| Well, how do you do, young Willie McBride,
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?
And rest for awhile neath the warm summer sun,
I've been walkin all day, and I'm nearly done.
I see by your gravestone you are only 19
When you joined the great fallen in 1916,
Well, I hope you died well and I hope you died clean.
Or, young 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?
And did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play The Flowers of the Forest?
Did you leave a there 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 then, forever, behind a glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn, battered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown leathered 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?
And 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 damned. Did they Beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
And did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play The Flowers of the Forest?
Ah, young Willie McBride, I can't help wonderin why,
Do those that lie here know why did they die?
And did they believe when they answered the call,
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the pain,
The killing, the dying, were 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?
And did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
As sung by The Fureys and Davey Arthur
There are other versions of this song, but this is the one I heard while in Dublin. It made me cry, so I had to ask who was singing it and then bought the album - yes, album (no cd's back then ;-) *If the words are wrong, it is on me as I typed this while listening to the song. |
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