Gravedigger, over the past few years, become one of my favorite songs, to listen to, play, and think about. Dave Matthews won the Best Male Rock Vocal Performance Grammy for this song in 2004.
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Cyrus Jones 1810 to 1913 Made his great grandchildren believe You could live to a hundred and three A hundred and three is forever when you're just a little kid So Cyrus Jones lived forever
Gravedigger When you dig my grave Could you make it shallow So that I can feel the rain Gravedigger
Muriel Stonewall 1903 to 1954 She lost both of her babies in the second great war Now you should never have to watch Your only children lowered in the ground I mean you should never have to bury your own babies
Gravedigger When you dig my grave Could you make it shallow So that I can feel the rain Gravedigger
Ring around the rosey Pocket full of posey Ashes to ashes We all fall down
Gravedigger When you dig my grave Could you make it shallow So that I can feel the rain Gravedigger
Little Mikey Carson '67 to '75 He rode his Bike like the devil until the day he died When he grows up he wants to be Mr. Vertigo on the flying trapeze Ohhh, 1940 to 1992
Gravedigger When you dig my grave Could you make it shallow So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger When you dig my grave Could you make it shallow So that I can feel the rain Feel the rain I can feel the rain Gravedigger
Gravedigger
Anyone who has ever walked through a graveyard looking at gravestones has had the sensation of wondering what the person below your feet was like. But all you really know about them is two dates: birth and death. Sometimes you can determine the birth and death dates of their family members by looking at nearby stones. And the rest you have to imagine.
Every living thing has these two dates marking the beginning and end of life. You only get one birth and one death. Some people have incredibly long lives, like Cyrus Jones, and others have short and tragic lives, like Little Mikey Carson. Life is like a ball thrown in the air. It's not a question of whether or not it will hit the ground, but when and where. The short and long throws both hit the ground. Isn't that the gist of "Ring around the rosey"?
This song is a celebration of mortality. It's a celebration of the one common thing that we share with everything that has ever lived and ever will. The "so I can feel the rain" line expresses the desire to be close to nature and the pride of being part of its cycles.
I leave you with a quote that I recently found. When asked if he was afraid of dying, Mark Twain said:
I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit.