Oh how do you do, young willy mcbride
Do you mind if i sit here down by your graveside
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun
I've been walking 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
Oh young willy mcbride, was is it slow and obscene
Did they beat the drums 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 in chorus?
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
Although you died back in 1916
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed then forever behind a glass pane
In an old photograph torn, battered, and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame
Did they beat the drums 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 in chorus?
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?
The sun now shines o'er these 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
No gas, no barbed wire, no guns 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 damned
Did they beat the drums 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 in chorus?
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?
Now young willy mcbride i cant help but wonder why
Do those who lie here know why they died?
Did they believe when they answered the cause?
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
For the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the shame
The killing and dying were all done in vain
For young willy mcbride it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again
Did they beat the drums 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 in chorus?
Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?
