Attention all R.E.M. fans, if you ever wanted to know the secret meaning behind some of yr favorite Michael Stipe penned songs head over to Pop Songs 07-08 and read some of the responses. Yes, you can e-mail Stipe, in care of Pop Songs, and he'll reply on the Pop Songs website.
One of the surprises that I discovered was the meaning behind "Tongue" from Monster. I always thought it was, as Stipe had once claimed, to be "all about cunnilingus." But at Pop Songs, Stipe explains:
"the song is from a female perspective and so sung in falsetto. Which is not real, but pulls at the heart. That’s what the song is I think. it is the ‘last ditch lay’ song. Not pretty but something we’ve all seen. Totally fabricated, not from real life. And ‘caramel turn on a dusty apology’ is just what an unwrapped caramel in a corner would look like when the vacuum cleaner can’t quite pick it up and you have to do it with your hands. That’s what you feel like morning after when you’re not the first choice lay. It’s bad.
one of my favorite ever lyrics that I’ve written. It exactly feels like that feeling."
Check out the site, many interesting factoids and anecdotes by Señor Stipe himself.
