
Kindly leave a contribution in the pail
Be as simple and as trusting as a child would
And we'll sell you the church in the dale

To find a simple resting place is my desire
To lay me down with a smiling face comes a little bit higher
My likeness done in brass
Will stand in plastic grass
And weights and hidden springs
Will tip its hat to the mourners filing past

I want to go simply when I go
They'll give me a simple funeral there I know
I'll lie beneath the sand
With piped in tapes of Billy Graham
Oh take me when I'm gone to Forest Lawn

Rock of ages cleft for me
For a slightly higher fee
Oh take me when I'm gone to Forest Lawn