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Busy My Spade

by Jeremiah Craig

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"Busy My Spade" is about a gravedigger who makes it his life’s work to save people who have been buried alive. Since people were occasionally buried alive in the 1500s, a string would be tied to a person’s wrist before they were buried then it would be attached to a bell, above ground, next to the gravestone. If and when the bell rang, meaning the person was alive and moving around in their coffin, this man working the “graveyard shift” would come save them by digging them out.

lyrics

lyrics:

Go on home, you’ve done all you can
Ya tied the twine to your sister’s hand
And laid out the bell after she got low
I was summoned here to be the guide
And sing her off to the other side
But if anything should happen, you’ll be the first to know
If she’s laying in the shade of the reaper’s gown
I’ll busy my spade when I hear the bell sound
No matter how low, how low, how low, how low

Chorus:
I busy my spade(x2)
When I hear that bell, now
I busy my spade

I busy my spade(x2)
No one goes to hell, now
When I busy my spade

I worked in the bone-house when I was a boy
Making room for the new, pushing back the soil
When I found gouges, made from within
Maybe a brother, lover, or mother
It wasn’t long til I found another
Put down low when they never should of been
So now at night I sing among the dead
And busy my spade when I have accompaniment
Dig and Sing, Dig and Sing, Dig and Sing, Dig and Sing

Chorus

Yes she’s laying in the shade of the reaper’s gown
I busy my spade when I hear the bell sound
No matter how low, how low, how low, how low

Chorus

credits

released July 17, 2012

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Jeremiah Craig Boston, Massachusetts

I write stories with my songs and focus on traditional folk ballads as a foundation for my music. I’m a balladeer! If you like stories in the music you listen to, you’ve definitely come to the right place.

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