Verse
G Em C Am
Well how do you do, young Willie McBride?
D D7 C G
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?
Em C Am
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun,
D D7 C G
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done.
G Em C Am
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen,
D C G D7
When you joined the great fallen in 1916,
G Em Am
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean,
D D7 C G
Or young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
[Chorus 1]
G D D7 C G
Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they play the fife lowly?
D D7 C D
Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
C G Em
Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?
G C D7 G
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
[Verse 2]
G Em C Am
Did you leave ere a wife or a sweetheart behind?
D D7 C G
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
Em C Am
Although you died back in 1916,
D D7 C G
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen?
G Em C Am
Or are you a stranger without even a name?
D C G D7
Enclosed in forever behind a glass frame,
G Em Am
In an old photograph all torn battered and stained,
D D7 C G
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.
[Chorus 2]
G D D7 C G
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
D D7 C D
Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
C G Em
Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?
G C D7 G
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
[Verse 3]
G Em C Am
The sun now it shines on the green fields of France,
D D7 C G
There's a warm summer breeze that makes the red poppies dance,
Em C Am
And look how the sun shines from under a cloud,
D D7 C G
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no gun firing now.
G Em C Am
But here in this graveyard it's still "No Man's Land",
D C G D7
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand,
G Em Am
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
D D7 C G
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned.
[Chorus 3]
G D D7 C G
Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they play the fife lowly?
D D7 C D
Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
C G Em
Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?
G C D7 G
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
[Verse 4]
G Em C Am
Ah, young Willie McBride I can't help wonder why,
D D7 C G
Do those that lie here know why did they die?
Em C Am
And did they believe when they answered the call?
D D7 C G
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
G Em C Am
Well, the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain,
D C G D7
The killing and dying were all done in vain,
G Em Am
For young Willie McBride it all happened again,
D D7 C G
And again, and again, and again, and again.
[Chorus 4]
G D D7 C G
Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they play the fife lowly?
D D7 C D
Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
C G Em
Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?
G C D7 G
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
G D D7 C G
Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they play the fife lowly?
D D7 C D
Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
C G Em
Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?
G C D7 G
And did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?