call my name, here I come.
90 to nothing, watch me run.
you call.
I am ashamed to say.
ugly girls know their fate.
anybody can get laid.
you want a room with a fire escape.
I want to tell you how much I hate this.
don't leave that stuff all over me. it pains me.
please just leave it.
I should toss that vanity license plate.
toss that make-up painted face.
box those poems, chocolate cake.
scratch that name on the record player.
please just leave me be.
don't lay that stuff all over me.
it crawls all over. all over me.
call my name, here I come.
your last ditch lay, will I never learn?
caramel turn on a dusty apology.
it crawls all over me.
you turn all over.
it pains me.
please just leave it.

We grew up in the South, soul was what was going on. 'Tongue' started out as a weird drum track that we recorded at a place in New Orleans where thay have these wild drums, like Indian drums turned sideways. I started playing this beat and Scott (Litt) rolled the tape. That's another example of how a song comes out of something completely uncalculated. Mike put on this basebal-park organ, and then Michael decided to sing falsetto on it. I don't think he wanted to sound like Al Green or Smokey, but it does have that feel.
Bill Berry

I was trying to think how it would be if Tori Amos wrote a Prince cover song.
Michael Stipe

Quotes collected from 'R.E.M. - In Their Own Words' by Peter Hogan

Lyrics are based on fans interpretations and are not official.

All R.E.M. originals written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.

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By Shane I'm glad I'm not the only one that loves this sweet song!

By Dan