Al Stewart - The Ballad Of Mary Foster

Al Stewart - The Ballad of Mary Foster



[Act One]


David Foster lives in Gloucester with his family


Works 'til pay-time, through the day-time, then comes home fortea


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 turnsover


And life drifts slowly by in the provinces



Wedding 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 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...



[Act Two


]I was born and brought up on the east side of town


And my earliest days they passed 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 cal


lIn 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 passed 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 passed 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 pass 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