"Funeral Pyre" is The Jam's thirteenth single released on 6 June 1981. Backed by the B-side "Disguises", a cover of a Who track, it reached #4 in the UK Singles chart.
The song begins as a studio jam between drummer Rick Buckler and bassist Bruce Foxton, with Paul Weller's contribution coming later.
The song does not appear on any of the band's studio albums. In the U.S., it appeared on the five-track EP The Jam (Polydor PX-1-503), which peaked at #176 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Famous quotes containing the words funeral and/or pyre:
“Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts,—a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“‘Tis on the living Envy feeds. She silent grows
When, after death, man’s honor is his guard.
So I, when on the pyre consumed I lie,
Shall live, for all that’s noblest will survive.”
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)