Al Stewart: The ballad of Mary Foster

[Act One]David Foster lives in Gloucester with his familyWorks 'til pay-time, through the day-time, then comes home forteaSteak and kidney, then with Sydney to his club and feels freeThey close the bar, he finds his car and then goes home to sleepAnd his wife has been with Rosie, in the parlour where it's cosyWatching telly, doing dishes, patching pants and making wishesAnd he'll say "Bill should have wired"And "Not tonight dear, I'm too tired"And life drifts slowly by in the provincesPeter Foster goes to Gloucester for his first school dayBites his teacher, sees a preacher and is taught to praySees some birds and learns some words it's very, very rude to sayYes, he's rather like his father was in his young dayAnd 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 turnsoverAnd life drifts slowly by in the provincesWedding rings come with strings but love depends on the littlethings"Oh could that still be really you?""Is there anything time can't do?David Foster's been promoted, he's a decent sortPeter's gone to Dad's old Public School, it's good for sportThey've even got a private parking place down in Huntingdon CourtMaybe soon he'll be a magistrate, the neighbours thoughtYes, and then he'll teach the beatniksAnd the hang-around-the-streetnicksAnd the good-for-nothing loafersWho knock girls up on their sofasAnd his wife is quite nice, reallyThough she seems a little dreamyRecently...[Act Two]I was born and brought up on the east side of townAnd my earliest days they passed quicklyI would play after school with the kids all aroundIn the sun and the dust of the back streetsOh, all through my girlhood the war had its dayAnd my daddy he would always be leavingSo my brother and I we would sit by her sideTelling our tales through the eveningOh, I grew with the days and the boys came to callIn the back shed I learned about kissingBut I don't think my mother has noticed at allFor we've heard that my daddy is missingThen my school days they were over and I went off to workAnd my mother grew quieter and greyerSo one day I left her and went off to liveWith Billy, a saxophone playerIn our broken down attic we laughed and made loveAnd all that we had we were sharingOh, we slept through the day and played into the nightGod, we did as we pleased without caringOh but a year's passed away and he's left me one dayTo play in a far away countryAnd the sun told my eyes "You've got no place to hide"As I waited to be having his babyOh I lived in the park and the men passed and staredEach wondering which one had lost herAnd one came to ask could he buy me a mealAnd he said he was called David FosterWe were married that month and I swore to myselfSomehow I'd pay back what I owed himCooking his supper and cleaning his bootsYes, and kidding myself I could love himOh, but now my baby is grown and he's gone out to schoolAnd he looks very much like his daddyAnd David has buried himself in his workAnd the time on my hands, it hangs heavyOh, the neighbours they smile as we pass in the streetsAnd they make their remarks on the weatherBut the butcher and baker deliver things nowAnd I've stopped going out altogetherOh, I live by my mirror and stare in my eyesTrying to make out who I see thereBut I'm looking at a woman that I can't recognizeAnd I don't think she knows me eitherThere are lines on her face and her hair is a messAnd the light in her eyes it grows colderIn the morning there's nothing will change, ah but yesI will be just a little bit older