Little Big Town, ‘Pontoon’ – Lyrics Uncovered
The inspiration behind the lyrics to Little Big Town‘s forthcoming single ‘Pontoon’ were a bit of a mix up, but for the band and the writers, a very, very good mix-up! The song is the first single from the band’s highly-anticipated fifth studio album, and it is already being called “the single of the summer” by many media outlets. ‘Pontoon’ was crafted by the amazing minds of Luke Laird, Natalie Hemby and Barry Dean.
“Natalie and I wrote a song called ‘Fine Tune’ for Miranda Lambert, and it’s on her ‘Four the Record’ album,” Laird tells Taste of Country. “We wrote the song, and Natalie’s publisher had heard about it and asked, ‘What’s this song you and Luke wrote called ‘Pontoon’?’ And she was like, ‘No, it’s called ‘Fine Tune.” She was telling us that story when she and Barry and I got together to write. Then we were like, ‘Well, ‘Pontoon’ would actually be a cool song to write!’ [laughs]”
“Back that hitch up into the water / Untie all the cables and rope / Step onto the Astro Turf / Get yourself a koozie, let’s go,” they wrote in the opening lyrics.
“We started it, and had sort of the first verse — the first few lines,” recalls Laird. “Then we didn’t come back to it until several months later. We were like, ‘Remember that song, ‘Pontoon,’ that we started? We should finish that.’ It kind of stuck with all of us. So we got together another day and finished it, and of course, had a blast writing it.”
“Pontoon / Makin’ waves and catchin’ rays up on the roof / Jumping off the back don’t act like you don’t want to / Party in slow motion / Out here in the open hmm, motor-boatin’,” they wrote in the lyrics to the song’s chorus.
“We knew we liked it, and a bunch of people put it on hold,” notes Laird. “Little Big Town were all into it. The record label and everybody got on board with it, and it’s been really exciting.”