No Man's Land Words and music by Eric Bogle © 1976D G Em Well, how d'you do, Private William McBride? A D A Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside? D G Em I'll rest here awhile in the warm summer sun, A G D I've been walking all day, Lord, and I'm nearly done. D Em And I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen A7 D A When you joined the glorious fallen in Nineteen-Sixteen D Em Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean, A G D Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene? Chorus (after every verse): A Did they beat the drum slowly, G D Did they sound the fife lowly, A G D Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down? G A Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus? D G D Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?" D G Em Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind? A D A In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined? D G Em And, though you died back in Nineteen-Sixteen, A G D To that loyal heart are you always nineteen? D Em Or are you a stranger without even a name, A7 D A Forever enshrined behind some glass pane, D Em In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained, A G D And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame? Chorus (after every verse): A Did they beat the drum slowly, G D Did they sound the fife lowly, A G D Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down? G A Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus? D G D Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?" D G Em The sun's shining down on these green fields of France; A D A The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance. D G Em The trenches have vanished long under the plow; A G D No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now. D Em But here in this graveyard that's still No Man's Land A7 D A The countless white crosses in mute witness stand D Em To man's blind indifference to his fellow man. A G D And a whole generation who were butchered and damned. Chorus (after every verse): A Did they beat the drum slowly, G D Did they sound the fife lowly, A G D Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down? G A Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus? D G D Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?" D G Em And I can't help but wonder, now Willie McBride, A D A Do all those who lie here know why they died? D G Em Did you really believe them when they told you "The Cause?" A G D Did you really believe that this war would end wars? D Em Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame A7 D A The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain, D Em For Willie McBride, it all happened again, A G D And again, and again, and again, and again. Chorus (after every verse): A Did they beat the drum slowly, G D Did they sound the fife lowly, A G D Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down? G A Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus? D G D Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?"