The Green Fields Of France-International Pub Ensemble

[ti:The Green Fields Of France] [ar:International Pub Ensemble] [al:50 Irish & British Pub Songs] [by:] [offset:0] [00:00.00]The Green Fields Of France - International Pub Ensemble [00:09.86]Oh how do you do young Willie McBride [00:14.20] [00:15.52]Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside [00:20.20] [00:21.81]And rest for a while in the warm summer sun [00:26.44] [00:27.56]I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done [00:32.28] [00:35.27]And I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen [00:39.62] [00:41.06]When you joined the great fallen in Nineteen-Sixteen [00:45.40] [00:48.37]Well I hoped you died quick and I hoped you died clean [00:53.18] [00:54.18]Or Willie McBride was it slow and obscene [00:59.29] [01:00.24]Did they beat the drums slowly [01:02.95]Did they play the fife lowly [01:05.69]Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down [01:10.90] [01:13.07]Did the band play the last post in chorus [01:17.08] [01:19.23]Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest [01:23.33] [01:29.70]And Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind [01:34.73] [01:35.81]In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined [01:40.37] [01:41.72]And though you died back in Nineteen-Sixteen [01:45.75] [01:47.70]To that loyal heart you're forever nineteen [01:52.16] [01:54.98]Or are you a stranger without even a name [01:59.44] [02:00.81]Forever enshrined behind some old glass pane [02:06.38] [02:07.78]In an old photograph torn and tattered and stained [02:12.89] [02:13.85]And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame [02:18.78] [02:19.83]Did they beat the drums slowly [02:22.39]Did they play the fife lowly [02:25.20]Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down [02:30.45] [02:32.58]Did the band play the last post in chorus [02:36.39] [02:38.26]Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest [02:43.46] [02:49.51]The sun's shining down on these green fields of France [02:54.57] [02:55.14]The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance [02:59.88] [03:01.23]The trenches have vanished long under the plow [03:05.94] [03:06.65]No gas no barbed wire; no guns firing now [03:11.62] [03:14.11]But here in this graveyard that's still no mans land [03:19.19] [03:20.39]The countless white crosses in mute witness stand [03:25.10] [03:27.20]To a man's blind indifference to his fellow man [03:32.37] [03:33.36]And a whole generation were butchered and damned [03:38.10] [03:38.81]Did they beat the drums slowly [03:41.37] [03:41.95]Did they play the fife lowly [03:44.47]Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down [03:49.55] [03:51.63]Did the band play the last post and chorus [03:55.72] [03:57.86]Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest [04:02.03] [04:08.01]And I can't help but wonder oh Willie McBride [04:12.61] [04:14.32]Do all those that lie here know why they died [04:18.62] [04:20.15]Did you really believe them when they told you the cause [04:25.19] [04:25.90]Did you really believe that this war would end wars [04:30.79] [04:32.25]Well the suffring' the sorrow the glory the shame [04:38.18] [04:39.22]The killing and dying it was all done in vain [04:44.02] [04:46.17]Oh Willie McBride it all happened again [04:51.13] [04:52.21]And again and again and again and again [04:56.40] [04:57.54]Did they beat the drums slowly [05:00.53]Did they play the fife lowly [05:03.43]Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down [05:08.48] [05:10.81]Did the band play the last post in chorus [05:14.76] [05:15.96]Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest