Stan Rogers 1981
“I took six months to write this song, and I had no idea whether the women I wrote it for thought I had treated them fairly, until one night in Pincher Creek, Alberta, when a ‘ranch wife’ came up to me and thanked me for writing it. You’re very welcome, ma’am.”
Stan Rogers: Lies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47UsvXBpG4w
At last the kids are gone now for the day She reaches for the coffee as the school bus pulls away Another day to tend the hous and plan For Friday at the Legion when she’s dancing with her man Sure was a bitter winter but Friday will be fine And maybe last year’s Easter dress will serve her one more time She’d pass for twenty-nine but for her eyes But winter lines are telling wicked lies Chorus: All lies All those lines are telling wicked lies Lies all lies Too many lines there in that face Too many to erase or disguise They must be telling lies Is this the face that won for her the man Whose amazed and clumsy fingers put that ring upon her hand? No need to search that mirror for the years The menace in their message shouts across the blur of tears So this is Beauty’s finish like Rodin’s “Belle Heauimiere” The pretty maiden trapped inside the ranch wife’s toil and care Well, after seven kids, that’s no surprise But why cannot her mirror tell her lies Then she shakes off the bitter web she wove And turns to set the mirror, gently, face down by the stove She gathers up her apron in her hand Pours a cup of coffee, drips Carnation from the can And thinks ahead to Friday, ’cause Friday will be fine She’ll look up in that weathered face that loves her’s, line for line To see that maiden shining in his eyes And laugh at how her mirror tells her lies.