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