Three times and out: Will the circle be unbroken

By Tony Attwood

According to the official site, this song, (which turned up on the the Bootleg Series volume 11), was played three times in concert between 1 May 1961 and 14 July 2019 – making this probably the biggest spread across time of any of the occasionally played songs in this series. Three times in 58 years.

Interestingly, the official site hasn’t even managed to get a set of the lyrics.

But I should warn you that if you go looking for more all sorts of things will turn up, such as a Neil Young / Bob Dylan duo singing “Knocking on Heavern’s Door” which (at least when I looked at on on 27 December 2024), was labelled “Will the Circle”. Pesky things these labels – but worth mentioning here, because as I looked for recordings I came up with all sorts of things that suggest they were this song, but were not.

Anyway here’s the Basement Tapes version.

The song dates back to a hymn at the start of the 20th century with the almost identical name “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” written by by Ada R. Habershon and with music by Charles H. Gabriel.

The Carter Family 1935 used the updated version which has a very curious musical twist in that the rhythm moves from the expected four beats in a bar but cutting the beats short. Yet when they play an instrumental verse that doesn’t happen. Most disconcerting! The lyrics get right down to basics ….

Undertaker, undertaker, undertaker
Won't you please drive slow
For that lady you are haulin'
Lord, I hate to see her go.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band gave it their traditional bounce and the notion of the cold and cloudy day quickly vanishes and they keep the rhythm the same throughout, which I suspect is much more to modern audience tastes – as is the notion of celebration of a life rather than a mourning of a death as the original song creates.

Bob and Neil Young slow the piece down and give it a feel much closer to their normal sound.

The birthplace website add the comment that “The circle is unbroken because the music is handed down from generation to generation,” which I guess is true in itself although I am not certain that was the original meaning. But then I am not really qualified to comment on such things.

But I do have to add one other version

This is the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Johnny Cash and Ricky Skaggs. Somehow this seems somewhat more appropriate as a delivery of a departing soul to heaven.

But it is a song that can have an enormous effect on people. If you want to see how, take a look at the commentary under the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band performance. When I looked there were over 300 comments. I couldn’t take them all in by any means, but I must say I was extremely moved just from the first few.

Previously in this series…

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