No Mans Land Flowers Of The Forest chords by June Tabor

Tuning: Standard (E A D G B E)

Difficulty: Novice

Verse:
   D           G     Em
Well, how do you do, Private William McBride
   A            G      A
D'you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?
  D           G      Em
And rest for awhile in the warm summer sun
     A          G     D
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done
                   Em    G
And I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
     A          G     D      A
When you joined the glorious fallen in Nineteen Sixteen
    D             Em
Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
  A            G     D
Or, William McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Chorus:
     A               G        D
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they sound the pipes lowly?
    Em              A      D
Did the rifles fire o'er thee as they lowered thee down?
    G               A
Did the bugles sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?
    G        Em       A D
Did the pipes play the 'Flowers of the Forest'?

Verse:
               G      Em
And did thee leave wife or a sweetheart behind
  A             G    A
In some loyal heart, is your memory enshrined?
D              G      Em
And, though you died back in Nineteen Sixteen
  A              G     D
To that faithful heart, are you always nineteen?
                  Em   G
Or are you just a stranger without even a name
  A   G    D        A
Forever enclosed behind some glass pane
   D            Em
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained
  A           G       D
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Chorus:
     A               G        D
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they sound the pipes lowly?
    Em              A      D
Did the rifles fire o'er thee as they lowered thee down?
    G               A
Did the bugles sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?
    G        Em       A D
Did the pipes play the 'Flowers of the Forest'?

Verse:
                 G        Em
The sun is shining down on these green fields of France
  A               G      A
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
  D             G     Em
The trenches have vanished now under the plough
  A             G      D
No gas and no barbed-wire, no guns firing now
                Em       G
But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land
    A              G      A
And the countless white crosses, in mute witness stand
  D              Em
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
   A             G       D
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned

Chorus:
     A               G        D
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they sound the pipes lowly?
    Em              A      D
Did the rifles fire o'er thee as they lowered thee down?
    G               A
Did the bugles sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?
    G        Em       A D
Did the pipes play the 'Flowers of the Forest'?

Verse:
                 G    Em
And I can't help but wonder now, Willie McBride
  A           G       A
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
    D               G       Em
Did you really believe them when they told you 'The Cause'?
    A            G       D
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
                   Em     G
Well, the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
  A      G       D      A
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain
  D           Em
For Willie McBride, it all happened again
   A           G     D
And again, and again, and again, and again

Chorus:
     A               G        D
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they sound the pipes lowly?
    Em              A      D
Did the rifles fire o'er thee as they lowered thee down?
    G               A
Did the bugles sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?
    G        Em       A D
Did the pipes play the 'Flowers of the Forest'?

Outro:
N.C.
Did the bugles sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?
N.C.
Did the pipes play the 'Flowers of the Forest'?