Intro G 
     
verse 1 

     G          G            C        Am 
Well how do you do now young Willie McBride 
       D         D          C              G 
Do you mind if I sit down beside your graveside 
    G          G            C           Am 
And rest for a while 'neath warm summer sun 
          D           D       C          G 
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done 
       G           G              C        Am 
Well I see by your gravestone you was only nineteen 
         D                D         C G 
When you joined the great fallen of 1916 
       G             G          C             Am 
Well I hope you died well and I hope you died clean 
   D        D            C          G 
Or Willie McBride was it slow and obscene 



[Refrão]
         Am                       C             G 
Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly 
         Am                            C           D 
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down 
        G                            C 
Did the band sound the last post and Chorus 
         G                       D  G 
Did they pipe the flowers of the forest 

verse 2 

        G             G         C           Am 
Did you leave a young wife or a sweetheart behind 
   D             D              C           G 
In some faithful heart are your memories enshrined 
       G              G       C  Am 
For although you died back in 1916 
   D             D               C        G 
In that faithful heart you're forever nineteen 
   G         G                C      Am 
Or are you a stranger without even a name 
   D     D         C            G 
Enclosed forever behind a glass frame 
      G        G           C            Am 
In an old photograph torn, battered and stained 
D               D          C       G 
Faded to yellow with brown leather frame
 

[Refrão]


         Am                       C             G 
Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly 
         Am                            C           D 
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down 
        G                            C 
Did the band sound the last post and 
         G                       D  G 
Did they pipe the flowers of the forest 

verse 3 

       G         G           C               Am 
As the sun beats down on the green fields of France 
          D           D                C           G 
There's a soft summer breeze makes the red poppies dance 
    G           G               C         Am 
And see how the sun shines from under the clouds 
           D               D              C           G 
There's no gas, there's no barbed wire no guns firing now 
       G            G              C              Am 
Oh but here in this graveyard it's still no man's Land 
    D               D             C           G 
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand 
            G          G               C          Am 
And through mans blind indifference to his fellow man 
     D         D               C             G 
To a whole generation who were butchered and damned 
Chorus 
         Am                       C             G 
Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly 
         Am                            C           D 
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down 
        G                            C 
Did the band sound the last post and Chorus 
         G                       D  G 
Did they pipe the flowers of the forest 
verse 4 
    G        G             C           Am 
Now Willie McBride I can't help wonder why  
   D          D             C            G 
Do those that lie here know why did they die 
    G          G               C            Am 
And did they believe when they answered the call 
         D        D               C             G 
Did they really believe that this war could end wars 
       G           G              C          Am 
Oh the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain 
    D           D           C           G 
The killing and dying t'was all done in vain 
          G        G           C        Am 
For young Willie McBride oh it happened again 
    D          D          C          G 
And again, and again, and again, and again 


[Refrão]

         Am                       C             G 
Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly 
         Am                            C           D 
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down 
        G                            C 
Did the band sound the last post and 
         G                       D  G 
Did they pipe the flowers of the forest