Songfacts®:

• In "Death Is Not The End," Bob Dylan assures us that life continues after this earthly incarnation ends. In each verse he lists a series of foreboding scenarios, the most intense of which speaks of cities on fire "with the burning flesh of men." In each chorus, he soothes our fears, repeating "death is not the end" in a gently croaking voice that's comforting to some and creepy to others.
• Clydie King sang background vocals on the song. She also sang on "Sweet Home Alabama" and was rumored to have secretly married Dylan. The claim first materialized when Dylan's girlfriend Susan Ross told the story to newspapers in 1998. In 1973, using the moniker Brown Sugar, King recorded a single titled "Loneliness (Will Bring Us Together Again)" that hit #44 on the R&B chart.
• Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits co-produced "Death Is Not The End" with Dylan five years before the song was released on Down in the Groove, Dylan's 25th album. The pair recorded the track while working on Dylan's 22nd album, Infidels, in 1983.
  
  Dylan wasn't confident with the new studio technology of the era, so he went looking for someone to help. David Bowie, Elvis Costello, and Frank Zappa all declined his invitation before Knopfler accepted. The Dire Straits frontman later admitted that there were challenges because the way the two of them approached music was very different, and those fears were realized when Dylan decided to pull the track from Infidels shortly before publication.
  
  Knopfler also plays guitar on the song, and his Dire Straits bandmate Alan Clark added keyboards.
• A collection of hip-hop and R&B musicians called Full Force sang backing vocals on the song.
• Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare of Sly and Robbie played on the song. They were a Jamaican production team and rhythm section that were very active from 1980 through the early 2000s. Dunbar did the drums and Shakespeare provided bass for "Death Is Not The End." Shakespeare died in 2021 at aged 68 from complications following kidney surgery.
• One-time Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor plays guitar on the song.
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds covered "Death Is Not The End" in 1996 on their ninth studio album, Murder Ballads. In a piece for Alternative Press, journalist Dave Thompson humorously called it "We Are The World"-esque because it features several singers, including Cave, his former girlfriend and early collaborator Anita Lane, Kylie Minogue (who's featured on "Where The Wild Roses Grow" earlier on the album), PJ Harvey (who also appears on Murder Ballads in the song "Henry Lee"), and Bad Seeds members Thomas Wydler and Blixa Bargeld. Cave later said that he felt the cover was beautiful but that it was also "kind of jokey."