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Snap a capo on the third fret
G Em C Am
E|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
B|------2---2-----|------0---0-----|------1---1-----|------1---1-----|
G|----0---0---0---|----0---0---0---|----0---0---0---|----3---3---3---|
D|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
A|----------------|----------------|--3-------------|--0-------------|
E|--3-------------|--0-------------|----------------|----------------|
And so on...
G Em C Am
Well how do you do young Willie McBride,
D D7 C G
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside,
Em C Am
And rest for a while in the warm summer sun,
D D7 C G
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done.
G Em C Am
I see by your gravestone you were only 19,
D C G D7
When you joined the great fallen in 1916,
G Em Am
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean,
D D7 C G
Or Willie McBride was it slow and obscene.
Chorus
G D D7
Did they beat the drum slowly,
C G
Did they play the fife lowly,
D D7 C D
Did they sound the dead march, as they lowered you down,
C G Em
Did the band play the last post and chorus,
G C D7 G
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest.
G Em C Am
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind,
D D7 C G
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined,
Em C Am
And though you died back in 1916,
D D7 C G
To that loyal heart you're forever 19.
G Em C Am
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
D C G D7
Forever enshrined behind some old glass pane,
G Em Am
In an old photograph all torn tattered and stained,
D D7 C G
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.
Chorus
G Em C Am
The sun's shining down on these green fields of France,
D D7 C G
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance,
Em C Am
The trenches have vanished long under the plow
D D7 C G
No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
G Em C Am
But here in this graveyard it's still "No Man's Land",
D C G D7
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand,
G Em Am
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
D D7 C G
And a whole generation that were butchered and damned.
Chorus
G Em C Am
And I can't help but wonder, oh Willie McBride
D D7 C G
Do all those who lie here know why they die,
Em C G
Did you really believe them when they told you the cause
D D7 C G
Did they really believe that this war would end wars.
G Em C Am
Well, the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
D C G D7
The killing and dying it was all done in vain,
G Em Am
Oh Willie McBride it all happened again,
D D7 C G
And again, and again, and again, and again.
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