There’s still a day to go before the end of the first My Last Song poll.  It asks what type of music you want played at your funeral and the choices are between hymns, modern secular, classical secular, classical religious, a mix of those and something else.

I’m not going to give away the numbers who polled, but I’m intrigued by the four per cent who went for something else. I don’t think they were wanting the classic Cannonball Adderley Blue Note jazz album Somethin’ Else, which highlighted a young Miles Davis. Possibly poetry or readings, or even silence.

More interesting though is how few people – 18 per cent at the time of writing – wanted hymns.

People coming across My Last Song, or accepting my invite to vote in the poll, are likely to be interested in their personal choice of music and unless they are strong Christians, this won’t include Hymns.

Of the ten or so funerals I’ve attended, about half were traditional and featured hymns. They had the benefit of encouraging all the mourners to join in, which meant we felt we shared the same emotions as we knew the melodies or were happy to follow the choir.

But those ceremonies where secular music was chosen were far more interesting as the officiant gave a brief description of why the song was chosen and it helped bring back memories or know something new about the person to whom we were saying goodbye. Mourners continued to discuss the songs at the reception and, forgive the horrible term, they added more value to the send off than the traditional hymns which, while giving everyone the opportunity to have a good sing, were forgotten as soon as the last note on the organ stilled into silence.

Anyway, in the My Last Song poll, secular modern songs scored well over twice the votes of hymns, and are followed by the sensible compromise of a mix of secular and classic.

If in the next 36 hours, lots of devout Christians enter the poll and there’s a surge in support for hymns, then so be it, but I think that’s unlikely.  So, if an early ‘exit poll’ is to be believed, secular songs are considerably more popular as choices for farewell music.

Strange then that hymns are sung at so many funerals that take place even in today’s secular society.

I will be considering the reasons for this in my next blog.  It will be next week so don’t hold your breath in anticipation.

My Last Song has signed up to Race Online 2012, the Government backed initiative to get as much of the adult population of the UK online by the end of 2012 as possible.

One of the target groups is older people, and so My Last Song was welcomed as a Race Online partner organisation because the website will encourage older people to be more computer literate and able to benefit from going online for information, for company, for support and for greater independence.

The problem is reaching those older people who have very low computer skills or don’t have access to a computer and therefore won’t have the opportunity to go online.

To solve this problem, I have come up with a proposed intergenerational communication initiative.  It is focussed on the benefits offered by the Lifebox within My Last Song to older people to whom it is an area to store their funeral wishes, letters of wishes and other details required by their executors and close family members when they die or are terminally ill.

The Lifebox also encourages people to store their memories, their life stories, their achievements, details of their friends and families, their hobbies and their images so that future generations have an accurate insight of their life and times.

This is a valuable way of recording family history which otherwise is likely to be lost.

Very few families these days sit down around the dinner table or in front of the fire and listen to older members relate the details and achievements of their lives and the lives of their older relatives.

So, to take the place of this intergenerational passing down of family history, I am proposing a scheme whereby children between six and 12 nominate an older member or members of their family who aren’t computer competent or haven’t got access to their own computers who they will coach and encourage to fill their Lifeboxes.

In the process, they will learn about the life and times of the older family members, and also know where this information is stored so it can be accessed by future generations.

I will be putting more substance on the proposal and then contact the Department for Education in an attempt to get this off the ground.

It will undoubtedly be supported by Race Online 2012. However, the kind of backing that would be more useful is that of a retailer or supplier of PCs.  So, if the likes of Currys, Comet, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Acer, IBM, HP stumble across this blog and the proposal sounds interesting, please get in contact.

My efforts at getting a worthwhile intergenerational communications initiative off the ground will be chronicled with, I hope, an outcome that has benefits for several thousand older people, their young family members, future social historians, the suppliers of PCs and, of course, My Last Song.

I’m pleased with the deal I’ve done with Flowers Direct, an online flower (and other gifts) retailer.  It gives visitors to My Last Song who order funeral flowers – floral tributes and sympathy flowers – a 10 per cent discount.

The business model is simple.  Flowers Direct have a network of top class florists around the country. The online order is validated at a central office and then the order is sent to the appropriate florist close to where they are required. The local florist fulfills the order by delivering to the address given by the customer, often in the same day if ordered before a certain time.

I was reassured when the client manager at Flowers Direct emphasised that one of the qualities required by the florists they give the funeral flower business to is an understanding of the need to be sympathetic and respectful when dealing with the end user.

Having built up a relationship with one of the country’s leading online florists, I suggested that we extended the collaboration to cover all types of flowers and gift products so that I could use the hefty discount to encourage people to subscribe to their Lifebox.

The Lifebox is an original and very useful part of My Last Song. It is where you can put the information required by your close family when you die (or are in the last stages of a terminal illness) so they don’t have the stress of looking for your funeral wishes, or wondering where your money is, or who should be told, or the address of your solicitor or whether you’ve written a letter of wishes…all the details that can be so stressful to shocked loved ones.

The Lifebox also enables you to record your life, your friends, your family, your achievements, your hobbies, your favourite things and anything else that makes you the unique person that is you, so future generations will have an accurate insight into your life and times.

The Lifebox is divided into sections, and in one of the sections is the link to the Flowers Direct web page which gives subscribers to the Lifebox the code necessary to reduce their invoice by 10 per cent. Given the cost of flowers, this is a worthwhile saving.

So, if you or somebody you know, likes fresh flowers, take advantage of this deal. It will soon pay for the subscription for your Lifebox, and you will have the extraordinarily helpful Lifebox which, if used properly, will result in your digital immortality.

Common sentiments expressed a few weeks after someone has died are: ‘I wish I had known…I would have gone to the funeral,’ or ‘If I had known I would have sent my condolences to the family.’

As I point out in an article in My Last Song, some people are understandably hurt and upset that they were not told, thinking they were not important to the person who died or to his or her family.

For others, it intensifies the grief as they were not included in the ceremony or service that said farewell to someone close to them.

This is why you should list those you want to be told of your death or final illness in the ‘Tell These People’ box in the My Details section of your Lifebox. It will enable the person(s) who you allow to open your Lifebox to inform these people quickly and easily.

Of course, your family will know most of the people that were close to you, but it is often the case that when facing the shock of the death, they don’t always think clearly or act straight away and then things – or in this case people – get forgotten.

The Lifebox includes a section called Death Plan which enables you to plan the ending you want. This has a box in which you can name those people you want to be told that you are terminally ill.

You can also create a public profile part of your Lifebox which includes an area called Messages on which your friends and loved ones can put memorial messages when you have departed which others can see.

I was taken aback when the participants of an informal focus group looking at My Last Song said they felt a reluctance to visit the Vault because it made them feel uncomfortable.

The Vault is the space within My Last Song where people can put the information required by their close family and executor when they die or when they feel it wise to allow the second key holder to access their funeral wishes, will, Letter of wishes etc.

It’s also where, I hope, people will store their personal details – obituary, achievements, secrets, photos, family history – that will give future members of their families an accurate insight into their lives and times…a sort of digital immortality.

The arguments against calling this area the Vault were:

• Not sure what a Vault was;
• It’s a place in a church where bodies were put;
• It’s a large safe which only rich people can afford to store their gold nuggets etc.

The alternative word that participants liked was Lifebox.  The case for Lifebox seems to me sound.

• It says ‘life’ and not death;
• It accurately describes the space in My Last Song – a virtual a storage box with various sections.

As the focus group was so small, I have tweeted and emailed several followers of My Last Song to ask if they have a preference: Vault or Lifebox? Early votes cast indicate Lifebox will win.

So it seems that we will now have to change all references to the Vault to Lifebox, and see if this title welcomes people in, rather than scaring them away.

Of course, there’s nothing scary or unpleasant in the My Life Song Vault – just useful sections to help you put your affairs in order and store your memories.

But names are important.  Would the Mars Bar have been successful if it was called the Uranus Bar? And there was a good reason why Lever Brothers ditched the washing powder called Omo.

Someone has offered to finance the recording of Raph Oyelade’s next song…as long as it’s a cover of A Change is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke’s soul classic.  It’s one of my favourite songs, especially as sung by Otis Redding, so I’m not going to argue.

Otis’s version appeared on his brilliant album Otis Blue. Check it out, there’s not a bad track on it with stand outs being Respect, Satisfaction, I’ve Been Lovin’ You Too Long and My Girl.

The cover of the album is fascinating…it features the grainy, half lit face and long neck of a beautiful and sultry blond woman.  She is glancing down her nose at the camera, although her eyes are in deep shade.

The white woman on the cover of Otis Blue has created controversy.

If the eyes are the window to the soul, this window is opaque and we are left to wonder what may be going on behind them.

So, why was the image of this white woman gracing, and grace it she does, the cover of an album by one of the best soul singers there’s ever been?  It annoyed and still annoys many of my black friends.

Quite rightly they argue that an equally beautiful black woman could just as easily have adorned the cover, and by using a white model the bosses at Atlantic Records were sticking to the view that although the music in the vinyl grooves was made by black artists, images of black people were best kept off the covers.

But the historical context is important here, and it rather contradicts this view.  Otis Redding was in the vanguard of black artists whose music was crossing the race barrier…white Americans (and huge numbers of Europeans) were beginning to buy soul music in large quantities, and many of these albums had the artists black, loud and proud on the cover.

Jerry Wexler,  founder of Atlantic Records along with Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün, was making a lot of money because soul music was being appreciated and bought by white America. Those shrewd men running Atlantic Records were less interested in the colour of the person on the cover than how it was going to increase sales.

The passion generated by Otis Redding’s raw delivery soaring above a tight and energetic backing is almost palpable…the title ‘Otis Blue’ was not chosen by accident, and nor was the cover shot.  The white woman is sharing a pleasure at what she is hearing, all that’s left in doubt is the intensity of that pleasure.

You can almost see the knowing smile on Wexler’s face as he bent over the light box and selected that frame which shows, for those willing to see, a white woman turned on by Redding’s music in particular, and by black men in general.

It is a cover which would have scandalised US society only a few years earlier.

The sexual attraction communicated by that white woman had its affect on young men – black and white  – who found this provocative image exciting and desirable.  Choosing that cover shot for that album was a stroke of genius with its message that sex, passion and soul music transcended race.

Yes, the cover of Otis Blue is as enjoyable as the songs themselves.

My vinyl copy of the album is in a box in a garage and I’m scared it’s getting damaged beyond repair.  I will buy the collectors’ edition CD after I finish this blog, but it’s not the same…I won’t be able to hold it close to my face and hope to see what that woman might just be thinking.

I’m feeling rather pleased that I visited my father last weekend. I showed him how to use the Vault within My Last Song.  He’s well into his 80s and slowly getting more confident when using his new laptop.

It was initially a rather demoralising exercise, as he found the Vault difficult to understand.  Within a minute or two I realised what a great opportunity this was to improve how the Vault looked and worked.

So I came into the office on Sunday evening when I got back (this is what the founders of newly launched companies do – what are holidays? what does ‘having a day off’ mean?) and simplified some of the copy.

On Monday morning I fed back my findings to Jamie, the techie genius I’ve been so fortunate to hire, and within a few hours we were discussing the new look Vault. Last night it was up on the website (take a bow, Jamie).

A dear friend of mine, Stephen Bubb, wrote a blog in praise of My Last Song and the Vault, and that was before the Vault was improved so he’ll be even more impressed now…and he’s a hard man to impress.

For those of you who want the ‘elevator pitch’, the Vault is where you store the information needed by your family and executor once you fall off the perch; and also where you can put the personal details, images, secrets, life history, achievements, family and friends so that future generations can gain an accurate and unique insight into your life and times.  A promise of digital immortality, no less.

We have made it as easy to use as possible. The Vault has a number of sections, each with its own heading including Funeral wishes; My Details; Secrets; Obituary.  Within these sections are content boxes for the relevant subsections in which information is stored.  It can be accessed and amended at any time, but only by the Vault owner.

Vault owners send their executor or next of kin a second key which allows time delayed access. When the second keyholder opens the Vault he or she can read but not alter the contents.

Whether you want to ensure your final affairs are in order so that your loved ones don’t have to worry when you die, or whether you like the idea of digital immortality, do try out the Vault. It’s free for 30 days.

And, if like dear old dad, you find things in the Vault that could be improved, let me know. Jamie will love you.