*** Welcome to piglix ***

Stay Together (Suede song)

"Stay Together"
Stay together song.jpg
Single by Suede
B-side "The Living Dead"
Released 14 February 1994
Format
Recorded 1993
Genre Britpop
Length
  • 4:19 [Edit]
  • 8:29
  • 7:26 [Remastered Long Version]
Label Nude
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Ed Buller
Suede singles chronology
"So Young"
(1993)
"Stay Together"
(1994)
"We Are the Pigs"
(1994)
"So Young"
(1993)
"Stay Together"
(1994)
"We Are the Pigs"
(1994)

"Stay Together" is a non-album single by Suede, released on 14 February 1994 on Nude Records. It is the last single released while guitarist Bernard Butler was in the band, though subsequent singles from Dog Man Star feature his music. Although lead singer Brett Anderson considers the single and the video that accompanies it the worst the band has released. It is tied with "Trash" as the highest charting single the band has released, charting at number three on the UK Singles Chart. The song also charted in Ireland, peaking at no. 18. The single was released in the US on 26 April as a six song EP, and was the first release by the band as The London Suede. This followed from the successful lawsuit of Suzanne deBronkart, who had been performing and recording in the US under the name Suede.

Following the death of Bernard Butler's father, relations within Suede started to deteriorate. Butler kept to himself on the following tour of the US, while the other band members "indulged in probably the worst excesses of their career". Butler travelled to concerts by himself or on The Cranberries tour bus, rather than travel with his bandmates. This influence became prevalent as Butler later stated, "Whatever I did on Stay Together was the A to Z of the emotions I was experiencing... defiance, loss, a final sigh."

What was intended as a couple of days' recording stretched out to two weeks. It was later revealed that the song had almost 50 tracks of recorded material on it. According to an entry in Simon Gilbert's diary in the biography Love and Poison, Butler objected to the lyrics in "Stay Together". The entry read: "Lyrics not to be printed on cover of single in case his mother reads it. '16 tears', obviously paedophilic!". The lyrics for "The Living Dead" were also criticised by Butler, at the time he said: "I've written this really beautiful piece of music and it's a squalid song about junkies".

It is known that throughout the decade after its release, the band have largely disowned the song; perhaps because it reminded them of the problems within the band at the time. On the single Anderson says, "I don't think the fuss about Stay Together was justified, I think that was just hype," He shrugs. "I just find it a bit bombastic. I don't think the lyrics are that good either. It's okay, you know, it's okay. I think the b-sides are much better". However publicist Phill Savage suggests that Anderson "can't believe he wrote it about that girl, Anick" (Brett's girlfriend at the time), which is why he has no feelings for it. Anderson has described "Stay Together" as one of the few points in the band's career where hype dictated its success.


...
Wikipedia

...