Harry Chapin – The Mayor Of Candor Lied lyrics

In the little town of Candor, in the last year of my youth,
I learned the final lesson of the levels to the truth.
My father was a farmer he'd go tilling in the ground.
My mother was a neighbor she'd go visiting around.

But I didn't care,
For I had found the answer to a plowboy's lonely prayer.
She was the daughter of the Mayor.

The Mayor fought my courtship, for he'd made other plans,
He saw her married to a better man than a boy with farmer's hands.
I said -- I hate your father, it's so hard not to strike him.
She said --You know I love you because you're so much like him.

And so I'd go sneaking in the evening,
And there she'd stand a crying in the dawn as I was leaving.

But the Mayor of Candor lied,
When he offered me his only daughter.
The Mayor of Candor tried,
To take her off across the water.
What a thing to do to a young man in love.
What a thing to do to your daughter.

One day with father on his tractor and mother off again,
I go to find the mayor and work out what I can.
But he is not at his office, he is not at his home,
When I find him in the countryside he is not alone.

He is holding a woman and imagine my surprise,
As she jumps back from his arms I look into my mother's eyes!

All my thoughts of outrage, embarrassment and pain,
Were washed away by what came roaring through my brain.
The Mayor's at my mercy and I hear my own voice say,
Your run for re-election, sir, is just one month away.

And the world will never know of what I've seen here sir,
But I'll be with your daughter is my meaning clear, sir?

My mother looks in horror at the compromise we made,
But the Mayor's rueful smile says the piper must be paid!
I had a month of joy in heaven from this deal I'd made in hell.
What was to happen then my friend a prophet could not tell.

The day after his re-election and the victory celebration,
The Mayor takes his family on a month long foreign vacation.

Oh Coleen, you know how much I love you.
There is no one I'd ever place above you.
Oh Coleen, you don't even know me.
To have you there's nothing that's below me.

But time always passes after all,
And as the summer follows spring, so does the winter follow fall.

The day that they return I stand waiting on the road.
I watch the car drive up, I watch the passengers unload.
Of course she isn't there. Of course, I should have known.
The Mayor says that she has stayed. The decision was her own.
He said "She's finishing her schooling on that unseen foreign shore.
And I'll tell you very frankly, boy, you'll not see her anymore! "

I spit out my hatred and my fury at his lies,
When he says you tried to blackmail me you're just as bad as I!
He says -- Go and do your damndest, throw your mother to the streets!
You know it's been too many years I had to be discreet.

And as he stands there saying we're just two of a kind,
It hits me like a thunderbolt exploding in my mind.

As I look into his leering, aged, wrinkled, mirror of my own face,
He laughs and sneers and says, Of course, dear son,
Where do you think you came from in the first place?

The Mayor of Candor lied,
When he offered me his only daughter!
The Mayor of Candor tried,
To take her across the water.
What a thing to do to a young man in love!
What a thing to do to your daughter!