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
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 [bad word] men
And there was so much money then

How they'd love to see me now
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
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
prisoner in the tower
I was the greatest living
The greatest living
The greatest living
Englishman