Snap a capo on the third fret
SOL MIm DO LAm
E|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
B|------2---2-----|------0---0-----|------1---1-----|------1---1-----|
G|----0---0---0---|----0---0---0---|----0---0---0---|----3---3---3---|
D|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
A|----------------|----------------|--3-------------|--0-------------|
E|--3-------------|--0-------------|----------------|----------------|
And so on...
SOL MIm DO LAm
Well how do you do young Willie McBride,
RE RE7 DO SOL
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside,
MIm DO LAm
And rest for a while in the warm summer sun,
RE RE7 DO SOL
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done.
SOL MIm DO LAm
I see by your gravestone you were only 19,
RE DO SOL RE7
When you joined the great fallen in 1916,
SOL MIm LAm
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean,
RE RE7 DO SOL
Or Willie McBride was it slow and obscene.
Chorus
SOL RE RE7
Did they beat the drum slowly,
DO SOL
Did they play the fife lowly,
RE RE7 DO RE
Did they sound the dead march, as they lowered you down,
DO SOL MIm
Did the band play the last post and chorus,
SOL DO RE7 SOL
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest.
SOL MIm DO LAm
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind,
RE RE7 DO SOL
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined,
MIm DO LAm
And though you died back in 1916,
RE RE7 DO SOL
To that loyal heart you're forever 19.
SOL MIm DO LAm
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
RE DO SOL RE7
Forever enshrined behind some old glass pane,
SOL MIm LAm
In an old photograph all torn tattered and stained,
RE RE7 DO SOL
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.
Chorus
SOL MIm DO LAm
The sun's shining down on these green fields of France,
RE RE7 DO SOL
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance,
MIm DO LAm
The trenches have vanished long under the plow
RE RE7 DO SOL
No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
SOL MIm DO LAm
But here in this graveyard it's still "No Man's Land",
RE DO SOL RE7
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand,
SOL MIm LAm
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
RE RE7 DO SOL
And a whole generation that were butchered and damned.
Chorus
SOL MIm DO LAm
And I can't help but wonder, oh Willie McBride
RE RE7 DO SOL
Do all those who lie here know why they die,
MIm DO SOL
Did you really believe them when they told you the cause
RE RE7 DO SOL
Did they really believe that this war would end wars.
SOL MIm DO LAm
Well, the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
RE DO SOL RE7
The killing and dying it was all done in vain,
SOL MIm LAm
Oh Willie McBride it all happened again,
RE RE7 DO SOL
And again, and again, and again, and again.
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