Key: F
Introduction: C
C F Dm
Well how do you do, Private Willie McBride?
G C G
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside,
C F Dm
And I'll rest for a while in the warm summer sun?
G F C
I've been walkin' all day, Lord, and I'm nearly done.
C Dm
And I see by your gravestone you were only 19
G C G
When you joined the glorious fallen in 19-16
C Dm
I hope you died quick, and I hope you died clean,
G F C
Or Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
G
Did they beat the drums slowly,
F C
Did they sound the fife lowly,
G F C*
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
F G*
Did the bugle sing The Last Post in chorus?
C F G C
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Fo-rest?
C F Dm
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart be-hind
G C G
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
C F Dm
And though you died back in 19-16
G F C
To that loyal heart are you forever 19
C Dm
Or are you a stranger without even a name
G C G
Forever enshrined be-hind some glass pane?
C Dm
In an old photograph, torn, tattered and stained
G F C
And fading to yellow in a brown, leather frame
G
Did they beat the drums slowly,
F C
Did they sound the fife lowly,
G F C*
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
F G*
Did the bugle sing The Last Post in chorus?
C F G C
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Fo-rest?
C F Dm
Well the sun's shining now on these green fields of France
G C G
The warm wind blows gently, the red poppies dance
C F Dm
The trenches have vanished long under the plough
G F C
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now
C Dm
But here in this graveyard that's still No Man&rsquo s Land
G C G
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
C Dm
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
G F C
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned
G
Did they beat the drums slowly,
F C
Did they sound the fife lowly,
G F C*
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
F G*
Did the bugle sing The Last Post in chorus?
C F G C
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Fo-rest?
C F Dm
And I can't help but wonder, Willie Mc-Bride
G C G
Do all those who lie here, know why they died?
C F Dm
Did you really believe them when they told you 'The Cause?&rsquo
G F C
You really believe that this war would end wars?
C Dm
Well, the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
G C G
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain
C Dm
For Willie McBride, it all happened again
G F C
And again, and again, and a-gain, and a-gain!
G
Did they beat the drums slowly,
F C
Did they sound the fife lowly,
G F C*
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
F G*
Did the bugle sing The Last Post in chorus?
C F G C
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Fo-rest?
F G
Did the bugle sing The Last Post in chorus?
C* F G C
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Fo-rest?
Close with this lovely lick from C*:
C G C
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