Couplets

For the past few years on my tumblr, i've been posting the lyrics to songs that have something in common one after another. They share the same idea, the same phrasing, or there's something vague that links these songs together.
i don't have a special tag for them or anything, so i'm gathering them here, and will likely continue making a new post every time i feel i have enough to post.

The follies of growing up:

As we get older and stop making sense

Talking Heads - Girlfriend is Better - 1983

We let our hair grow long, and forget all we used to know

Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - 2004

 Now granted, Neighborhood #1, seems to be more a childish utopia of living in tunnels of snow "Then we think of our parents, well, what ever happened to them?" Though Girlfriend is Better is hardly a bastion of maturity: "I got a girlfriend with bows in her hair and nothing is better than that" They both convey a sense of loss while growing up. And it's true, people forget the joys and horrors of being a child, adults make no sense.

Baby it's cold outside:

Why keep me cold, when it’s so warm inside?
Come on baby, your love is too good to hide

J. Geils Band - Give It to Me - 1973

‘cause it’s cold outside, when you coming home?
‘cause it’s hot inside, isn’t that enough?

Crystal Castles ft. Robert Smith - Not In Love - 2010

The original Platinum Blonde and Crystal Castles versions of Not in Love have the lyrics "hot" for both lines. And well, while being hot all over is good too, i prefer Robert Smith's revision. It taps into something completely different. The warmth of you woman, of us, will keep us safe from the cold world, so hey have sex with me. i do love the end of Not in Love where he finally succeeds "We are not in love" Emphasis mine.

Snu Snu:

I was lost in a jungle, couldn't find my way
And I saw a naked landing, staring at me, oh yeah
She was swinging up and down, on a vine
Eating with her hands and looking so, so fine

Rocket From the Crypt - Tarzan - 1998

Saw her in the Amazon
With the voltage running through her skin
Standing there with nothing on
She gonna teach me how to swim

MGMT - Electric Feel - 2007

In the second verse Tarzan goes on to say how she taught him how to monkey. And has the brilliant chorus "You could be my Tarzan, I can be your Jane" It also has two of my other favourite lines "Can I get feral with you?" and "You make the tiger go wild!"

Late nights, women, and booze:

“It’s getting late,” she said.
She touched my face.
“Let’s stay out late as we can.”
We’ll drive around the lake, just a little too fast.
My eyes on the lights, her hand on my shoulder.
Yeah, windows down, the wine in our heads.
The city lights just blur, the city lights just blur.

Minus the Bear - Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!! - 2002

Stay out super late tonight, picking apples, making pies.
Put a little something in our lemonade, and take it with us.
We’re half awake in a fake empire, we’re half awake in a fake empire.

The National - Fake Empire -2007

I find it interesting how both songs repeat the last line. Seems the same sentiment, though i do prefer The National's version as it doesn't advocate drunk driving... i could also tie Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!! in with M83's Midnight City "Waiting in a car, waiting for a ride in the dark..."

Something personal:

When I was a child I had a fever, my hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I’ve got that feeling once again
I can’t explain you would not understand, this is not how I am.

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb - 1979

I’m the boy with the gun, in the glass in my hand.
I’m the boy with the gun, you wouldn’t understand.
You wouldn’t understand, you wouldn’t understand.
I’m wasted, I’m not jaded, I’ve just felt this way before.

Pinehurst Kids - Switch - 1997

What it means, i cannot say, but it is something intimate, something vague, more like a feeling.

Condescension is sexy:

Well I only call you darling, ‘cause I know how much it bugs you.
And darling, some habits are so hard to break .

the dismemberment plan - Respect is Due - 1997

You’re so cute when you’re frustrated, dear

Interpol - PDA - 2002

Heh.

Must be Italian:

Destroy everything you touch, today, destroy me, this way.

Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch - 2005

Hello, destructor! I’m yours for the destroying.

Electric Six - Hello! I See You! - 2011

Bret Easton Ellis posted the following on his twitter not too long back:

"And what have you learned about me?" she asked. "That you can hurt me," he replied, very much in love.

Rashomon Effect:

This conversation is ending, starting right now.
The version of truth that you’re sending, will not be allowed

Knapsack - Skip the Details 1998

Yours is the only version of my desertion, that I could ever subscribe to.
That is all that I can do.

Interpol - PDA - 2002

Nothing is objective, especially the truth.

Windows to the soul:

Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t find me attractive
Look me in the heart and tell me, that you won’t go
Look me in the eye and promise no love’s like our love
Look me in the heart and unbreak broken, it won’t happen

Tegan and Sara - Where Does The Good Go? 2002

Try telling me off.
Try slamming the door and telling me I’m not worth your time.
Or the breath I’m breathing.

Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s - Vampires in Blue Dresses - 2006 

 i love the desperate way "Or the breath I'm breathing" is sung, like the air is being sucked out of his lungs. i've known people that have feared nothing worse than eye contact, the fear that someone might discern their true feelings. Eye contact is powerful though, from Lady Gaga's Monster to Tonic's If You Could Only See.

Words, words, words:

You stuttered like a kaleidoscope
‘cause you knew, too many words.

The Magnetic Fields - Take Ecstasy With Me - 1997

You’ve got a big mouth, with big words spilling out.
Come here, give me a kiss, with vocabulary lips.

Thunderbirds Are Now! - Better Safe Than Safari - 2005

i often know not what to say, but can express it twenty different ways.

On consistency:

He grabs me by the hand, drags me to the shore
And says "Maybe you don't love me, but you'll grow to love me even more"
And I, well I'm not surprised

Tegan and Sara - My Number - 2000

I want a house on the beach, and you in my dreams.
I need water, yeah, and a love, love, love, love.

Tegan and Sara - Time Running - 2002

I want the ocean right now
I want the ocean right now
I get so jealous
That I can't even work

Tegan and Sara - So Jealous - 2004

Imagine me there my heart asleep with no air
Begging ocean please, help me drown these memories

Tegan and Sara - Hop A Plane - 2007

So it's been so long since you said,
"Well I know what I want, what I want is right here with you."

Tegan and Sara - The Ocean - 2009

After Sainthood came out and i heard The Ocean i immediately tied it to So Jealous and Time Running. My Number didn't come in until later, which is funny because it was the very first song i ever heard by them. It does help that it seems a song about being in over your head in a relationship "It's a silly time to learn to swim when you start to drown" Hop A Plane i didn't notice until i happened to be playing it putting all these quotes together. Offhand i can't think of anything from Under Feet Like Ours and i haven't listened to their new album enough to catch anything, but i wouldn't be surprised. Not to imply this is some narrative, i don't which sister wrote what, but it is obvious the ocean is very important to them, symbolically and actually.