What does Gravedigger mean?

Dave Matthews Band: Gravedigger Meaning

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Album cover for Gravedigger album cover

Gravedigger Lyrics

Cyrus Jones 1810 to 1913
Made his great grandchildren believe
You could live to 103
A hundred and three is forever when you’re just a little kid
So, Cyrus Jones live forever

Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So...

  1. anonymous
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    Sep 11th 2018 !⃝

    Gravedigger is a song about reminding us to live life to the fullest. To enjoy our time here while we can. The request for a shallow grave so he can feel the rain is a nonsensical way of saying, "you can't feel the rain when you're dead, no matter how shallow your grave is". So feel the rain while you are alive and above ground!! You never know when your gonna go, you could make it to 103, or you might not even reach the ripe old age of 10. Life is precious and you have to cherish it, even things as simple as a cool rain on a warm summers day, cuz your never know what you'll miss when its gone.

  2. anonymous
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    May 26th 2017 !⃝

    When I first heard the song I was a little creeped out, but since them I have been employed as a gravedigger myself for a small cemetery. To me the ashes to ashes part and the shallow grave go together, as I hand dig for urns, so they are fairly shallow. Our cemetery typically has 3 feet covering a casket and 1 foot of dirt covering an urn, so that familys can share a single plot if they wish, so urns tend to be shallow. Funny, today, I was just digging a grave, and it was raining the whole time I was working.

  3. anonymous
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    Oct 12th 2012 !⃝

    Gravedigger is a song about reminding us to live life to the fullest. To enjoy our time here while we can. The request for a shallow grave so he can feel the rain is a nonsensical way of saying, "you can't feel the rain when you're dead, no matter how shallow your grave is". So feel the rain while you are alive and above ground!!

  4. anonymous
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    Apr 6th 2012 !⃝

    it is a tribute to those who died young-- the ring around the rosey verse comes from the black plague in england. the ring is a circle around the dead,and the ashes mean the bodies are burning--we all fall down means when everyone dies from the plague--this little children song is very gruesome. i learned this song in my music class-that is how i know about that :):):):)

  5. anonymous
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    Nov 8th 2011 !⃝

    He must not live in a northern climate where people prefer not to get tossed out with the first frost ;-)

  6. anonymous
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    Jun 20th 2011 !⃝

    When you dig my grave, can you make it shallow, so that I can feel the rain.

    Life is so precious, and we never know when we are going to be taken away from those we love, for whatever reason God (or whatever you personally think rules/controls our fates)wants us for. You can live to see everything, or die before all the bittersweet moments everyone lives for. You can be the best person in the world, or the most evil but there is always a purpose in everything that happens. Even after death, we all thrive to feel reality, which is rain, but rain is also metaphorical of cleansing or purging of the soul, so it is through death and the rain that occurs post-mortem is a way those who have died in vain, pass onto the other side.

  7. anonymous
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    Sep 4th 2009 !⃝

    Willie nelson covered Dave Matthews on his 2008 album moment of forever. In case you didn't know.

  8. anonymous
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    Jun 11th 2009 !⃝

    If you didn't know this song was originally written by Willie Nelson....

  9. anonymous
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    Apr 19th 2009 !⃝

    I believe this song holds tight to one of the major themes found throughout a majority of Dave's writing. It is about carpe diem and elan vital. You never know when your gonna go, you could make it to 103, or you might not even reach the ripe old age of 10. Life is precious and you have to cherish it, even things as simple as a cool rain on a warm summers day, cuz your never know what you'll miss when its gone.

  10. anonymous
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    May 20th 2008 !⃝

    It's about people dying to young but that's how life goes and the world keeps on spinning.

  11. anonymous
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    Jun 28th 2007 !⃝

    I'm not really sure about this one. It might be sort of a tribute ballad to the deceased in general. Hmmm...

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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