Al Stewart - The Ballad of Mary Foster lyrics

David Foster lives in Gloucester with his family Works 'til pay-time, through the day-time, then comes home for tea Steak and kidney, then with Sydney to his club and feels free They close the bar, he finds his car and then goes home to sleep And his wife has been with Rosie, in the parlour where it's cosy Watching telly, doing dishes, patching pants and making wishes And he'll say "Bill should have wired" And "Not tonight dear, I'm too tired" And life drifts slowly by in the provinces Peter Foster goes to Gloucester for his first school day Bites his teacher, sees a preacher and is taught to pray Sees some birds and learns some words it's very, very rude to say Yes, he's rather like his father was in his young day And his father has discussions, holding forth about the Russians "Will the Red Chinese attack us?" "Do we need the Yanks to back us? "And in bed she feels his shoulder, but he grunts and just turns over And life drifts slowly by in the provinces Wedding rings come with strings but love depends on the little things "Oh could that still be really you?" "Is there anything time can't do? David Foster's been promoted, he's a decent sort Peter's gone to Dad's old Public School, it's good for sport They've even got a private parking place down in Huntingdon Court Maybe soon he'll be a magistrate, the neighbours thought Yes, and then he'll teach the beatniks And the hang-around-the-streetnicks And the good-for-nothing loafers Who knock girls up on their sofas And his wife is quite nice, really Though she seems a little dreamy Recently... I was born and brought up on the east side of town And my earliest days they pa**ed quickly I would play after school with the kids all around In the sun and the dust of the back streets Oh, all through my girlhood the war had its day And my daddy he would always be leaving So my brother and I we would sit by her side Telling our tales through the evening Oh, I grew with the days and the boys came to call In the back shed I learned about kissing But I don't think my mother has noticed at all For we've heard that my daddy is missing Then my school days they were over and I went off to work And my mother grew quieter and greyer So one day I left her and went off to live With Billy, a saxophone player In our broken down attic we laughed and made love And all that we had we were sharing Oh, we slept through the day and played into the night God, we did as we pleased without caring Oh but a year's pa**ed away and he's left me one day To play in a far away country And the sun told my eyes "You've got no place to hide" As I waited to be having his baby Oh I lived in the park and the men pa**ed and stared Each wondering which one had lost her And one came to ask could he buy me a meal And he said he was called David Foster We were married that month and I swore to myself Somehow I'd pay back what I owed him Cooking his supper and cleaning his boots Yes, and kidding myself I could love him Oh, but now my baby is grown and he's gone out to school And he looks very much like his daddy And David has buried himself in his work And the time on my hands, it hangs heavy Oh, the neighbours they smile as we pa** in the streets And they make their remarks on the weather But the butcher and baker deliver things now And I've stopped going out altogether Oh, I live by my mirror and stare in my eyes Trying to make out who I see there But I'm looking at a woman that I can't recognize And I don't think she knows me either There are lines on her face and her hair is a mess And the light in her eyes it grows colder In the morning there's nothing will change, ah but yes I will be just a little bit older