Stay Lyrics
Have you all of my lifetime
Kinda hard to make light
Imagining when you were inside
When you made those kicks at night
[Pre-Chorus 1]
Don't wanna hurt you
Don't wanna run away from myself
Want your whole star to shine on in
One star, one light
The meaning of life
[Chorus]
You won't let me go astray
You will let me find my way
[Verse 2]
Find a way to stand
And a time to walk away
Letting go to let you lead
I don't know how it ends
[Pre-Chorus 2]
Comes a time when you answer
Do it with heart
Want you to express yourself
Not let it get to your head
You won't let me go astray
You will let me find my way
You, you love me either way
You stay
About
“Stay”, Remind Me Tomorrow’s closing track, is a poignant tribute to Sharon Van Etten’s child, who was born in the years since her previous album.
The song’s title (and closing line) expresses how, unlike the possibly ephemerous love found in romantic relationships, the love between mother and child is forever.
In Sharon’s MicroShow for The Current at the Warming House in Minneapolis on Feb. 17, 2019, she explained,
The song started off as a love song to my partner, but then when I got pregnant and I finished the lyrics while holding my belly and hallucinating, and thinking about everything to come, and wanting to be positive with everything going on in the world, and just wanting the best for him, and being very scared about what was happening, what was about to happen, so this is a positive song.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
I started writing this song before I had a kid. It’s one of the few songs I wrote on guitar. I found myself staring at my kid, who was napping. The only word I had written in the chorus was ‘stay’. I found myself crying because I was looking at him. I just kept thinking: ‘I just want you to be okay, I want you to know I’m not going to leave you.’ So when I started writing for my partner it was like …[in affectionate tone] ‘I’m never going to leave you, baby!’, and now it’s: [earnestly] ‘I’m never going to leave you’.”
—Sharon Van Etten, via Drowned in Sound
- 3.Memorial Day
- 4.Comeback Kid
- 5.Jupiter 4
- 6.Seventeen
- 7.Malibu
- 8.You Shadow
- 9.Hands
- 10.Stay