A High-Quality version of this popular folk song, sung by The Fureys and Davey Arthur.

Download the MP3 version here: [ Ссылка ]

"No Man's Land" (also known as "The Green Fields of France" or "Willie McBride") is a song written in 1976 by Scottish Australian folk singer-songwriter Eric Bogle, reflecting on the grave of a young man who died in World War I.

It is Probably the finest anti-war song ever written and covered beautifully by ''The Fureys''. Eric has written tons of great songs. This song was also recorded by Ronnie Drew and The Dubliners and more recent by Celtic Thunder, The Dropkick Murphy's, John McDermott, Liam Clancy and the famous Irish tenor singer Ronan Tynan. It was recorded by the Irish ballad group The High Kings in 2016.

Its chorus refers to two famous pieces of military music, "The Last Post" and "The Flowers of the Forest". Its melody, its refrain ("did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly"), and elements of its subject matter (a young man cut down in his prime) are similar to those of "Streets of Laredo", a North American cowboy ballad whose origins can be traced back to an 18th-century English ballad called "The Unfortunate Rake" and the Irish Ballad "Lock Hospital".

In 2009 Eric told an audience in Weymouth that he'd read about a girl who had been presented with a copy of the song by then prime minister Tony Blair, who called it (unaware of the irony apparently) "his favourite anti-war poem". According to Eric, the framed copy of the poem was credited to him, but stated that he had been killed in World War I.

LYRICS and CHORDS
Well[C] how do you do young[F] Willy Mc[Dm] Bride
Do you[G] mind if I sit here down[C] by your grave[G]side
And[C] rest for a while in the[F] warm summer[Dm] sun
I've been[G] walking all day and[F] I'm nearly[C] done

I[C] see by your gravestone your were[F] only nine[Dm]teen
When you[G] joined the great falling in[C] nineteen fif[G]teen
Well I[C] hope you died well and I[F] hope you died[Dm] clean
Or young[G] Willy Mc Bride was it[F] slow and ob[C]scene
[Chorus]
Did[G] they beat the drum slowly ,did they[F] sound the fifes[C] lowly
Did they[G] sound the death march as they[F] lowered you[C] down
Did the[F] band play the last post and[G] chorus
Did the[F] pipes play the[Dm] flowers of the[G] fo[C]rest.
[2]
Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithfull heart is your memory enshrined
And though you died back in nineteen fifteen
In some faith full heart are you forever nineteen

Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enshrined forever behind a glass frame
In an old photograph torn battered and stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame.
[Repeat Chorus]
[3]
Well the sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There's a warm summer breeze it makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the cloudes
There's no gas no barbed wire , there's no gun firing now.

But here in this graveyard it's still no mans land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man's blind indefference to his fellow man
To a whole generation that were butchered and dammed
[Repeat Chorus]
Well Will Mc Bride I cant help wonder why
Do those that 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 war

Well the sorrow the suffering the glory the pain
The killing the dying was all done in vain
For young Willy Mc Bride it all happened again
And again,and again,and again,and again

свернуть