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

Oh how do you do, young Willy McBride?

Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?

And rest for awhile in the warm summer sun

I've been walkin' all day and I'm nearly done

And I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen

When you joined the great fallen in 1916

Well I hope you died quick

And I hope you died clean

Oh Willy McBride was 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 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, you're forever nineteen

Or are you a stranger without even a name?

Forever enshrined behind some old glass pane

In an old photograph, torn, tattered, 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 and chorus?

Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

The sun's shinin' 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, 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 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 and chorus?

Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

And I can't help but wonder no, Willy 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 wars?

Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame

The killing and dying, it was all done in vain

Oh 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 and chorus?

Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?