;Willie McBride (Green Fields of France)
;Eric Bogle


.     C          Am       F        Dm
 Well how do you do young Willie McBride,
.       G                       F           C
 Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside,
.    C          Am           F           Dm
 And rest for a while in the warm summer sun,
.          G                   F          C
 I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done.
.  C           Am                  F        Dm
 I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen,
.         G                          F           G
 When you joined the great fallen in nineteen sixteen,
.     C               Am          Dm
 Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean,
.   G                     F          C
 Or Willie McBride was it slow and obscene.


[C]
.         G
 Did they beat the drum slowly,
.         F             C
 Did they play the fife lowly,
.         G                              F           G
 Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down,
.        F             Dm           C      Am
 Did the band play the Last Post in chorus,
.        C              F              G    C
 Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest.
[]


.        C           Am        F          Dm
 And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind,
.   G                        F          C
 In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined,
.    C               Am      F           Dm
 And though you died back in nineteen sixteen,
.   G                       F           C
 To that loyal heart you're forever nineteen.
.   C         Am           F          Dm
 Or are you a stranger without even a name,
.   G                     F              G
 Forever enshrined behind some old glass pane,
.      C        Am             Dm
 In an old photograph all torn tattered and stained,
.    G                    F             C
 And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.


[C]
.         G
 Did they beat the drum slowly,
.         F             C
 Did they play the fife lowly,
.         G                              F           G
 Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down,
.        F             Dm           C      Am
 Did the band play the Last Post in chorus,
.        C              F              G    C
 Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest.
[]



.    C             Am            F               Dm
 The sun's shining down on these green fields of France,
.    G                              F           C
 The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance,
.    C             Am            F         Dm
 The trenches have vanished long under the plow
.   G                       F           C
 No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
.    C            Am             F               Dm
 But here in this graveyard it's still "No Man's Land",
.    G                          F            G
 The countless white crosses in mute witness stand,
.   C              Am           Dm
 To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
.      G                          F             C
 And a whole generation that were butchered and damned.


[C]
.         G
 Did they beat the drum slowly,
.         F             C
 Did they play the fife lowly,
.         G                              F           G
 Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down,
.        F             Dm           C      Am
 Did the band play the Last Post in chorus,
.        C              F              G    C
 Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest.
[]


.    C                Am         F        Dm
 And I can't help but wonder, oh Willie McBride
.   G                      F             C
 Do all those who lie here know why they died,
.        C        Am                   F            Dm
 Did you really believe them when they told you the cause
.G                                 F             C
 Did they really believe that this war would end wars.
.        C                Am          F          Dm
 Well, the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
.    G                        F           G
 The killing and dying it was all done in vain,
.   C        Am           Dm
 Oh Willie McBride it all happened again,
.    G                       F          C
 And again, and again, and again, and again.


[C]
.         G
 Did they beat the drum slowly,
.         F             C
 Did they play the fife lowly,
.         G                              F           G
 Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down,
.        F             Dm           C      Am
 Did the band play the Last Post in chorus,
.        C              F              G    C
 Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest.
[]