[MUSIC] Shakespears Sister, "Stay"
May. 26th, 2011 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI wrote about Shakespears Sister, "a British based BRIT Award and Ivor Novello Award-winning synth-pop-rock band", and the duo's signature 1992 hit "Stay", back in 2005. I noted then that the song was a fairly inventive love song, a dialogue between characters played by high-pitched ex-Bananarama singer Siobhan Fahey and the throatier soprano of Marcella Detroit fighting over a man, Fahey's love, who was slipping away.
Sharing the inventive Sophie Muller-directed video is necessary.
Says Wikipedia, "[t]he video starts with a view of a calm night sky. A shooting star passes over a full moon and the song begins. The camera pans back into a large dark room. [Fahey]playing the lover is seen caretaking her man - played by Dave Evans - who is comatose and near death. Detroit sings her verse of the song. At the climax of the song, Fahey, playing a vampish angel of death, appears at the top of a staircase, wearing a sparkling catsuit. She sings her verse of the song and dances around in front a bright light. Detroit tries her best to get the man to wake up, while Death slowly makes her way down the stairs to claim the man's soul. The two women begin fighting over the man, making it literally and figuratively a fight between life (Detroit) and death (Fahey). During their struggle, the man suddenly wakes up. Detroit embraces him. Death - disgusted by this - having failed to do seduce him into her realm, walks back up the staircase to the light, presumably being the stairway to Heaven."
"Stay" is a love song, a well-composed and lyrically inventive song--co-written by Fahey's then-husband, ex-Eurythmic Dave Stewart--that's a pleasure to listen to.
It's also a very complex song, with multiple meanings. One thing that I realized about the song last week, though, is that "Stay" is also a song about suicide. Its album Hormonally Yours does explore the theme of suicide, perhaps most clearly with the song "The Trouble With André".
Compare the opening lines of "Stay".
And the song's video, crucially, features a man who is on the verge of death, who is caught between life and love and the seductions of death.
I love the lyrical density of "Stay". Shakespears Sister was an inventive duo, Fahey and Detroit recording two brilliant albums together before their split. The world of popular music is all the worse for the duo's fracture.
Sharing the inventive Sophie Muller-directed video is necessary.
Says Wikipedia, "[t]he video starts with a view of a calm night sky. A shooting star passes over a full moon and the song begins. The camera pans back into a large dark room. [Fahey]playing the lover is seen caretaking her man - played by Dave Evans - who is comatose and near death. Detroit sings her verse of the song. At the climax of the song, Fahey, playing a vampish angel of death, appears at the top of a staircase, wearing a sparkling catsuit. She sings her verse of the song and dances around in front a bright light. Detroit tries her best to get the man to wake up, while Death slowly makes her way down the stairs to claim the man's soul. The two women begin fighting over the man, making it literally and figuratively a fight between life (Detroit) and death (Fahey). During their struggle, the man suddenly wakes up. Detroit embraces him. Death - disgusted by this - having failed to do seduce him into her realm, walks back up the staircase to the light, presumably being the stairway to Heaven."
"Stay" is a love song, a well-composed and lyrically inventive song--co-written by Fahey's then-husband, ex-Eurythmic Dave Stewart--that's a pleasure to listen to.
It's also a very complex song, with multiple meanings. One thing that I realized about the song last week, though, is that "Stay" is also a song about suicide. Its album Hormonally Yours does explore the theme of suicide, perhaps most clearly with the song "The Trouble With André".
Inside the dresser by the table
Something he keeps beside the bed
Living with Andre can't be easy
Some things are better left unsaid
He remembers a time before
The waters got so deep
When he found it easier to sleep
Compare the opening lines of "Stay".
If this world is wearing thin
And you're thinking of escape
I'll go anywhere with you
Just wrap me up in chains
But if you try to go alone
Don't think I'll understand
And the song's video, crucially, features a man who is on the verge of death, who is caught between life and love and the seductions of death.
I love the lyrical density of "Stay". Shakespears Sister was an inventive duo, Fahey and Detroit recording two brilliant albums together before their split. The world of popular music is all the worse for the duo's fracture.
