In liberty bags and pink carnations
And whistle from Savile Row
I measured my life in invitations
But it seems a long time ago
Ah, some you win, some you lose
I never had those guilty blues
How they'd love to see me now
A prisoner in the tower
I was the greatest living Englishman
Debts but very few regrets
Up in the misty minarets
I was the greatest living Englishman
It's such a long way from barrowboy
Up to position of Doctor Gas
But with a good ploy and a decent spiel
You spin media hype from trash
Ah well we were the coming men
And there was so much money then
How they'd love to see me now
A prisoner in the tower
I was the greatest living Englishman
High, enough to wonder why
It would have been mad not to try
To be the greatest living Englishman
Such a long way...
They tell me I was a social animal
The way the champagne was splashed
The warning light only showed on cannibal
The day that my empire crashed
Ah, some you win, some you lose
I never had those guilty blues
How they'd love to see me now
A prisoner in the tower
I was the greatest living Englishman
High, enough to wonder why
It would have been mad not to try
To be the greatest living Englishman
How they'd love to see me now
A prisoner in the tower
I was the greatest living
The greatest living
The greatest living
Englishman
