Stay...

[Elvis Presley]

This may have been talked about before but I was curious as to what everyones interpretation of this wonderful song is????
I always thought of it as a reference to abuse from a womans perspective......ive also heard that its about angels.......is this an opinion that I have created or is it common???
Thoughts???

 

[FallingStar]

It is about a woman that gets treated bad by her husband or boyfriend and whatever.

You say when he hits you, you don't feel a thing
Because when he hurts you, you feel alive


This interpretation that Stay is about angels could be, but I think the guy you heard that from got that fact mixed up with the movie "Faraway, So Close" for which Stay was actually written. This movie is about angels is Berlin...


However, this song is beautiful. The live versions are better than the studio version IMO, though.

 

[tackleberry]

This song, to me, is about falling in love with someone you are not "allowed" to fall in love with. Think of the Movie "City of Angels" with Nic Cage and Meg Ryan.

Look at these lines:

And if you look, you look through me
And if you talk its not to me
And if you shout, I'll only hear you


3 O clock in the morning
Its quiet and there's no one around
Just the bang and the clatter
As an angel hits the ground
--this is a direct reference to the wenders film as well as City of Angels.

Also, I think the "battered" line is not the theme of the song just an example of how this song is about "something you want, but cannot have" because of certain circumstances. The main character in the song, the angel, is only able to witness these occurences, and not actually take action. Until the end, where he falls and becomes a mortal human.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

This is what I've always felt the song was about-a guy falls in love with this girl who's in a relationship with a horrible creep, and he wants her to be with him, and he hates to see her in such a destructive relationship (like at the end, with the whole "just the bang and the clatter as an angel hits the ground" bit-to me, the angel in this song is the girl, and this angel's hitting the ground is symbolizing this girl's relationship causing her to just slowly fall apart, if you get what I'm saying here with that).

That's what I've gotten from this song.

I absolutely love this song...the lyrics in it are fantastic, I think. Great song. And that's my interpretation of it.

Angela

 

[walkon11]

This is what I've always felt the song was about-a guy falls in love with this girl who's in a relationship with a horrible creep, and he wants her to be with him, and he hates to see her in such a destructive relationship (like at the end, with the whole "just the bang and the clatter as an angel hits the ground" bit-to me, the angel in this song is the girl, and this angel's hitting the ground is symbolizing this girl's relationship causing her to just slowly fall apart, if you get what I'm saying here with that).

That's what I've gotten from this song.

I absolutely love this song...the lyrics in it are fantastic, I think. Great song. And that's my interpretation of it.

Angela

That's always how I've interpreted the song to be...it almost seems as if the woman is blind to the emotions felt by said person ("When you looked, you looked through me..")...eventually, there's not much the person can do but watch her suffer ("Stay, with the demons you drown..."). Great interpretations, I really enjoy reading all of these!

 

[Elvis Presley]

hmmm, interesting perspectives.....keep em coming, Im all ears!!!

 

[Michael Griffiths]

Seems that many have the same interpretations as I do. Here's what I just wrote in another thread...


I adore the lyrical ambiguity of 'Stay' - how the lyrics cleverly seem so obvious when in fact there is a real dark undercurrent to them. Most people interpret the last lines to mean the "bang and the clatter" of the Angel (the narrator) "hitting the ground," when they could just as easily mean the bang and the clatter of the woman (the physical abuse of the "vampire" as the "victim") being portrayed throughout the song. The last lines send a chill up my spine for all the wrong reasons...

Three o'clock in the morning
It's quiet and there's no one around
Just the bang and the clatter
As an angel runs to ground

Just the bang
And the clatter
As an angel
Hits the ground

 

[dizzy]

when they could just as easily mean the bang and the clatter of the woman (the physical abuse of the "vampire" as the "victim") being portrayed throughout the song. The last lines send a chill up my spine for all the wrong reasons...

That's what the last lines did to me too. They were kind of disturbing to the point that I thought the woman died in the end. The song's story seemed to have ended tragically. The last two lines ("As an angel hits the ground") could be saying that the "angel" is trying to help the woman after she gets hit and falls.

Such a sad song.

 

[CannibalisticArtist]

my interpetation comes from watching wings over berlin, or wings of desire, Wenders' first angels film. so many things fit the song. the bang and the clatter could be literal sound of the angellic armor falling out of the sky. the look through me is the invisible angel, you don't smoke don't even want to , the angel never smoked in the first one, but felt compelled to try it out with coffee etc etc.
i feel the song is more suited to the first film than the 2nd, even though it was featured in the 2nd, it just fits the melancholy atmosphere of the first rather than the odd campy atmosphere of the 2nd. also some of the clips used in the music video of stay were from the 1st film. interesting stuff really.

 

[Salome]

very clever lyrics indeed
mixing a troubled (at least) love relationship with the fan - popstar relationship (with satelite television, you can go anywhere / if I could stay than the night would be enough)

most of Zooropa is really great lyrically

 

[Blacksword]

Ithas that nice highly personal ambiguousness that all of Bono's really good love songs have. There's such a wonderful plainive longing in this song that is perfectly matched in the lyrics and music. Plus there's just a slight chill to it. I go with the unattainable love interpretation.

The "And when I touch you, you don't feel a thing" line has always got me. I have had strong feelings for a few girls/women but newver returned or in the most intense one blocked by her being in a relationship (she hooked up with a guy just before I started to actually get to know her). I've let that go quite a while ago as was necessary for my sanity (my guilt over my feelings and the frustration over the timing was driving me nuts) but those lines always bring to mind all those timesI've walked away with nothing but memories from afar...

Wow way too sentimental there sorry guys

 

[adamswildhoney]

very clever lyrics indeed
mixing a troubled (at least) love relationship with the fan - popstar relationship (with satelite television, you can go anywhere / if I could stay than the night would be enough)

most of Zooropa is really great lyrically

I was thinking the same thing about the song too!!!