Well[C] how do you do young[F] Willy Mc[Dm] Bride
Do you[G] mind if I sit here down[C] by your grave[G]side
And[C] rest for a while in the[F] warm summer[Dm] sun
I've been[G] walking all day and[F] I'm nearly[C] done
I[C] see by your gravestone your were[F] only nine[Dm]teen
When you[G] joined the great falling in[C] nineteen fif[G]teen
Well I[C] hope you died well and I[F] hope you died[Dm] clean
Or young[G] Willy Mc Bride was it[F] slow and ob[C]scene
[Chorus]
Did[G] they beat the drum slowly ,did they[F] sound the fifes[C] lowly
Did they[G] sound the death march as they[F] lowered you[C] down
Did the[F] band play the last post and[G] chorus
Did the[F] pipes play the[Dm] flowers of the[G] fo[C]rest.
[2]
Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithfull heart is your memory enshrined
And though you died back in nineteen fifteen
In some faith full heart are you forever nineteen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enshrined forever behind a glass frame
In an old photograph torn battered and stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame.
[Repeat Chorus]
[3]
Well the sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There's a warm summer breeze it makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the cloudes
There's no gas no barbed wire , there's no gun firing now.
But here in this graveyard it's still no mans land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man's blind indefference to his fellow man
To a whole generation that were butchered and dammed
[Repeat Chorus]
Well Will Mc Bride I cant help wonder why
Do those that lie here know why did they die
And did they beleive when they ansered the call
Did they really belive that this war would end war
Well the sorrow the suffering the glory the pain
The killing the dying was all done in vain
For young Willy Mc Bride it all happened again
And again,and again,and again,and again
WILLIE MCBRIDE'S REPLY
Lyrics: Stephen L. Suffet, This is the reply that Willie McBride gives to Eric Bogle. The song is set to the
same tune as The Green Fields Of France , and what a great tribute it is to Eric's song . I wonder has this reply to a song
been done this way before ?
My dear friend Eric, this is Willie McBride,
Today I speak to you across the divide,
Of
years and of distance of life and of death,
Please let me speak freely with my silent breath.
You might think me
crazy, you might think me daft,
I could have stayed back in Erin, where there wasn't a draft,
But my parents they raised
me to tell right from wrong,
So today I shall answer what you asked in your song.
Yes, they beat the drum slowly,
they played the pipes lowly,
And the rifles fired o'er me as they lowered me down,
The band played "The Last Post" in
chorus,
And the pipes played "The Flowers of the Forest."
Ask the people of Belgium or Alsace-Lorraine,
If my
life was wasted, if I died in vain.
I think they will tell you when all's said and done,
They welcomed this boy with
his tin hat and gun.
And call it ironic that I was cut down,
While in Dublin my kinfolk were fighting the Crown.
But
in Dublin or Flanders the cause was the same:
To resist the oppressor, whatever his name.
Yes, they beat the drum
slowly...,,,.
It wasn't for King or for England I died,
It wasn't for glory or the Empire's pride.
The reason
I went was both simple and clear:
To stand up for freedom did I volunteer.
It's easy for you to look back and sigh,
And
pity the youth of those days long gone by,
For us who were there, we knew why we died,
And I'd do it again, says Willie
McBride.
