The Green Fields of France
Intro: 1 2 3 1 2 3 G 2 3 Em 2 3 C 2 3 Am 2 3 D 2 3 D 2 3 C 2 3 G 2 3
Well how do you do young Willie Mc Bride do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside
And rest for a while neath the warm summer sun I’ve been walking all day and I’m nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen when you joined the great fallen in nineteen sixteen
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean or young Willie Mc Bride was it slow and obscene
Chorus
Did they beat the drums slowly, did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the dead march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus,
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest 2 3 Em 2 3 C 2 3 D 2 3

Did you leave ere a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
Although you died back in nineteen sixteen
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed and forever behind the glass frame
In an old photograph torn, battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame
Chorus
Did they beat the drums slowly, did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the dead march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus,
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest 2 3 Em 2 3 C 2 3 D 2 3

The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There’s a warm summer breeze that makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
There’s no gas, no barbed wire, there’s no gun firing now
But here in this graveyard it’s still no man’s land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man’s blind indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned
Chorus
Did they beat the drums slowly, did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the dead march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus,
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest 2 3 Em 2 3 C 2 3 D 2 3
A 2 3 F#m 2 3 D 2 3 E 2 3 A 2 3 F#m 2 3 D 2 3 E 2 3
Young Willie Mc Bride I can't help wonder why do those that lie here know why did they die
And did they believe when they answered the call did they really believe that this war would end wars
But the sorrow the suffering the glory the pain, the killing, the dying was all done in vain
For young Willie Mc Bride it all happened again and a-gain and again and again and again
ChorusTwice
Did they beat the drums slowly, did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the dead 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 drums slowly, did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the dead march as they lowered you down
Did the band play the last post and chorus,
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest
2 3 F#m 2 3 D 2 3 E 2 3 A 2 3 A 2 3 A 2 3 A 2 3 A

Willie Mc Bride
Bass
Piano
Guitar
Strings
Pan Flute
Strings
Banjo
Trumpet
Flute
Drums
Mandolin
Arranged by Frank Lennon
flennon@indigo.ie
www.socc.ie/~midiclass
www.socc.ie/~irishmidifiles
For Jim and Wynne
Cummins
Washington DC
Lovers of Irish music
and friends to Irish
musicians