try this link
http://www.aftermathww1.com/mcbride.asp#
you can hear the music as well, it's one of the more maudlin songs around
Well how do you do, Private William McBride
Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side?
And I'll rest for awhile in the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done.
I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916.
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly?
Did they sound the fife lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers o' the Forest'?
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
And though you died back in 1916
To that loyal heart are you always 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Forever enshrined behind some glass-pane
In an old photograph torn and tattered and stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?
http://www.raymondscountydownwebsite.co ... _poems.htm
How about lili marlene? It was played over the german radio in the desert during ww2 and became a hit with the british troops as well, the words weren't understood but the sentiment was shared with the english words being written later as it was a bit embarassing having british troops singing in german just cos they liked the song.
