The Green Fields Of France

Intro verse 1 Well how do you do now young Willie McBride Do you mind if I sit down beside your graveside And rest for a while 'neath warm summer sun I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done Well I see by your gravestone you was only nineteen When you joined the great fallen of 1916 Well I hope you died well and I hope you died clean Or Willie McBride was it slow and obscene Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down Did the band sound the last post and Chorus Did they pipe the flowers of the forest verse 2 Did you leave a young wife or a sweetheart behind In some faithful heart are your memories enshrined For although you died back in 1916 In that faithful heart you're forever nineteen Or are you a stranger without even a name Enclosed forever behind a glass frame In an old photograph torn, battered and stained Faded to yellow with brown leather frame Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down Did the band sound the last post and Did they pipe the flowers of the forest verse 3 As the sun beats down on the green fields of France There's a soft summer breeze makes the red poppies dance And see how the sun shines from under the clouds There's no gas, there's no barbed wire no guns firing now Oh but here in this graveyard it's still no man's Land The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand And through mans blind indifference to his fellow man To a whole generation who were butchered and damned Chorus Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down Did the band sound the last post and Chorus Did they pipe the flowers of the forest verse 4 Now Willie McBride I can't help wonder why Do those that lie here know why did they die And did they believe when they answered the call Did they really believe that this war could end wars Oh the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain The killing and dying t'was all done in vain For young Willie McBride oh it happened again And again, and again, and again, and again Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down Did the band sound the last post and Did they pipe the flowers of the forest