After the very introspective Songs for the Saints album, country music superstar Kenny Chesney gears up for his first true Blue Chair/Warner Music Nashville project with the release of “Tip of My Tongue,” a decidedly grown up song from the singer-songwriter. With its sweeping groove and an almost humid melody lift, “Tip of My Tongue” merges desire and connection over a figure of speech in a classic songwriting technique.
Having spent the first half of the year taking the music to the people, focusing on the markets that have not been part of his massive stadium tours, his Songs for the Saints Tour reconnected him to a whole other segment of his audience. With a short break to recalibrate his focus, the man has cited “its whirl of dizzy romance, of love in its intoxicating inception” is at work with longtime co-producer Buddy Cannon recording what will be his first real album for his new home.
“It’s funny how a figure of speech can lead you to all kinds of places,” Chesney marvels. “You start talking, and words fall out, and anything can happen. When you go in and write on any given day, the chemistry is what it is. When the idea fell out, we all just laughed and went, ‘Well, what can we do with that?’
“I’ve written so much with Ross (Copperman), that’s always easy. He brought Ed (Sheeran) in, and he is such a great writer… The way creativity works in creative people is so different, but it’s always exciting. As a co-write with a new writer, it’s one of the most fun sessions I’ve done in a long time. I get why people love working with him.”
Listen to “Tip of My Tongue” below!
“Tip of My Tongue” Lyrics
I love the dimples in the small of your back
The way they’re speaking to me just like that
Red wine make my imagination run
Oh I can taste it on the tip of my tongue
Let rock, let it roll
Baby I am under your control
Love me fast, kiss me slow
Hang on to anything you can hold
It’s a long way down to where I wanna go
It’s a long way down to the center of your soul
It’s a long way down and I’m a loaded gun
But I love me some sugar on the tip of my tongue
Girl believe me when I say it’s true
Nobody makes me feel the way you do
Well I love you from the morning to the setting sun
Yeah, I can taste the ocean on the tip of my tongue
Let rock, let it roll
Baby I am under your control
Love me fast, kiss me slow
Hang on to anything you can hold
It’s a long way down to where I wanna go
It’s a long way down to the center of your soul
It’s a long way down and I’m a loaded gun
But I love me some sugar on the tip of my tongue
Yeah I love me some sugar on the tip of my tongue
It’s a long way down
It’s a long way down
It’s a long way down and I’m a loaded gun
But I love me some sugar on the tip of my tongue
Yeah I love me some sugar on the tip of my tongue
I wanna love you till my days are done
I wanna tell you that I think that you’re the one
Oh girl you know when it’s all said and done
Everything about you’s on the tip of my tongue
“With all the great songs that have been written in this town, I think you always want to do something a little different,” Chesney explains. “I think there’s this moment when you look at someone and you know they contain everything. You want to know everything, consume everything about them. It’s why we say ‘It’s a long way down,’ because you want to know it all. And the best part: we got a melody that feels like what’s going on lyrically. The music matches the words, and you can just drift in it.”
From a quiet, almost watery open, “Tip of My Tongue” builds to a full-bodied chorus with layered vocals, muted bass, keyboards and a rhythm track that balances the tension of the quiet vocal-forward verses. Like tides rising and falling, a consuming back and forth to the track, which turns on the tumbling profession “It’s a long way down,” before finding the contrasting attraction of “I love you salt and sugar…”
