Stay (4:05)

“Stay” is a song from Pink Floyd’s 1972 album Obscured by Clouds. It is known for being one of the album’s particularly slow-moving, lyrical songs. It was also issued as the B-side of “Free Four”.

The lyrics, written by Roger Waters and sung by Richard Wright, vacillate between frustration and indifference felt towards a casual sex partner (perhaps a groupie). In this regard it is not unlike Wright’s own “Summer ‘68”.

Musically, the main theme and verse of the song stays on a pedal point of G in the bass, while the chords above it change in a typical I-IV-V progression (G, C, and D Major). The D Major over the G bass results in the appearance of a G Major ninth chord, evoking a “melancholy” or “bittersweet” feeling. The chorus modulates to the parallel minor, with a chord change of G minor to C Major, a common progression in Wright’s compositions. (See “Pow R. Toc H.”, the “Funky Dung” section of the “Atom Heart Mother Suite”, or “The Great Gig in the Sky”.) Because this chord change evokes a ii-V-I progression left unfinished (it would have to resolve to F Major), the effect is appropriately dissatisfying, as the chorus delves into a profusion of barely-related chords, a convoluted but eventually successful attempt to resolve back to G Major.

The instrumentation is mostly Wright’s piano and Waters’s bass, with a solo and other ornamental touches from guitarist David Gilmour making heavy use of clean Wah-wah pedal.