Well, how do you do, young William McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside
I'll rest for a while in the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the great fallen in 1916
I hope you died well, and I hope you died clean
Young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they 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 faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
And though you died back in 1916
In that faithful heart, are you forever 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed down forever behind a glass pane
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they 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 now it shines on the green fields of France
There's a warm summer breeze that makes the red poppies dance
Look how the sun shines from under the cloud
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
And to a whole generation that were butchered and damned

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they 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'?

I am Willie McBride, I can't help wonder why
Did those who lie here know why they did died?
And did they believe when they answered 'the call'?
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
The suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing and the dying was all done in vain
For young Willie McBride, it all happened again
And 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 you down?
Did the band play 'The Last Post' and chorus?
Did the pipes play the 'Flowers of the Forest'?

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they 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'?