"Unhinged Delirium"

From sickbed to deathbed, Claude Ely’s “Ain’t No Grave Can Hold My Body Down” remains an empowering spiritual anthem, healing balm for life’s toughest battles

I’m excited to release my second video today for Classically Cultured’s Behind The Song Series. You can check out the first of the series here, which features my original song, “I Remain.” Today, my sister Jen recorded with me. She’s 1/2 of our swampy duo group, The Crazy Daysies. Today, we tackled the moody gospel track, “Ain’t No Grave Can Hold My Body Down.” I hope you enjoy this video and song backstory as much as we enjoyed putting everything together for you!

There are certain songs that snap you back into your spiritually empowered state right when you hear them. You’ve been going through life half-dazed, in a fog of emails, bills, phone calls, and deadlines. But then you hear that song randomly. Maybe you’re in the car on the way to get gas. Maybe you’re on a walk and it pops up as a suggestion while streaming music through your headphones. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, suddenly, you’re back. Brick walls be damned. You could run right through one.

One of those songs for me is the great Appalachian gospel number, “Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down.” The song’s backstory is just as empowering as its message.

An Indomitable Spirit

It was written by Pentecostal preacher Claude Ely in the 1930s. When Ely was only 12 years old, the native Virginian developed a case of Tuberculosis. The disease, known as both “The White Plague” and “Captain Among These Men of Death” due to its staggering mortality rate, was ready to claim its next victim. But the young Ely had other plans.

The story goes that one day Ely’s family was praying over him as he laid half-conscious in bed. One Washington Post writer, Eddie Dean, once described “Ain’t No Grave,” as a song that came from a place of “unhinged delirium.” Delirium, yes, due to Ely’s high fever. He was anything but unhinged though. In fact, he had rooted himself in the most sound, unbreakable place he instinctively knew to turn to.

As Ely’s family prayed over him, he slipped into a subconscious state I would describe as spiritual meditation. Suddenly, he began repeating the phrase, “Ain't no grave gonna hold this body down,” over and over again. His family sat there stunned and silenced as the feverish boy kept talking to himself and his maker, summoning up all the spiritual strength he had in him despite his compromised physical body.

Disease is no match in battle when it meets an adversary with an indomitable spirit.

And that’s exactly what Ely had. 

He remarkably overcame his bout with tuberculosis. And by the time he was no longer bed-ridden, he had also written his signature song—one that would be just as spiritually empowering as he through the decades. Though, he didn’t know it yet.

He began preaching, and made a name for himself not only as a man of God but as a talented singer-songwriter. During his professional career, he was nicknamed the “Gospel Ranger.”

His childhood song lay dormant for some time. But it was discovered years later in 1942 and recorded by Bozie Sturdivant. When pioneering blues guitarist and singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe recorded her own rollicking, bluesy version of the track, it received significant attention. And it set off a chain reaction still happening today.

Since her late-1940s release, the song has been recorded by countless artists, making it one of gospel and blues music’s foundational standards.

Worthy of Victory

I was first introduced to the song by way of Sister Rosetta Tharpe. And one day while writing a piece for a client on Irish singer-songwriter Hozier, I was immediately struck by the name of one of his singles, “Work Song.” Just based on the title alone, I knew it had to have a bluesy element to it.

Sure enough, as I listened to the chorus, the echoes of Ely’s “Ain’t No Grave” rang out.

Hozier brilliantly blends Ely’s tune with his own “Work Song” by way of a strikingly memorable chorus. The words go like this:

“When my time comes around, 
Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth.
No grave can hold my body down.
I’ll crawl home to her.”

It is strange how the reality of mortality turns me into a romantic.

Hozier’s sexy, empowering interpretation is one version I highly recommend (and I recommend anything by Sister Rosetta Tharpe). Johnny Cash’s haunting version of “Ain't’ No Grave” is also another wild ride. The fire and brimstone cover was released posthumously on his album American VI: Ain’t No Grave.

Though Ely wrote the tune as a boy somewhere between 1934 and 1935, he didn’t record his own song until the ‘50s.

The tune even makes a thematic appearance throughout a season of hit show Peaky Blinders. That version was purposely disjointed and fast-paced, but had a great impact on the show’s scenes. 

No matter the version, “Ain’t No Grave” is a powerful weapon in one’s arsenal when battling life’s many haymakers.

Lean on the tune in times of need and feel your body jolt back to life. The words and melody will realign you spiritually, restoring you to your proper place in this world, which is one that is powerful, in control, and worthy of victory.

The song is a moving reminder, nothing can hold you down. Not even a grave. Your spirit transcends confinement

Like Claude Ely from his sickbed.

Like the legacy of his enduring sacred music.

Like Jesus.

Like fire, heat, birds, and sun—

Spirits rise…

Your spirit is meant to rise.

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