The song reference game

The End: Help me see myself, cause I can no longer tell. Looking out from the inside of a well, it's hell....
Nothingman: Empty stares, from the corner of a shared prison cell. One just escapes, one's left inside the well

and i have always wondered about these two No Code lines:
Red Mosquito: If i had known then what i know now
I'm Open: If he only knew now, what he knew then...

Future Days (Hey Angel I am here to stay) mentions Angel.

Nothingman (took the other side) mentions Other Side.

Catwoman1 wrote:

Now I have the winner!!!!

From Swallowed Whole:

Down, down, down
Down, down, down, down

Seven song titles in two verses!!!

aennil wrote:

and i have always wondered about these two No Code lines:
Red Mosquito: If i had known then what i know now
I'm Open: If he only knew now, what he knew then...

This is a great observation that I had missed before. We know E.V. writes song cycles, famously Alive-Once-Footsteps and also Why Go-Leash (and others I'm probably not remembering), but this Red Mosquito-I'm Open lyric-share seems to be an obvious callback. They're too similar to be coincidence, right?

One such parallel lyric I *had* detected before occurs on Vs.—and is referenced by JB128716 in this thread—where Daughter and Rearviewmirror both reference "shades." Has anybody uncovered more callbacks on a single PJ album?

In both the No Code and Vs. examples, the parallel lyrics occur on different sides of the record and both reverse or negate the sentiment expressed on the other side. The "shades go down," then later, "finally the shades are raised."

From a textual reading of the lyrics, the "shades" reference in Daughter to me signifies to me window blinds being drawn to cover up abuse, e.g. "Young girl...violins(ence)," whereas the RVM "shades" reference I've always interpreted as sunglasses to cover bruising, e.g. "I guess it was the beatings" or "Wounds in the mirror waved."

Has anyone ever connected the narrator in Daughter and RVM as the same person? The similar use of "shades" in both songs makes me wonder. Furthermore, the two songs have traditionally gone together. PJ played both on ’94 SNL and the songs are the two most-frequently-played live Vs. songs.

The references on No Code, to me, seem to reference a loss of innocence and lingering regret. In both songs, the narrator is bound to a single room: "I was not allowed to leave the room" in Red Mosquito, and "A man lies in his bed, in a room with no door" in I'm Open. (What sort of room has no door, no exit? A coffin?) The first song references the sun, the second, the moon. (Sunrise, sunset. Life, death.)

In Red Mosquito, the narrator seems to regret a past decision or interaction with the titular character ("If I had known then what I know now"). In I'm Open, he regrets passage into adulthood, indicating that illusion trumps reality ("If he only knew now what he knew then").

Parting Ways (Drifting away...) mentions Drifting.

Undone (Well you know the pendulum throws...) & (This is how I used to feel, but no more...) mentions Pendulum and No More.

Alright (To disappear in thin air, it's yours...) mentions Thin Air.

I always shout "Breath" (I seem to recognize your Breath) during Small Town, because I wish they would then play Breath, next. They never have, to my knowledge.