Green Fields Of France

Oh how do you do, young willy mcbride

Do you mind if i sit here down by your graveside

And rest for a 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 nineteen

When you joined the great fallen in 1916

I hope you died well

And i hope you died clean

Oh young willy mcbride, was is it slow and obscene

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 in chorus?

Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?

And did you leave 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 nineteen

Or are you a stranger without even a name

Enclosed then forever behind a glass pane

In an old photograph torn, battered, and stained

And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame

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 in chorus?

Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?

The sun now shines o'er these 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

No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now

But here in this graveyard it's still no man's land

The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand

To man's blind indifference to his fellow man

To a whole generation that were butchered and damned

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 in chorus?

Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?

Now young willy mcbride i cant help but wonder why

Do those who lie here know why they died?

Did they believe when they answered the cause?

Did they really believe that this war would end wars?

For the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the shame

The killing and dying were all done in vain

For young willy mcbride it all happened again

And again, and again, and again, and again

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 in chorus?

Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?