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mewithYou: January 1979

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtxxGnOoctw&sns=em

Lyrics
 
January 1979, saw a terrible crash
And it couldn’t help but laugh
My ear pressed against the past
Like a glass on a wall of a hospital photograph
My forehead no longer sweet
With holy kisses worthy of your fiery lips
I was floating in a peaceful sea
Rescued by a sinking ship

If I could become the servant of all
No lower place to fall
(I could be your servant)
If I could become the servant of all
No lower place to fall
(If I could be your servant)
If I could become the servant of all
No lower place to fall
(I could be your servant)
If I could become the servant of all
No lower place to fall
(If I could be your servant)

You watch me like a ten car highway wreck
With detached, vulgar curiosity
Us looking down on the tops of the hats
Of us passersby from your seventh floor balcony
And from such a height you missed
Creatures too small for sight
Carry on covert conversation as the misguided insects
Crown me their grasshopper king with a dance of celebration

After years with their crown on my head
I’ve grown overfed, unconcerned and comfortably numb
Kept busy indulging in the pleasures of the wealthy
Oh, someone make me afraid of what I’ve become!
At the first sign of possible sorrow I’ll turn my heel and run
Oh, I’ll never learn
My life’s become the sugar I’ve borrowed before
Time and again and forgot to return

It was a matter of time
I always said I could see, but now I'm going blind
It was a matter of miserable time
But i heard somewhere, there was a cure for useless eyes
________________________________
January 1979" is a song themed around Aaron Weiss's failure as a human in life. He and former bassist, Daniel Pishock, were both born in January 1979. The "crash" Aaron explains refers to his birth.
Aaron wrote this song discussing his frustration surrounding his "overfed, unconcerned, and comfortably numb" existence. Realizing his failure, he sings of becoming a servant of all, a reference to Matthew 23:11. Becoming the lowest would imply that there would no longer be any possibility of failing more. While he remarks that his eyes have become useless, the song ends with hope of a cure.
His concept about grasshoppers may reference to Numbers 13:33, or Isaiah 40:22.
The line "My ear pressed against the past / like a glass on the wall of a house in a photograph" closely resembles a line in Richard Brautigan's novel So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away.