Close the shop
Pull down the blinds
If anyone asks why
Tell them it’s time
I thought he’d come back
He said he would
The blighter’s done himself in
I can’t believe he could
Nature’s played me a dirty trick
I’m going to disappear
I want a few years’ peace and quiet
far away from here
The law says I’m a criminal
but I can’t help the way I am
Trying to find some kind of love
the only way I can
I’m an odd man out
Discretion guaranteed
I don’t scream and shout
but I know what I need
I’m an odd man out
an outlaw on the run
There’s quite a few of us about
in 1961
One day these laws
will be swept into the bin
No more blackmail or jail
No one doing himself in
Times will change
‘Boy’ Barrett’s dead and gone
I’m an odd man out
Discretion guaranteed
I don’t scream and shout
but cut me and I’ll bleed
I’m an odd man out
an outlaw on the run
There’s quite a few of us about
in 1961
2011. Coincidentally, another lyric set in the early sixties. The story comes from the British film Victim, released in 1961, when it was considered both brave and controversial for its depiction of homosexual life in London. Dirk Bogarde plays a married barrister threatened with blackmail because of his involvement with a young man, ‘Boy’ Barrett. Bogarde’s character contacts a hairdresser who is the victim of blackmail and he enlightens him about the life of a homosexual in 1961 and tells him that ‘Boy’ Barrett has committed suicide. Blackmail and suicide because of the constant threat of police prosecution and imprisonment were sadly commonplace in the UK when homosexuality was illegal. The line ‘Cut me and I’ll bleed’ echoes Shylock’s defence of Jews in the face of Christian persecution in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: ‘If you prick us, do we not bleed?’