Funeral Blues read the poem in memory of Denholm Reynholm, before he is interrupted by the return of Reynholm's son, Douglas. Funeral Blues "Funeral Blues" or "Stop all the clocks" is a poem by W. H. Auden. An early version was published in 1936, but the poem in its final, familiar form was first published in "The Year's Poetry" (London, 1938). The first, and less widely known, version of the poem, written and published in 1936, has five stanzas; the 1938 final version has four. Only the first two stanzas are the same in both versions. The 1936 version was a satiric
Blues Funeral subsequently began composing songs. In an interview with "MOJO", Lanegan described his writing process for the album, saying that: "[all of the songs on the new record] were written right before or during the period when we recorded" and "generally I write on the guitar, but this one I started a few with the keyboard and a drum machine, to do something different. With Al [Johannes], I can show him something on acoustic guitar and give him a description and within a couple of hours it's done." "The Quietus" described the album's sound as: ""Blues Funeral" incorporates beats marshalled by