This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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
As 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 rosy
Pocket full of posy
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
Oh, 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
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
As 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 rosy
Pocket full of posy
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
Oh, 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
Lyrics submitted by planetearth
Gravedigger Lyrics as written by Christopher Lavery David Proctor
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I don't agree with the idea that it's about not wanting to die. Dave Matthews has had so much death in his life that it is a subject that he is completely comfortable with and is suggested and expressed in many more songs than this. The different ages and time periods of the individuals expresses a sort of succeptability to death in us all which is something Dave has experienced, with the death of his father, his sister and so on. This succeptability is even suggested in the rhyme "Ring Around the Rosey" about the plague and how the plague did not strike just these specific types of people, but that it had no mercy - just like death but we tend to live our lives believing that death is not something we concern ourselves with until we are much older or we have had such experiences as Dave. I also believe, like slowkut, that Dave is also expressing his own spiritual belief of the afterlife. That mortal death is not the ultimate end, and you live on spiritually in the literal sense and in the figurative sense, you're memories allow a sort of immortality: "...so Cyrus Jones lived forever".
those could all be misunderstood to be correct but this song is by willie nelson so dave didn't write it for any reason he just covers it, and it's about the human tendency to want to hold on to our mortality. We want to be left a part of this world, hence the "...make it shallow, so that I can feel the rain..." line.
thank you!