On my ‘Friday’s Finest‘ movie segment, I’ve spotlighted two powerful films depicting what was once called “the war to end all wars” – Gallipoli (1981) and Testament of Youth (2014). Today, however, we shift tracks from cinema to song, turning to the legendary Fureys and their haunting version of Eric Bogle’s WWI lament, The Green Fields of France. The song’s epic storytelling rivals the immersive emotional pull of a great war film. In fact, there’s little to separate the vivid imagery conjured through its lyrics from the experience of watching a poignant cinematic portrayal of war.

This song and I go way back – it left a big impression on me when I was just a young’un and truth be told, it still does despite listening to this song for more than 40 years. I bought my first Furey’s album (see image left) as a preadolescent on a whim based on the cover (umm, let me think why?) and ended up being charmed by these traditional Irish folk songs. It was a good investment of the little money I had going. Anyhows, Green Fields of France remains one of The Fureys’ most cherished songs. It gave them an Irish No. 1, remaining in the single charts for twenty-eight weeks. In fact, along with When You Were Sweet Sixteen, it was one of the Irish folk group’s only charting singles.

The following was extracted from the Wikipedia reference below:
The Green Fields of France, otherwise known as No Man’s Land or Willie McBride was written by Scottish-born Australian folk singer-songwriter Eric Bogle in 1976. It reflectis on the grave of a young man who died in World War I. Its chorus refers to two famous pieces of military music, “Last Post” and the “Flowers of the Forest“. In 2009, Bogle told an audience in Weymouth that he had read about a girl who had been presented with a copy of the song by then prime minister Tony Blair, who called it “his favourite anti-war poem“. According to Bogle, the framed copy of the poem credited him, but stated that he had been killed in World War I. He said: “It’s a song that was written about the military cemeteries in Flanders and Northern France. In 1976, my wife and I went to three or four of these military cemeteries and saw all the young soldiers buried there.”

The song (as “The Green Fields of France“) was a huge success for The Furey Brothers and Davey Arthur in the 1980s in Ireland and beyond. The melody and words vary somewhat from the Bogle original with some of the Scots phrases replaced (e.g., Did the rifles fire o’er ye? is often replaced by Did they play the death march?).

[Verse 1]
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 fallen in 1916.
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
Or young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

[Chorus]
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?
And did the band play the Last Post and Chorus?
Did the pipes play ‘The Flowers of the Forest’?

[Verse 3]
Did you leave ‘ere a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
Although you died back in 1916
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed in forever, behind a glass frame?
In an old photograph, torn, battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame

[Verse 4]
The sun, now it shines on the green fields of France
There’s a warm summer breeze; it 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 gun firing now
But here in this graveyard, it’s still no man’s land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man’s blind indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned

[Verse 5]
Ah, young Willie McBride, I can’t help wonder why:
Do those that lie here know, why did they die?
And did they believe when they answered the call
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?
Well, the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing and dying were all done in vain
For young Willie McBride, it all happened again
And again and again and again and again

References:
1. No Man’s Land (Eric Bogle song) – Wikipedia