Slim Dusty – No Mans Land (Guitar)

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Chords

[Intro] G C Am D G [Verse]
      G                      C         Am
Well, how do you do, Private William McBride?

       D                       G             D
Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side?

     G                      C           Am
I'll rest for awhile in the warm summer sun

     D                        C          G
Been walking all day mate and I'm nearly done

                                      Am
And I see by your gravestone you were only 19

     D                        G  D
When you joined the fallen in 1916

       G                         Am
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean

    D                      C          G
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
[Chorus]
         D                              C               G
Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they sound the pipes lowly?

        D                           C           G
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?

        C                             D
Did the bugle sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?

        G               C              D  G
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers of the Forest'?
[Verse]
        G                     C            Am
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?

   D                           G          D
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined

    G                       C  Am
And though you died back in 1916

   D                        C      G
To that loyal heart are you always 19

                                   Am
Or are you just a stranger without even a name

   D               G               D
Forever enclosed behind some glass-pane

      G                       Am
In an old photograph torn and tattered and stained

    D                     C             G
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?
[Chorus]
         D                              C               G
Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they sound the pipes lowly?

        D                           C           G
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?

        C                             D
Did the bugle sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?

        G               C              D  G
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers of the Forest'?
[Interlude] G C Am D G [Verse]
        G                         C               Am
And the suns shining now on these green fields of France

    D                              G           D
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance

    G                           C         Am
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 its still No Man's Land

        D                          G            D
And the countless white crosses in mute witness stand

   G                           Am
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man

      D                         C             G
And a whole generation who were butchered and downed
[Chorus]
         D                              C               G
Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they sound the pipes lowly?

        D                           C           G
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?

        C                             D
Did the bugle sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?

        G               C              D  G
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers of the Forest'?
[Verse]
      G                         C        Am
And I can't help but wonder now Willie McBride

   D                      G             D
Do all those who lie here know why they died?

        G                        C            Am
Did you really believe when they told you the cause?

        D                        C             G
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?

                                   Am
But the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame

    D                           G           D
The killing, the dying - it was all done in vain

    G                        Am
For Willie McBride, it's all happened again

    D                     C          G
And again, and again, and again, and again
[Chorus]
         D                              C               G
Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they sound the pipes lowly?

        D                           C           G
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?

        C                             D
Did the bugle sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?

        G               C              D  G
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers of the Forest'?
[Tag]
        C                             D
Did the bugle sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?

        G               C              D  G
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers of the Forest'?