Mama Bought a Drum Kit

Mama bought a drum kit
Put it where the table used to be

I came home hungry on a Sunday
Heard a racket halfway down the street
Found her with her ear protection crooked
And a pair of sticks laid straight across her knees
She said she'd wanted one since she was seventeen
I said, I never knew you liked to play
She looked around the room she'd always fed us in
Said, You never asked me, anyway

She counted in and lost it at the second bar
Then laughed and counted in again

Mama bought a drum kit
Says she's got a little time to lose
We used to ask her what was for dinner
Now we ask her when the band goes on

Go on, Mama
Take it from the top

She found two women from the bowling alley
A man who had a bass beneath his bed
They booked a Friday at the old church social
She made me promise not to film the set
I brought a casserole and tried to take her coat
She said, I'm busy; put it on a chair
I almost asked her where she kept the serving spoons
Then looked around and found the drawer myself

Her first fill landed somewhere near the beat
Her second made the room get to its feet

Mama bought a drum kit
Says she's got a little time to lose
We used to ask her what was for dinner
Now we ask her when the band goes on

I thought I knew the person who had raised me
I knew the part that always made things work
She had a life before she learned our birthdays
It's time I learned to ask her how it went

Mama bought a drum kit
Says she's got a little time to lose
We used to ask her what was for dinner
Now we ask her when the band goes on
Mama bought a drum kit
Says she's got a little time to lose
We used to ask her what was for dinner
Now we ask her when the band goes on

Mama bought a drum kit
And the table found another room
I brought enough for everybody
She said, That's good, we're starting soon