No Man's Land Eric Bogle
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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
Did the [G]pipes play The [C]Flowers Of The [D]For-[G]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
- Make a Joyful Noise!
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