Elton John - Oscar Wilde Gets Out

Freedom for the scapegoat leaving Reading Jail
 Rheumy eyes just pierced his heart like crucifixion nails
 Shaking fists and razors gleamed, you never stood a chance
 When the ink ran red on Fleet Street
 You turned your eyes to France

 Humbled far from Dublin, chased across the waves
 Your biting wit still sharp enough
 To slice through every page
 Destitute and beaten by the system of the crown
 The bitter pill you swallowed
 Tasted sweeter going down

 And looking back on the great indifference
 Looking back at the limestone wall
 Thinking how beauty deceives you
 Knowing how love fools us all

 A golden boy in velveteen landed in New York
 The past was so seductive
 When they paid to hear you talk
 Baccarat and champagne flutes
 Tobacco from Virginia
 Long before the lords and law
 Branded Oscar Wilde a sinner

 And looking back on the cold bleak winter
 Looking back on those long dark days
 Felt like the head of John the Baptist
 In the arms of Salome

 Don't turn around it's a white gull screaming
 Don't cry out loud you never know who's listening
 You've seen it all the exiled Unforgiven
 From the stately homes of England to her prisons

 And looking back at the hardened lifers
 Looking back on the wretched poor
 Thinking maybe they were my saviors
 Strange to think I'll miss them all
 Strange to think I'll miss them all

[Chorus]