Well how do you do, young Willie McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side,
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun?
I've been working all day and I'm nearly done.
I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the dead heroes of 1916.
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean.
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
Did they beat the drum 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'?
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 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed in forever behind the glass-pane
In an old photograph, torn, battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?
Did they beat the drum 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 it shines on the 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.
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's 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 d***ed.
Did they beat the drum 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 Willie McBride, I can't help wonder why,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
And did they believe when they answered the call,
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
For the sorrows, the suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing and dying was all done in vain,
For young Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.
Did they beat the drum 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'?
Did they beat the drum 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'?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side,
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun?
I've been working all day and I'm nearly done.
I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the dead heroes of 1916.
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean.
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
Did they beat the drum 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'?
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 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed in forever behind the glass-pane
In an old photograph, torn, battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?
Did they beat the drum 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 it shines on the 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.
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's 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 d***ed.
Did they beat the drum 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 Willie McBride, I can't help wonder why,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
And did they believe when they answered the call,
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
For the sorrows, the suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing and dying was all done in vain,
For young Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.
Did they beat the drum 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'?
Did they beat the drum 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'?