oh how do you do, young willy mcbride   do you mind if i sit here down by your graveside   and rest for a while in the warm summer sun   i've been walking all day, and im nearly done   and i see by your gravestone you were only nineteen   when you joined the great fallen in 1916   well i hope you died quick   and i hope you died clean   oh willy mcbride, was is it slow and obscene      [Chorus]   did they beat the drums slowly   did the play the fife lowly   did they sound the death march as they lowered you down   did the band play the last post and chorus   did the pipes play the flowers of the forest      and did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind   in some loyal heart is your memory enshrined   and though you died back in 1916   to that loyal heart you're forever nineteen   or are you a stranger without even a name    forever enshrined behind some old glass pane   in an old photograph torn, tattered, and stained   and faded to yellow in a brown leather frame      [Chorus]   did they beat the drums slowly   did the play the fife lowly   did they sound the death march as they lowered you down   did the band play the last post and chorus   did the pipes play the flowers of the forest      the sun shining down on these green fields of france   the warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance   the trenches have vanished long under the plow   no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing down   but here in this graveyard that's still no mans land   the countless white crosses in mute witness stand   till' man's blind indifference to his fellow man   and a whole generation were butchered and damned      [Chorus]   did they beat the drums slowly   did the play the fife lowly   did they sound the death march as they lowered you down   did the band play the last post and chorus   did the pipes play the flowers of the forest      and i can't help but wonder oh willy mcbride   do all those who lie here know why they died   did you really believe them when they told you the cause   did you really believe that this war would end wars   well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame   the killing and dying it was all done in vain   oh willy mcbride it all happened again   and again, and again, and again, and again      [Chorus]   did they beat the drums slowly   did the play the fife lowly   did they sound the death march as they lowered you down   did the band play the last post and chorus   did the pipes play the flowers of the forest