Stay With Me

Album: Outlaws (1975)
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Songfacts®:

  • Reminiscing about writing this song, Outlaws vocalist and guitarist Henry Paul says it's about a time in everyone's life when they find someone they want to know better, on both a physical and emotional level. Says Paul: "It plays into, I suppose, where I was at with regard to age groups. As young people try and interact on a physical level with one another, it's sort of like a fairly honest request. I don't think it was like a one night stand. I just thought it was like, 'Will shine down upon the new love that we've found,' when you're infatuated with somebody, and you really want to get further into who they are, more intimate. Something in us is the critters that we are. And I think that song was sort of a lyrically and musical bash up to that, wanting to know more about somebody who you thought was just outlandishly attractive."
  • A lot of times, Paul writes songs based on titles he loves. This wasn't one of those times. According to Paul, this song came about in a reverse order: "That was just a song that was convenient from the title. The title was sort of an afterthought to just the process in which it was written."
  • Paul and the other band members found it very stressful to be away from home so often, which provided inspiration for this song. Says Paul: "It's sort of like a window into our lifestyle at the time, we were gone so much from home for so long, such enormous stretches of time. I mean, weeks and months, literally, and years away from home, out on the road, trying to build a career, playing every night. And it was like, 'All my friends will want to know where the sadness and the heartache goes, everybody's gonna want to know what we've found.' Back then we were writing all these songs about separation. Everything was about being away and wanting to get back. We lived these separate lives from the people that we supposedly cared about. I remember in L.A. recording that first Outlaws record, wanting to get back home to my wife, and I think we checked into a hotel on the way back from the airport, we couldn't wait to get to the house. It was that ridiculous. We would literally spend a year away from home with maybe 15 days sprinkled across 365. The separation issue was huge." (Check out our interview with Henry Paul. For more, go to www.blackhawkmusic.us.)

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