Skip to content

The Green Fields of France (No Man's Land)

Damien Leith
Popularity ยท Low
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง English ยท Original

YouTube

Searching YouTube...

Lyrics

Well how do you do private William McBride Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside? And rest for a while in the warm summer sun I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done I see by your graveside you were only 19 When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916 Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean Oh Willie McBride was it slow and obscene? Did they beat the drums slowly? Did they play the fife lowly? Did the rifles fire over you as they lowered you down? Did the bugles sound the last post and chorus? Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest? And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind? In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined? And though you died back in 1916 To that loyal heart are you always 19? Or are you a stranger without even a name? Enshrined forever behind some glass pane Or in an old photograph torn and tattered and stained Fade into yellow in a brown leather frame Did they beat the drums slowly? Did they play the fife lowly? Did the rifles fire over you as they lowered you down? Did the bugles sound the last post and chorus? Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest? The sun's shining down on these green fields of France The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance The trenches have vanished long under the plow No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now But here in this graveyard that's still no man's land The countless white crosses in mute witness stand To man's blind indifference to his fellow man And a whole generation who were butchered and damned Did they beat the drums slowly? Did they play the fife lowly? Did the rifles fire over you as they lowered you down? Did the bugles sound the last post and chorus? Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest? And I can't help but wonder now Willie McBride Do all those who lie here know why they died? Did you really believe them when they told you the cause? Did you really believe that this war would end the wars? And the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain For Willie McBride it's all happened again And again and again and again and again Did they beat the drums slowly? Did they play the fife lowly? Did the rifles fire over you as they lowered you down? Did the bugles sound the last post and chorus? Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest? Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?