Eric Bogle The Green Fields Of France Lyrics

Well how do you do young Willie McBride do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside
And rest for while neath the warm summer sun I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only 19 when you joined the great fallen in 1916
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean or young Willie McBride was it slow andobscene

Chorus
Did they beat the drums slowly, did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus,
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

Did you leave ere a wife or a sweetheart behind in some faithful heart is your memory
enshrined
Although you died back in 1916 in that faithful heart are you forever 19
Or are you a stranger without even a name enclosed and forever behind the glass frame
In an old photograph torn and battered and stained and faded to yellow in a brown leather
Frame

Chorus

The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There's a warm summer breeze that makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no gun firing now
But here in this graveyard it's still no man's land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To a man's blind in indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation that were butchered and d___ed

Chorus
Young Willie Mc Bride 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 would end wars
But the sorrow the suffering the glory the pain, the killing, the dying was all done in vain
For young Willie Mc Bride it all happened again and again and again and again and again

Chorus x 2

Did they beat the drums slowly, did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus,
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest