The Green Fields of France Songtext
von The Fureys

Well how do you do, young Willie McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside
And rest for a while, ′neath the warm summer sun?
I been walkin' all day, and I′m nearly done

I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the Great Fallen in 1916
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
Or young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the Death March as they lowered you down?
Did the band play the last post and chorus?
And did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

Did you leave Éire a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart, is your memory enshrined?
And though you died back in 1916
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen


Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed and forever behind a glass frame
In an old photograph, torn, battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the Death March as they lowered you down?
Did the band play the last post and chorus?
And did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

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 dammed

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the Death March as they lowered you down?
Did the band play the last post and chorus?
And did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?


Well young Willie McBride, 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 war?

Well the sorrow, the sufferin′, the glory, the pain
The killing and dying were all done in vain
For young Willie McBride, it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the Death March as they lowered you down?
Did the band play the last post and chorus?
And did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the Death March as they lowered you down?
Did the band play the last post and chorus?
And did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?