Harry Chapin — The Mayor of Candor Lied

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 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 And 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 to 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's holding a woman and imagine my surprise As she jumps back from his arms I look into my mother's eyes! The Mayor of Candor lied! All my thoughts of outrage, embarrassment and pain Were washed away by what then went roaring through my brain How the Mayor's at my mercy and I hear my own voice say "Your run for re-election, sir, is 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?" 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 And what a thing to do to your daughter My mother looks in horror at this compromise we made But the Mayor's rueful smile said, "This 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 in 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 is her own He says, "She's finishing her schooling on that unseen foreign shore And I'll tell you very frankly, boy, you'll not see her anymore!" 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 And what a thing to do to your daughter 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! Go on and do your damndest, boy, 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 off across the water What a thing to do to a young man in love And what a thing to do to your daughter