MONSTER: TONGUE

  In a promo video for this song, Peter Buck points out that none of the songs on Monster are from Michael's personal point of view--they're all characters and that TONGUE is a woman. Peter deems this as the reason for the falsetto. I like to think of this song as I do much of Stipe's catalog--which is to say gender neutral. Say what you will about Stipe, but his consistent omission or skewing of gender labels (he, she) means that he can pull back from heteronormative stereotypes and focus on universal archetypes. He's not always successful, but there are usually beautiful and interesting results. This song is lovely in tune, but I can't get over its sad and haunting story. If this is an album full of monsters, and the voice here is female (the 'ugly girl' perhaps?) then the monster is the character 'she' is singing about. There is shame in sexual pleasure, but much of it is brought by our own actions, brought on by the pursuit of climax. So when that climax or fulfillment does not come, the shame remains and this character wishes to do away with everything superficial (vanity, makeup, poetry) and find something meaningful. However, the choruses end with a passive aggressive apology and acceptance.
  Personally, I think this song is brilliant and is one of the highlights of MONSTER. I enjoy contradictions that work well together and this song, for such a simple and short piece, is bursting from capaciousness. We shouldn't be ashamed of anything we do. These are intellectual constructs placed upon us by centuries of oppression and societal pressure, TONGUE should do what is good and right for herself, but can these thoughts even be consciously discovered?

TONGUE

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 makeup 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



  This song has extremely limited guitar, so the following is piano tab with some explanations. However, in many ways this is a starting point as I DO NOT PLAY PIANO. Believe me, plunking this out took far too long and if you do play piano, this will point you in the right direction as Mike Mills does not really play piano either so it is rudimentary and sounds nice but there is room for playfulness. Have fun! This song is also fun to play on guitar if you follow the notes!

TONGUE

The following tab is piano tab.  If you want more specific instructions they are at tabnabber.com, but here are the basics:

1. L and R is Left hand Right hand

2. The numbers to the right of the hand designation are the octave groups. Middle c is octave 4. All octaves start on c.

3. The lowercase letters are the whole notes- white keys.

4. The uppercase (In this case only 1) is a sharp note- black key.

5. This symbol (>) means sustain the note.

6. This symbol (|) separates the measures.

Because some chords and notes straddle and change octaves, some of the following is inaccurate, once you find the starting positions, you should be okay though.

The organ line follows the chords and at times follows the piano below.

Verse: F-Bb (x4) Am-Gm

The only guitar is barred F on the 8^th fret with a repeat

L 2|--------A---g--|--------A--g--|

L 3|f---c----------|f---c---------|

R 4|f-c-f-g>-c-g-a-|>-c-a-g>-f-c>-|

L 3|---------------|3|a-a-g------|

L 2|--------A---g--|4|c-c-A------|

L 3|f---c----------|4|e-e-d------|

R 4|f-c-f-g>-c-g-a-|4|a-a-g--agf-|

Chorus: Eb-Ab-Eb-Ab-Eb-Eb(D)-Ab-Bb 

L 3|D---G---|D---G---|D---d---|G---A---|

L 3|g---c---|g---c---|g---g---|c---d---|

L 3|A---D---|A---D---|A---A---|D---f---|

R 4|DDD-GG-c|DDD-GG-c|DDD-dd--|GG--A---|

Middle Bridge:  C-Bm-Bb-F-G-Ab-Bb  (Follow with fuzzed guitar notes)

L 3|c----|b----|A----|f----|g-G---|A---|

L 3|e----|d----|d----|a----|b-c---|d---|

L 3|g----|F----|f----|c----|d-D---|f---|

R 4|ggDfg|gg-fD|g-gfD|fffff|g-G---|A---|

End:

R 5|abc-ef|

Bb Guitar chord at the end:

e|-13---|

B|-11---|

G|-10---|

D|------|

A|------|

E|------|