The green fields of France    (video)    (midi)

 

               D                                 G            A

1. Well, how do you do young Willie McBride ?

                   A         A7                  D

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

             D                                G                    A

    and rest for a while in the warm summer sun ?

                      A              A7         D

    I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done.

        D                                                  A      A7

    I see by your gravestone you were only 19,

                     A                         A7          D A

    when you joined the Great Fallen in 1916.

                 D                                       A                       G

    Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean,

            A                                 D

    or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene ?

 

                 A                    A7                     G               D

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly ?

                  A                        A7                  G                   A

Did they sound the Death March, as they lowered you down ?

               G                                             D

Did the band play the Last Post and Chorus ?

              D                      G                    A D

Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest ?

 

                   D                                       G                A

2. Did you leave a young wife or a sweetheart behind,

     A                         A7                D

    in some faithful heart is your memory enshrined ?

                       D                                       G A

    Though I know that you died back in 1916,

     A                     A7                 D

    in that faithful heart are you forever 19 ?

          D                                        A          A7

    Or are you a stranger without even a name,

          A                  A7          D                    A

    enclosed and forever behind an glass pane ?

              D                                     A                    G

    In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,

            A                                D

    and faded to yellow in a brown leather frame ?     +  CHORUS

 

 

 

 

 

             D                                      G                     A

3. The sun shines bright on the green fields of France,

             A                      A7                       D

    the warm summer breeze makes the red poppies dance.

             D                                          G               A

    The trenches are scattered long under the plough,

           A                      A7                     D

    no gas, no barbed wire, there’s no gun firing now.

             D                                      A                    A7

    But here in this graveyard it's still "No Man's Land",

             A                       A7                D                        A

    the countless white crosses are mute where they stand,

           D                                       A              G

    to man's blind indifference to his fellow man,

                   A                                       D

    and a whole generation that were butchered and damned. + CHOR.

 

        D                                             G            A

4. I can't help but wonder, young Willie McBride,

             A                  A7               D

    did those who lie here really know why they died ?

      D                                         G                    A

    Did they believe when they answered the call.

                   A          A7                    D

    did they really believe that this war would end wars ?

             D                                      A               A7

    The sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the shame,

           A                      A7            D                A

    the killing and the dying were all done in vain.

                  D                             A                 G

    Young Willie McBride, it all happened again,

               A                                 D

    and again, and again, and again, and again.    +  CHORUS (2x)

 

(orig. = capo 3rd; midi = capo 5th)    (The Corries)