Gay Messiah

Gay Messiah first appeared on the EP Waiting for a Want in June 2004, ahead of Want Two. In the song Wainwright declares himself "Rufus the Baptist". In 2004 he told The Independent that the song was inspired in part by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and religious wars coming back into fashion. In 2005 he said it had been written long before as a party song, and that as the political climate hardened he began to introduce it on stage with a plea to vote Democrat.

Pitchfork's Stephen Deusner called the savior in the song Wainwright's own personal Jesus. Alexis Petridis of the Guardian judged it about the most imaginative and provocative riposte to US conservatism that rock music had produced. Wainwright played it on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on 3 March 2004. A live version is on the Live at the Fillmore DVD that accompanied Want Two, and another is on the deluxe edition of Release the Stars.