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 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 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?



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.



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 dughter

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