The Green Fields of France
A Ballad by The Fureys
Some years ago, my wife and I traveled to Ireland, and after the obligatory several days in Dublin set out on a circle group tour by chartered bus of the Emerald Isle. When not pointing out pubs, our driver played Irish music over the loudspeaker. I was attracted by one set of tunes and asked the name of the group. It was The Fureys, the name of the tape, The Fureys Finest. We bought the tape and, back home, I played it until it wore out, eventually replacing the tape with a CD.
One of our favorite tracks was titled, The Green Fields of France. Actually, the original song by Eric Bogle was titled No Man's Land. Reportedly, The Fureys also changed some of the lyrics, perhaps unconsciously. And the words below may not be an exact transcription, since they were taken down as I listened to the music on my CD player. I don't know much about the song's origin, other than it deals with the aftermath of World War I. It has been interpreted by many as being anti-war. Interpret it yourself, but I connected it in my mind with the Troubles during which Ireland finally won its independence from Great Britain. The singer seems to be asking why young Willie McBride would want to fight a foreign war on the side of "Da Strangers," the people who had oppressed the Irish people for nearly seven centuries.
My wife and I listened to The Green Fields of France, apolitically: less for its message and more for its haunting melody, including the chorus that repeats after each verse: "Beat the drums slowly." Somehow I find myself humming this song more often lately.
The Green Fields of France
Well how do you do, young Willie
McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside,
And rest for a
while 'neath the warm summer sun?
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly
done.
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the
great fall-in in Nineteen-Sixteen.
I hoped you died well, and I hoped you
died clean,
Or young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
Did they beat the drums
slowly,
Did they play the fife lowly,
Did they sound the death march as
they lowered you down?
Did the band play the last post and chorus,
And did
the pipes play the flowers of the forest?
Did you leave any wife or a
sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart, is your memory
enshrined?
Although you died back in Nineteen-Sixteen,
In that faithful
heart are you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger without even a
name,
Enclosed in forever behind the glass frame
In an old photograph
torn, battered and bent,
And faded to yellow in a brown, leather
frame
Chorus: Beat the drums slowly
The sun now it shines on the green
fields of France.
There's a warm, summer breeze that makes the red poppies
dance.
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds:
There's no gas,
no barbed wire; there's no guns firing down
But here in this graveyard, it's
still no mans land,
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand,
To
a man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
To a whole generation that were
butchered and damned
Chorus: Beat the drums slowly
Ah, young Willie McBride, I can't
help wonder why,
To those that lie here, now 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 sorrows, the suffering, the glory, the
pain,
The killing and dying was all done in vain.
For young Willie
McBride, it all happened again,
And again and again and again and
again!
(Chorus repeated twice)
Did
they beat the drums slowly,
Did they play the fife lowly,
Did they sound
the death march as they lowered you down?
Did the band play the last post and
chorus,
And did the pipes play the flowers of the forest?