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No Mans Land

Eric Bogle

Text File

#----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE---------------------------------#
#This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the #
#song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. #
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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
        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

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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!