Oscar Wilde Gets Out

Album: The Diving Board (2013)
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  • 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

    And looking back on the great indifference
    Looking back at the limestone wall
    Thinking how beauty deceives you
    Knowing how love fools us all Writer/s: BERNIE TAUPIN, ELTON JOHN
    Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

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