Matthew 11:14-19 | |
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Album |
The Life of the World in Flux |
Released |
2009 |
Artist |
the Mountain Goats |
Length |
3:15 |
Previous Track |
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Next Track |
Matthew 11:14-19 is the 12th song on the album The Life of the World in Flux.
Bible Verse[]
And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
"To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
"We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is proved right by her deeds." NIV Translation
Lyrics[]
He who casts the stone can't ever do so on his own It takes a crowd to drown a witch So he said to us when he wriggled free and got the gun from me Standing before us, his cracking voice rising in pitch And then the blood that's been spilling from his eyes Soaks through the bandages that are wrapped around his face And just before he walks backwards through the wall He pivots 45 degrees to face us all And he says "Let him who has eyes to see Take a good look at me I'm a Mylar sheet hanging in the sun" Claude Rains in all his glory Is not arrayed like these Who have come to walk before us Rising from their knees Fighting back against their captors Calling down the curse Like this man whose substance is malleable Screaming out chapter and verse And then the blood That's been spilling from his eyes Soaks through the bandages that are wrapped around his face And just before he walks backwards through the wall He pivots 45 degrees to face us all And he says "Let him who has eyes to see Take a good look at me I'm a Mylar sheet hanging in the sun"
Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]
- "If you didn't see the Mountain Goats in 1994, which most people didn't, 'cause in a room full of twenty people I was third of three, right. But I would say, well, look, they're probably not going to pay attention to the guy with the acoustic guitar anyway, so the only way to get their attention is to come out and do something really loud and confusing that seems possibly violent, right. So I'm trying to open the solo sets now with some song that maybe two people in the room have ever heard. And that makes people go 'okay, well, I wasn't expecting the song with the guy with the bleeding eyes.'" -- 2021-09-07 - City Winery - New York, NY
Things Referenced in this Song[]
- Claude Rains was an Academy Award-nominated actor from classic films including Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia. The lyric references his performance in The Invisible Man, where his head was wrapped in bandages to disguise the fact he couldn't be seen.
Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]
The Life of the World to Come |
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Track list: "1 Samuel 15:23" • "Psalms 40:2" • "Genesis 3:23" • "Philippians 3:20-21" • "Hebrews 11:40" • "Genesis 30:3" • "Romans 10:9 " • "1 John 4:16" • "Matthew 25:21" • "Deuteronomy 2:10" • "Isaiah 45:23" • "Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace" |