trad
Often credited to itinerant Appalachian preacher Claude Ely who said he made it up while seriously ill at age 12. He didn’t, though, as a closely similar song was according to Debi Simons “printed in a 1933 hymnal from the Church of God in Christ, a predominantly Black Pentecostal-Holiness denomination to which the Ely family had close ties. And that written version was probably preceded by a long oral tradition, since variations of the phrase in the title may have been used in spirituals dating back to before the Civil War. The safest guess is that “Ain’t No Grave” was, in some form, a traditional sacred song that served as a kind of template around which singers could come up with their own riffs.”
Chorus: There ain’t no grave Can hold my body down (x2) When I hear that trumpet sound I’m going to rise right out of the ground Ain’t no grave Can hold my body down Well, look way down the river And what do you think I see I see a band of angels And they’re coming after me Well, look down yonder, Gabriel Put your feet on the land and sea But Gabriel, don’t you blow your trumpet Until you hear from me Well meet me, Jesus, meet me Meet me in the middle of the air And if these wings don’t fail me I will meet you anywhere Well meet me, Mother and Father Meet me down the river road And Mama, you know that I’ll be there When I check in my load