F                         Bb    C
Well how do you do, young Willy McBride?
C                              Bb      F
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside
     F                          Bb          C
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun
          C                Bb             F
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done
  F                               C
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
          C               F          Bb      C
When you joined the great fallen in nineteen-sixteen
  F
I hope you died well
      Bb
And I hope you died clean
          C                       Bb       F
Or young Willy McBride, was is it slow and obscene?

[Chorus]
         C
Did they beat the drums slowly?
         Bb            F
Did they play the fife lowly?
         C                             Bb          C
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
Bb                                 F        Dm   
Did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
        Dm             Bb             C     F
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

[Interlude]
F C Dm C

[Verse 2]
        F                       Bb        C
Did you leave here a wife or a sweetheart behind?
    C                          Bb        F
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
F                         Bb       C
Although you died back in nineteen-sixteen
   C                            Bb      F
In that faithful heart, are you forever nineteen?
   F                          C
Or are you a stranger without even a name
   C          F         Bb          C
Enclosed then forever behind a glass pane
       F                   Bb
In an old photograph torn, battered, and stained
    C                    Bb            F
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?

[Chorus]
         C
Did they beat the drums slowly?
         Bb            F
Did they play the fife lowly?
         C                             Bb          C
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
Bb                                 F       Dm
Did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
        Dm             Bb             C     F
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

[Verse 3]
    F                       Bb              C
The sun now shines o'er the green fields of France
           C                                Bb          F
There's a warm summer breeze that makes the red poppies dance
     F                           Bb        C
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
            C                              Bb         D
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no gun firing now
    F                           C
But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land
     C              F             Bb          C
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
   F                           Bb
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
     C                          Bb            F
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned


[Chorus]
         C
Did they beat the drums slowly?
         Bb            F
Did they play the fife lowly?
         C                             Bb          C
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
Bb                                 F        Dm
Did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
        Dm             Bb             C     F
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

[Verse 4]
          F                      Bb               C
Now young Willy McBride, I can't help but wonder, why?
   C                         Bb           F
Do those that lie here know? Why did they die?
    F                          Bb           C
And did they believe when they answered the call?
         C                        Bb            F
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
        F           F              C          C
For the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the shame
    C           F          Bb          C
The killing and dying were all done in vain
          F                    Bb
For young Willy McBride it all happened again
    C           C         Bb         F
And again, and again, and again, and again

[Chorus]
         C
Did they beat the drums slowly?
         Bb            F
Did they play the fife lowly?
         C                             Bb          C
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
Bb                                 F       Dm
Did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
        Dm             Bb             C     F
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

[Chorus]
         C
Did they beat the drums slowly?
         Bb            C
Did they play the fife lowly?
         C                             Bb          C
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
Bb                                 F       Dm
Did the band play the Last Post in chorus?
        Dm             Bb             C     F
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?