No Mans Land

NO MAN'S LAND Time: 3/4 Tenor: G Bass: D - AKA: The Green Fields Of France - Eric Bogle, 1975, Record: Now I'm Easy - Record: Peter, Paul & Mary Flowers and Stones - Record: The Clancy Brothers, Live With Robbie O'Connell - Source: Eric Bogle Songbook, page 32, Key: G - Source: New Folk Favorites, page 68, Key: G G * C Am Well, how do you do, Private William Mc-Bride D * G D Do you mind if I sit here, down by your grave-side G * C * And I'll rest for a while in the warm summer sun D * C G (*) I've been walking all day; Lord, and I'm nearly done * * Am * And I see by your gravestone, you were only nine-teen D7 * G D When you joined the glorious fallen in nineteen six-teen G * Am * Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean D * C G Or Willie Mc-Bride, was it slow and ob-scene CHORUS: D * C G Did they beat the drum slowly, did they sound the fife lowly D * C G Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down C * D * Did the bugles play The Last Post in chorus G C D G Did the pipes play The Flowers Of The For-est G * C Am And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart be-hind D * G D In some faithful heart is your memory en-shrined G * C * And though you died back in nineteen-six-teen D * C G (*) To that loyal heart are you always nine-teen * * Am * Or are you a stranger without even a name D7 * G D Enshrined for-ever be-hind a glass pane G * Am * In an old photo-graph, torn and tattered and stained D * C G And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame --------------------------------------------- NO MAN'S LAND (page 2) G * C Am The sun's shining now on these green fields of France D * G D The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance G * C * The trenches have vanished, long under the plough D * C G (*) No gas and no barbed-wire, no guns firing now * * Am * But here in this graveyard, it's still No Man's Land D7 * G D The countless white crosses in mute witness stand G * Am * To man's blind in-difference to his fellow man D * C G To a whole gener-ation who were butchered and damned G * C Am And I can't help but wonder now, Willie Mc-Bride D * G D Do all those who lie here know why they died G * C * Did you really be-lieve them when they told you the cause D * C G (*) Did you really be-lieve that this war would end wars * * Am * Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame D7 * G D The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain G * Am * For Willie Mc-Bride, it's all happened a-gain D * C G And a-gain and a-gain and a-gain and a-gain ENDING: CHORUS, THEN REPEAT THE LAST TWO LINES OF THE CHORUS NOTES: - Asterisk (*) = new bar, no chord change - Period (.) = eighth-note rest - Initial underline (_) = half-note rest - Terminal underlines (_)= note sustained into the next bar - Submitted: 94-02-06 - By: Barrie McCombs (bmccombs@acs.ucalgary.ca) - Make a Joyful Noise!