Friday, June 25, 2010

Music for a Friday Night

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=huRwBFmAx78&feature=related


So do ye do young Willy McBride
Do ya mind if ah sit here down beside yer grave side
And rest for awhile in the warm summer sun
I bin walkin' all day and I'm nearly done.

And ah see by yer gravestone that ye were only nineteen
When ye joined the great fallen in nineteen fifteen
Well I hope ye died quick and I hope ye died clean
or Willy McBride was it slow and obscene


Did they play the drum slowly and did the play the fife lowly
did they sound the death march as they lowered ya down
did the band play the last post and chorus, and
did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest"?


And did ya leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
in some loyal heart is your memory enshrined
And though ya died in nineteen sixteen
ta that loyal heart you are forever nineteen.

Or are you a stranger without even a name
forever enshrined behind some old glass pane
in an old photograph torn and tattered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Did they play the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly
did they sound the death march as they lowered ye down
Did the band play the Last Post and Chorus,
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest".

The sun shinin' down on these green fields of France
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
the trenches have vanished down under the ground
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 in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
When a whole generation were butchered and damned


Did they play the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly
Did they sound the death march as they lowered ye down
Did the band play the Last Post and chorus
And did the band play "The Flowers of the Forest".



And I can't help wonder now young Willy McBride
do all those who lie here know why they died
Did ya really believe them when they told ya the cause
Did ya really believe that this war would end wars

Well the sufferin' the sorrow, the glory, the shame
the killlin' an' th' dyin', it was all done in vain
Oh Willy McBride it all happened 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 ya down
Did the band play the "Last Post" and chorus,
Did the pipes play "The flowers of the Forest".



The tune is "The Green Fields of France", and the band is "The Drop Kick Murpheys".

3 comments:

Wynnie said...

I love that song so much, even if it does make me tear up half the time :)

Middle Child said...

I love this song and I love the drop Kick murphys - so many have recorded it the Chieftans, the Fureys, and on and on - its a really beautiful song about sad things

and yes almost all irish music makes me tear up as Bronwyn says

STAG said...

Makes ME tear up too....