C Am Fm D7
Well how do you do young Willie McBride
G Fm C
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside
Am Fm D7
And rest for a while in the warm summer sun
G Fm C
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done
C Am Fm D7
I see by your gravestone you were only 19
G Fm C G
When you joined the great fallen in 191
C Am D7
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
G Fm C
Or Willie McBride was it slow and obscene
Chorus:
C G
Did they beat the drum slowly
Fm C
Did they play the fife lowly
G Fm G
Did they sound the dead march as they lowered you down
Fm C Am
Did the band play the last post and chorus
C Fm G C
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest
C Am Fm D7
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
G Fm C
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined
Am Fm D
And though you died back in 191
G Fm C
To that loyal heart you're forever 19
C Am Fm D7
Or are you a stranger without even a name
G Fm C G
Forever enshrined behind some old glass pane
C Am D7
In an old photograph all torn tattered and stained
G Fm C
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame
Chorus
C Am Fm D7
The sun's shining down on these green fields of France
G Fm C
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
Am Fm D7
The trenches have vanished long under the plow
G Fm C
No gas no barbed wire no guns firing now
C Am Fm D7
But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land
G Fm C G
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
C Am D7
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
G Fm C
And a whole generation that were butchered and damned
Chorus
C Am Fm D7
And I can't help but wonder oh Willie McBride
G Fm C
Do all those who lie here know why they die
Am Fm C
Did you really believe them when they told you the cause
G Fm C
Did they really believe that this war would end wars
C Am Fm D7
Well the suffering the sorrow the glory the shame
G Fm C G
The killing and dying it was all done in vain
C Am D7
Oh Willie McBride it all happened again
G Fm C
And again and again and again and again