The Green Fields of France (No Man's Land) Songtext
von The Men They Couldn’t Hang

Well, how do you do now, young Willie McBride
Do you mind if I sit down beside your graveside?
And rest for awhile ′neath the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day and I′m nearly done

Well, I see by your gravestone you was only 19
When you joined the great fallen of 1916
Well, I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly?
Did they sang the death march as they lowered you down?
Did the band sang The Last Post in chorus?
Did they pipe the Flowers of the Forest?

Did you leave a young wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart are your memory enshrined?
For although you died back in 1916
In that faithful heart you're forever 19


Or are you a stranger without even a name?
And closed forever behind the glass pane
In an old photograph, torn, tattered and stained
Faded to yellow in brown leather frame?

Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly?
Did they sang the death march as they lowered you down?
Did the band sang The Last Post in chorus?
Did they pipe the Flowers of the Forrest?

As the sun beats down on these green fields of France
There's a soft summer breeze, makes the red poppies dance
And see how the sun shines from under the plow
There′s no gas, there′s no barbed wire, no guns firing now

Oh, but here in this graveyard that's still No Man′s Land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
And to man's blind indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation who were butchered and damned

Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly?
Did they sang the death march as they lowered you down?
Did the band sang The Last Post in chorus?
Did they pipe the Flowers of the Forrest?


Now, Willie McBride, I can′t help but to wonder
To those that lie here know why did they died?
And did they believe when they answer "The Cause?"
Did they really believed that this war could end wars?

All the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing and dying, it was all done in vain
For young Willie McBride, all will happen again
And again, and again, and again, and again

Did they beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly?
Did they sang the death march as they lowered you down?
Did the band sang The Last Post in chorus?
Did they pipe the Flowers of the Forrest?