My Last Request
To be honest, I really wanted to write a song that had a real Celtic feel to it so that I could incorporate bagpipes into the song. I play bagpipes with two different bands, the competitive St. Andrews Pipe Band in Winnipeg and the local Kenora Scottish Pipes and Drums. As a solo piper, I play for weddings and funerals and the title “My Last Request” came to me when I was thinking about how to come up with such a song.
In this song I’ve kind of planned out what I want for me when it comes my time to take that “last walk”. I really don’t want anyone making a big fuss, but just have someone play the pipes, lay me to rest and have a big party to remember me by. I’m hoping that comes out in the song.
I like to tell a story with a song and I hope this song tells a good one and one that others can relate to. Searching for a soul mate can be a struggle but once you find them you should be able live out the rest of your life in happiness. When your time comes, it comes so make the best of every day.
I would have liked to have had the pipes integrated into the choruses but bagpipes being the beasts they are, are very difficult to tune to other instruments, especially when the other instruments are 1,800 kms away (although some folks would say that's not really far enough). So we compromised and added a pipe section to the end of the song which allowed the music to transition to the key of where my pipes tuned in that day (somewhere between B flat and B). One of these days I will have to write the rest of that pipe tune, since the song only features one part of the slow air that I wrote for this piece.