Peace Songbook

Where Will I Go When I'm Dead & Gone?

Music and lyrics by Peter Alsop

©1987 Moose School Music (BMI)

This one has over 230,650 hits on You Tube!

Children are infinitely curious, even about topics that can make adults uncomfortable. "Where Will I Go When I'm Dead & Gone?" illustrates a child's litany of questions about death, the euphemisms we use for death, and the various places we may go once we've left the earth. No answers here; just the unique imaginings of children who have yet to experience loss.

Lyrics

WHERE WILL I GO?

 

I’m glad that I can ask you about things that I don’t know                              

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Like, when my body dies, I wonder, where will I go? Oh,

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Chorus: 

Where will I go when I’m dead and gone?        C-G

Where will I go when I die?                                           C-G

If my body’s down in a hole in the ground,                 C-G-C-F

Will I fly up in the sky?                                                   G-G7

Oh, where will I go when I die?                                      G7-C

 

Dead goldfish go down the toilet bowl                          G-C

Dead mice go out in the trash                                        G-C

My sick cat disappeared at the vets                              G-C

And Grandma came home in a pot full of ashes!         D7-G-G7

Will I be a ghost in a haunted house?                           C-G

Will I scare kids when I say, “BOOO!!”                          C-G

Will my foot hurt, when I kick the bucket?                    C-G-C-F

I don’t know, do you?                                                       G-G7

 

Cho

(If my body’s turned into smoke and burned,

Will I make a tear in your eye?)

 

Hey, maybe you could dress me up and keep me around       Am

Sit me in your kitchen chair                                                   F-Am

Then if you got lonely and you needed someone,               Am

I’d be right there!                                                                      F-G

Or you could hang me out in the sun on your patio,            E-Am

I’d dry hard as a stone                                                              Dm-E

And the wind would make music on me, like a radio!           F-C

You could dance to my rattlin’ bones!                                      F-G

 

Cho:

(If my body gives, some parts t’save kids,

Will I disappear like a sigh?)

 

Some people say we all go up to Heaven,

Where no one’s cold or scared.

I bet no one’s lonely in Heaven,

They only let friendly people in there!

 

My questions make some people nervous,

“This stuff’s not for kids!” they say,

I don’t care if you don’t know,

I need to ask you anyway.

 

 Cho: 

(If my “bod’s” in a box down under the rocks,

Can I get cable T.V. inside?!)

Oh, where will I go,

Doesn’t anyone know,

Tell me where will I go when I die?!

 

 

Written by Peter Alsop. ©1987, Moose School Music (BMI)

On Stayin’ Over and Songs On Loss & Grief– www.peteralsop.com

 

 

 

 

WHERE WILL I GO?

      EXERCISES: Lie quietly with your fingers in your ears and listen to your heart, your breath, and all the sounds your body makes. See if you can feel your blood going around in your vessels.  Then try to locate where "you" are inside your body.  Good luck!

      QUESTIONS: If part of your body was missing, would you be the same "inside"?  What would you do with your body if you didn't need it anymore? If you knew it would help someone live longer or see better, would you let them use parts of your body after you were dead?  Which parts would you let them use?  Why?

      DISCUSSION: Discussing death or loss with kids can be very difficult for adults.  We are often unclear about our own feelings.  Sometimes we just shutdown, or our unresolved fears or losses may surface, and we might begin to cry.  Kids can usually handle crying; they just need to know that it’s safe to talk with you about death.  When kids are curious, it provides an opportunity to discuss some of the myths about dying.  It’s also important to remember that we don’t know much about our human spirit, and what happens to it after our bodies stop.  Science has not been able to shed much light on the subject, but there are so many reports of near-death and out-of-body experiences, reincarnation, extra sensory perception and other psychic phenomena, that we can’t just throw out the possibility that our spirit continues on in some form after death. Because we rarely have advance notice about death, it makes sense to let our friends and families know that we love them, while they are still alive.

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