[Intro]
F C Dm C (x2)
[Verse 1]
F A# C
Well how do you do, young Willy McBride?
C A# C
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside
F A# C
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun
C A# F
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done
F C
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
C F A# C
When you joined the great fallen in nineteen-sixteen
F
I hope you died well
A#
And I hope you died clean
C A# F
Or young Willy McBride, was is it slow and obscene?
[Chorus]
C
Did they beat the drums slowly?
A# C
Did they play the fife lowly?
C A# C
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
A# F
Did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
Dm A# C F
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
[Interlude]
F C Dm C
[Verse 2]
F A# C
Did you leave here a wife or a sweetheart behind?
C A# F
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
F A# C
Although you died back in nineteen-sixteen
C A# F
In that faithful heart, are you forever nineteen?
F C
Or are you a stranger without even a name
C A# C
Enclosed then forever behind a glass pane
F A#
In an old photograph torn, battered, and stained
C A# F
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?
[Chorus]
C
Did they beat the drums slowly?
A# C
Did they play the fife lowly?
C A# C
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
A# F
Did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
Dm A# C F
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
[Verse 3]
F A# C
The sun now shines o'er the green fields of France
C A# F
There's a warm summer breeze that makes the red poppies dance
F A# C
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
C A# C
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no gun firing now
F C
But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land
C F A# C
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
F A#
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
C A# F
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned
[Chorus]
C
Did they beat the drums slowly?
A# C
Did they play the fife lowly?
C A# C
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
A# F
Did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
Dm A# C F
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
[Verse 4]
F A# C
Now young Willy McBride, I can't help but wonder, why?
C A# F
Do those that lie here know why they died?
F A# C
And did they believe when they answered the call?
C A# C
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
F F C F
For the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the shame
C F A# C
The killing and dying were all done in vain
F A#
For young Willy McBride it all happened again
C C A# F
And again, and again, and again, and again
[Chorus]
C
Did they beat the drums slowly?
A# C
Did they play the fife lowly?
C A# C
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
A# F
Did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
Dm A# C F
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
[Chorus]
C
Did they beat the drums slowly?
A# C
Did they play the fife lowly?
C A# C
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
A# F
Did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
Dm A# C F
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?