016_09a (candle in the wind)

Credit: San Francisco Public Library

Candle In The Wind | Elton John

Goodbye, Norma Jean. Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to hold yourself while those around you crawled
They crawled out of the woodwork and they whispered in your brain
They set you on a treadmill and they made you change your name
And it seems to me you lived your life like a candle in the wind

Never knowing who to cling to when the rain set in
And I would have liked to have known you, but I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before your legend ever did
Your candle burned out long before your legend ever did

Loneliness was tough, the toughest role you ever played;
Hollywood created a Superstar and pain was the price you paid
Even when you died the press still hounded you;
All the papers had to say was that Marilyn was found in the nude.

Goodbye, Norma Jean. Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to hold yourself while those around you crawled
They crawled out of the woodwork and they whispered in your brain
They set you on a treadmill and they made you change your name
And it seems to me you lived your life like a candle in the wind

Goodbye, Norma Jean. Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to hold yourself while those around you crawled
Goodbye, Norma Jean, from the young man in the twenty-second row
Who sees you as something more than sexual,
more than just our Marilyn Monroe

Goodbye, Norma Jean. Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to hold yourself while those around you crawled
They crawled out of the woodwork and they whispered in your brain
They set you on a treadmill and they made you change your name
And it seems to me you lived your life like a candle in the wind