The Green Fields Of France

  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
-
  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 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
-
  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 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
-
  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