Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV

Subject: Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV
From: John in Indiana
Date: 16 Jan 00 - 08:36 AM

This is so vague that I feel foolish in even posting it, but here goes: A few days ago I caught the very tail end of a movie on TV. The ending was a funeral in a graveyard and then people leaving the graveyard. I had the impression that the setting was in Ireland. A song was being sung in the background that I wish I could find. It was a lament about the death of someone, and the best I could make of it was "Billie McFardin" or a name similar to that. I tried to watch for it when they gave the name of the songs in the movie in the ending credits, but it was unreadable.

Can anyone help?

Subject: RE: Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Jan 00 - 09:19 AM

Someone on here is bound to know it, but in the meantime, maybe a little more info? Do you remember what channel it was on and/or what date & time? That way we could figure out the name of the movie and it would probably make it a lot easier to then figure out the tune. Did you recognise any of the actors? What era was it set in?

This is the kind of quest Mudcatters love to take on, so hang in there and get ready for an answer!

All the best,

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV
From: harpgirl
Date: 16 Jan 00 - 10:47 AM

...Willie Mcbride's death has been sung...

Subject: RE: Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Jan 00 - 10:57 AM

Willie McBride shows up in "The Green Fields of France" and it looks like it could have been sung at a funeral. Do you want it to see?

Subject: RE: Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV
From: John in Indiana
Date: 16 Jan 00 - 08:47 PM

I'm sorry but I don't know anything more about the song than what was in the original post. Don't know the channel, don't know the actors. The era might have been 50 years ago or so but that is ???? It is probably a lost cause. Too bad, because the song was beautiful and plaintive, just my favorite kind to learn.

I would like to see Willie Mcbride.

Thanks for your kind assistance!

Subject: RE: Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Jan 00 - 09:09 PM

OK...We'll try this. This is like most ballads, fairly long, so try going to this If that doesn't work, try: this, then Tunes, then Songs and Lyrics, then Irish Folk Songs, and type Willie McBride in the search box. If neither of those work, I will go back there and then re-type all the lyrics here. Sorcha

Subject: RE: Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Jan 00 - 09:10 PM

Well, I really have to work on this html thing.....be right back.

Subject: RE: Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Jan 00 - 09:15 PM

How about the date you saw it? If it had been over here, there are publications which list all the films on at any time on all the broadcast and cable channels, and I'd imagine something like that exists in Indiana.

If it was a feature film set in Ireland, there haven't been all that many, and I would think an ending in a graveyard would mean a pretty short list of possibles. If it was a TV movie, that's maybe more of a problem.

And if it was Billie rather than Willie that makes it pretty certain it'd be set in Northern Ireland. And McFadden sounds a more likely name than McFardin.

Keep looking.

Subject: RE: Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Jan 00 - 09:42 PM

Gonna try this line break thingie.... Spoken--(?) 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 working all day and I'm nearly done. I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen when you joined the dead heroes of 1916. I hope you died well and I hope you died clean; or Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene? Chorus: Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly,
did they sound the dead 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"?
And did you leave 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 1916
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed and forever behind a glass frame

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 guns 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.

Now young Willie McBride I can't help but wonder why
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
And did they believe when they answered the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars
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.

Well, I hope the line thingie works.....if not ,at least you've got the words. This would also be appropriate for an Irish funeral, because of the Easter Rising of 1916. Have NO idea about the melody; part of the intro thing almost fits Streets of Laredo, et.al., but don't think the rest of it does.

Subject: RE: Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Jan 00 - 09:44 PM

HOT DAMN!! The line thingie worked!!!

Subject: RE: Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV
From: margaret
Date: 16 Jan 00 - 09:57 PM

John, if you want to try to follow the Willie McBride lead and listen to the tune, it's here in the Digitrad. The proper title is "No Man's Land," and it was written by Eric Bogle, and there have been threads dealing with it (put in No Man's Land in the "Digitrad and Forum Search" box and you'll find it). Cheers,Margaret

Subject: RE: Seeking Tune I Heard a Snippet of on TV
From: John in Indiana
Date: 17 Jan 00 - 07:43 PM

I'm afraid Willie McBride wasn't it, darn it. I am sure that it was in fact Billie Mc-something. It probably isn't worth spending any more time on. Thanks to all who have tried to help!