Lyrics: Marvin Baumgardner
Music: Marvin Baumgardner
This was played once by the Grateful Dead,
in an acoustic set on 26 December 1969.
Death is an angel sent down from aboveThe original version by the Maddox Brothers and Rose, and the subsequent version by the Stanley Brothers are slightly different, with the verses arranged as follows:
Sent for the flowers and the lilies we love
Surely it's so, for in heaven's own way
The soul is a flower of the Master's bouquet
Chorus
Gathering flowers for the Master's bouquet
Beautiful flowers that will never decay
Gathered by angels and carried away
Forever to bloom in the Master's bouquet
We must be faithful till life's work is done
Blooming away in the warmth of the sun
But every bud and each blossom some day
Will bloom as a flower in the Master's bouquet
[chorus]
Death is an angel sent down from above
Sent for the buds of the flowers we love
Truly it's so, for in heaven's own way
Each soul is a flower in the Master's bouquet
[chorus]
Loved ones are passing each day and each hour
Passing away as the life of a flower
But every bud and each blossom some day
Will bloom as a flower in the Master's bouquet
[chorus]
Let us be faithfull till life's work is done
Blooming with love till the Reaper shall come
Then we'll be gathered together some day
Transplanted to bloom in the Master's bouquet
[chorus]
| Grateful Dead Recordings | ||||
| Date | Album | |||
| 26 Dec 1969 | Dave's Picks Volume 43 | |||