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'?