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Singer-songwriter Eric Bogle said he wrote The Green Fields of France as a response to the anti-Irish sentiment in Britain during the IRA bombing campaign of the 1970s... Bogle said he wrote The Green Fields of France in 1975, a year after the Birmingham and Guildford bombings unleashed a wave of anti-Irish sentiment in Britain. - from The Irish Times
No capo required. These words after the Fureys and Davey Arthur version
Green Fields Of France
by Eric Bogle
Well [F] how do you [Dm] do young [Bb] Willie Mc- [Gm] Bride,
Do you [C] mind if I [C7] sit here down [Bb] by your grave- [F] side,
And [F] rest for a [Dm] while neath the [Bb] warm summer [Gm] sun,
I’ve been [C] working all [C7] day and [Bb] I’m nearly [F] done.
I [F] see by your [Dm] gravestone you were [Bb] only [Gm] 19,
When you [C] joined the great [Bb] fallen in [F] 19 [C7] 16,
I [F] hope you died [Dm] well and I [Gm] hope you died clean,
Or young [C] Willie Mc- [C7] Bride was it [Bb] slow and ob- [F] scene?
( Chorus
Did they [C] beat the drum [C7] slowly, did they [Bb] play the fife [F] lowly,
Did they [C] sound the death [C7] march, as they [Bb] lowered you [C] down,
Did the [Bb] band play the Last Post and [F] chorus? [Dm],
Did the [F] pipes play the [Bb] Flowers of the [C7] For- [F] est? )
Did you leave e’re 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 19.
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
enclosed in forever behind a glass frame?
In an old photograph all torn, battered, and stained,
and faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?
Chorus
The sun now it shines on the 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 trees,
There’s no gas, no barbed wire, there’s 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.
Chorus
Ah, young Willie McBride I can’t help wonder why,
Do all those who lie here know why did they die,
And did they believe when they answered the call,
Did they really believe that this war would end wars.
Well, the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain,
The killing and dieing were all done in vain,
For young Willie McBride it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.
Do you [C] mind if I [C7] sit here down [Bb] by your grave- [F] side,
And [F] rest for a [Dm] while neath the [Bb] warm summer [Gm] sun,
I’ve been [C] working all [C7] day and [Bb] I’m nearly [F] done.
I [F] see by your [Dm] gravestone you were [Bb] only [Gm] 19,
When you [C] joined the great [Bb] fallen in [F] 19 [C7] 16,
I [F] hope you died [Dm] well and I [Gm] hope you died clean,
Or young [C] Willie Mc- [C7] Bride was it [Bb] slow and ob- [F] scene?
( Chorus
Did they [C] beat the drum [C7] slowly, did they [Bb] play the fife [F] lowly,
Did they [C] sound the death [C7] march, as they [Bb] lowered you [C] down,
Did the [Bb] band play the Last Post and [F] chorus? [Dm],
Did the [F] pipes play the [Bb] Flowers of the [C7] For- [F] est? )
Did you leave e’re 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 19.
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
enclosed in forever behind a glass frame?
In an old photograph all torn, battered, and stained,
and faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?
Chorus
The sun now it shines on the 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 trees,
There’s no gas, no barbed wire, there’s 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.
Chorus
Ah, young Willie McBride I can’t help wonder why,
Do all those who lie here know why did they die,
And did they believe when they answered the call,
Did they really believe that this war would end wars.
Well, the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain,
The killing and dieing were all done in vain,
For young Willie McBride it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.