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irishwolfetonescelticathe

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Song Info

Genre

World • World General

Charts

#3,723 in subgenre Peak #7

Charts

Peak #57

Uploaded

November 17, 2003

Track Files

MP3

MP3 4.7 MB • 128 kbps • 5:08

Story behind the song

Eric Bogle was born in Peebles Scotland and migrated to Australia in 1969, working, initially as an accountant. He gradually established himself as a prominent songwriter in the folk genre, becoming a full time songwriter/musician in 1980. 

"In 1976, my wife and I went to three or four of these military cemeteries and saw all the young soldiers buried there. 
And... couple of months later, I wrote a song called "No Man's Land," which is asking questions of a dead soldier..." 
Eric Bogle

Lyrics

How do you do young Willie McBride 
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside, 
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 nineteen 
When you joined the great fallen in 1916. 
I hope you died well, and I hope you died clean, 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 ? 
Did the band play The Last Post and chorus ? 
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest ? 

Did you leave ne'r a wife nor sweetheart behind, 
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined ? 
Although you died back in 1916, 
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen ? 
Or are you a stranger without even a name, 
Enclosed in forever behind a glass frame 
In an old photograph, torn battered and stained, 
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 and 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, makes the red poppies dance. 
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds, 
There's no gas, no barbed-wire, no gun firing now. 
Here in this graveyard it's still no-man's-land, 
The countless white crosses lie mute in the sand, 
To a 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 ? 
Did the band play The Last Post and chorus ? 
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest ? 

Young Willie McBride, can't help wondering why. 
Do all those who lie here, know why they died ? 
Did they believe when they answered the cause, 
Did they really believe that this war would end wars ? 
The sorrows, the suffering, the glory, the pain, 
The killing, the dying, were all done in vain. 
For young Willie McBride, 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 and 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 and chorus ? 
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest ?