the green fields of france

[00:07.65] Oh how do you do, young Willy McBride

[00:13.49] Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside

[00:18.54] And rest for a while in the warm summer sun

[00:23.31] I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done

[00:28.10] And I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen

[00:32.88] When you joined the great fallen in 1916

[00:39.25] Well I hope you died quick

[00:41.91] And I hope you died clean

[00:44.56] Or Willy McBride, was it slow and obscene

[00:48.81] Did they beat the drums slowly

[00:51.74] Did they play the fife lowly

[00:54.13] Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down

[00:56.51] Did the band play the last post and chorus

[01:00.77] Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

[01:13.52] And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind

[01:18.04] In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined

[01:24.14] And though you died back in 1916

[01:28.93] To that loyal heart you're forever nineteen

[01:33.70] Or are you a stranger without even a name

[01:38.76] Forever enshrined behind some old glass pane

[01:45.13] In an old photograph torn, tattered, and stained

[01:50.18] And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame

[01:54.69] Did they beat the drums slowly

[01:57.88] Did they play the fife lowly

[02:00.00] Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down

[02:06.11] Did the band play the last post and chorus

[02:11.16] Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

[02:19.39] The sun shining down on these green fields of France

[02:24.71] The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance

[02:30.02] The trenches have vanished long under the plow

[02:34.80] No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now

[02:39.84] But here in this graveyard that's still no mans land

[02:44.90] The countless white crosses in mute witness stand

[02:51.00] To man's blind indifference to his fellow man

[02:55.79] And a whole generation were butchered and damned

[03:00.84] Did they beat the drums slowly

[03:03.49] Did they play the fife lowly

[03:05.88] Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down

[03:11.99] Did the band play the last post and chorus

[03:17.57] Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

[03:26.06] And I can't help but wonder oh Willy McBride

[03:30.58] Do all those who lie here know why they died

[03:35.63] Did you really believe them when they told you the cause

[03:40.14] Did you really believe that this war would end wars

[03:45.20] Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame

[03:50.24] The killing and dying it was all done in vain

[03:56.35] Oh Willy McBride it all happened again

[04:01.92] And again, and again, and again, and again

[04:06.18] Did they beat the drums slowly

[04:09.36] Did they play the fife lowly

[04:11.75] Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down

[04:18.13] Did the band play the last post and chorus

[04:24.24] Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest