Intro G
verse 1
G G C Am
Well how do you do now young Willie McBride
D D C G
Do you mind if I sit down beside your graveside
G G C Am
And rest for a while 'neath warm summer sun
D D C G
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done
G G C Am
Well I see by your gravestone you was only nineteen
D D C G
When you joined the great fallen of 1916
G G C Am
Well I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
D D C G
Or Willie McBride was it slow and obscene
Am C G
Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly
Am C D
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
G C
Did the band sound the last post and Chorus
G D G
Did they pipe the flowers of the forest
verse 2
G G C Am
Did you leave a young wife or a sweetheart behind
D D C G
In some faithful heart are your memories enshrined
G G C Am
For although you died back in 1916
D D C G
In that faithful heart you're forever nineteen
G G C Am
Or are you a stranger without even a name
D D C G
Enclosed forever behind a glass frame
G G C Am
In an old photograph torn, battered and stained
D D C G
Faded to yellow with brown leather frame
Am C G
Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly
Am C D
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
G C
Did the band sound the last post and
G D G
Did they pipe the flowers of the forest
verse 3
G G C Am
As the sun beats down on the green fields of France
D D C G
There's a soft summer breeze makes the red poppies dance
G G C Am
And see how the sun shines from under the clouds
D D C G
There's no gas, there's no barbed wire no guns firing now
G G C Am
Oh but here in this graveyard it's still no man's Land
D D C G
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
G G C Am
And through mans blind indifference to his fellow man
D D C G
To a whole generation who were butchered and damned
Chorus
Am C G
Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly
Am C D
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
G C
Did the band sound the last post and Chorus
G D G
Did they pipe the flowers of the forest
verse 4
G G C Am
Now Willie McBride I can't help wonder why
D D C G
Do those that lie here know why did they die
G G C Am
And did they believe when they answered the call
D D C G
Did they really believe that this war could end wars
G G C Am
Oh the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain
D D C G
The killing and dying t'was all done in vain
G G C Am
For young Willie McBride oh it happened again
D D C G
And again, and again, and again, and again
Am C G
Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly
Am C D
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
G C
Did the band sound the last post and
G D G
Did they pipe the flowers of the forest