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The Gravedigger's Lament

from Downbeat Is The New Upbeat by Will Riding

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about

I remember the opening scene to a film version of Poe's "The Premature Burial" with Ray Milland. The two gravediggers in the foggy graveyard, whistling "Molly Malone" creeped me out first time saw it. I was only little, mind. It inspired this ditty.
If it ever becomes a musical, one of them could sing this to introduce himself...

lyrics

Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust
Flesh Becomes to nothing
As iron turns to rust
It comes to us all, the curtain will fall
When the end comes around
I bury them all, the great and the small
Six feet down

Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust
My hands and shovel are filthy
Make judgements if you must
I trip through the graves and the mortal remains
I whistle and wield my spade
I whistleCockles and mussels
Alive alive - o
As I cut through the clay

Some I put deep, some I lay shallow
The fairest of ladies, the most vulgar fellows
Dying's a living, I dig straight and true
Like my father before me and his father too

I frequent the hotels and taverns in town
Places beside me where none will sit down
For death is my shadow,my constant, my friend
My reason for being, my eventual end


Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust
One day the earth will reclaim me
The worms will feed on me guts
Death is my life it puts food on the table
Stops the milk turning sour
But who’ll bury me?
And who’ll grieve for me?
Cometh the hour

credits

from Downbeat Is The New Upbeat, released April 8, 2023

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Will Riding Chester

A Lancashire born, Chester based singer-songwriter with a deft and playful turn of phrase and acoustic - folk sensibilities inspired by, amongst other things, 70’s Children’s TV.

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