No Man’s Land (Green fields of France)
(Video versions are by Eric Bogle, The Fureys and The Corries)
(intro - The Fureys) (midi)

G C Am

1. Well, how'd you do, Private William McBride,

D G D

do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?

G C Am

And I'll rest for awhile in the warm summer sun,

D C G

I’ve been walking all day, Lord, and I'm nearly done.

G Am

I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen,

D G D

when you joined the glorious fallen in 1916.

G Am

Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you died "clean,"

D C G

or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

D C G

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?

D C G

Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered ye down?

C D

Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus?

G C D G - C - D - G

Did the pipes play the "Floors O’ The Forest"?

G C Am

2. And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind,

D G D

in some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?

G C Am

And, though you died back in 1916,

D C G

to that loyal heart are you always nineteen?

G Am

Or are you a stranger, without even a name,

D G D

forever enshrined behind some glass pane,

G Am

in an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,

D C G

and fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

D C G

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?

D C G

Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered ye down?

C D

Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus?

G C D G - C - D - G

Did the pipes play the "Floors O’ The Forest"?

G C Am

3. Well, the sun's shining down on these green fields of France,

D G D

the warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance.

G C Am

The trenches have vanished long under the plough,

D C G

no gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.

G Am

But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land,

D G D

the countless white crosses in mute witness stand,

G Am

to man's blind indifference to his fellow man,

D C G

and a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

D C G

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?

D C G

Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered ye down?

C D

Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus?

G C D G - C - D - G

Did the pipes play the "Floors O’ The Forest"?

G C Am

4. And I can't help but wonder now, Willie McBride,

D G D

do all those who lie here know why they died?

G C Am

Did you really believe them, when they told you "the cause?"

D C G

Did you really believe that this war would end wars?

G Am

The suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame,

D G D

the killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,

G Am

for Willie McBride, it all happened again,

D C G

and again, and again, and again, and again.

D C G

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?

D C G

Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered ye down?

C D

Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus?

G C D G

Did the pipes play the "Floors O’ The Forest"?

C D

Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus?

G C D G

Did the pipes play the "Floors O’ The Forest"?

(midi = capo 5th) (Eric Bogle)