Verse
E C#m A F#m
Well how do you do, young Willie McBride?
B B7 A E
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?
C#m A F#m
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun,
B B7 A E
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done.
E C#m A F#m
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen,
B A E B7
When you joined the great fallen in 1916,
E C#m F#m
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean,
B B7 A E
Or young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
[Chorus 1]
E B B7 A E
Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they play the fife lowly?
B B7 A B
Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
A E C#m
Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?
E A B7 E
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
[Verse 2]
E C#m A F#m
Did you leave ere a wife or a sweetheart behind?
B B7 A E
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
C#m A F#m
Although you died back in 1916,
B B7 A E
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen?
E C#m A F#m
Or are you a stranger without even a name?
B A E B7
Enclosed in forever behind a glass frame,
E C#m F#m
In an old photograph all torn battered and stained,
B B7 A E
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.
[Chorus 2]
E B B7 A E
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
B B7 A B
Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
A E C#m
Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?
E A B7 E
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
[Verse 3]
E C#m A F#m
The sun now it shines on the green fields of France,
B B7 A E
There's a warm summer breeze that makes the red poppies dance,
C#m A F#m
And look how the sun shines from under a cloud,
B B7 A E
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no gun firing now.
E C#m A F#m
But here in this graveyard it's still "No Man's Land",
B A E B7
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand,
E C#m F#m
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
B B7 A E
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned.
[Chorus 3]
E B B7 A E
Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they play the fife lowly?
B B7 A B
Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
A E C#m
Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?
E A B7 E
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
[Verse 4]
E C#m A F#m
Ah, young Willie McBride I can't help wonder why,
B B7 A E
Do those that lie here know why did they die?
C#m A F#m
And did they believe when they answered the call?
B B7 A E
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
E C#m A F#m
Well, the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain,
B A E B7
The killing and dying were all done in vain,
E C#m F#m
For young Willie McBride it all happened again,
B B7 A E
And again, and again, and again, and again.
[Chorus 4]
E B B7 A E
Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they play the fife lowly?
B B7 A B
Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
A E C#m
Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?
E A B7 E
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
E B B7 A E
Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they play the fife lowly?
B B7 A B
Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
A E C#m
Did the band play the Last Post and chorus?
E A B7 E
And did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?