I've never hid the fact that "Stay" by Lisa Loeb is one of my all time favorite songs. Not only is it lyrically amazing, but it has a great story behind it.
Going back to they early 90s, Loeb tells the story of hanging out with actor/director Ethan Hawke among a group of mutual friends. Around this time, Hawke was working on a film, Reality Bites, with Ben Stiller. Hawke played the "Stay" track for Stiller, who decided to put it on the movie soundtrack. Local radio started playing it, and eventually the song made it all the way to No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart. Loeb was an unsigned artist at the time, and still holds the distinction of having a No. 1 single without benefits of being signed to a major record label.
While I'm sure you are all enlightened, she actually tells the story better.
Really, this whole song is pretty awesome and every line just flows right into the next. It's hard to pick just one line, but since I really should here you go.
I like how the words "some of us hover when we weep for the other" sound together.
Here it is in context:
Some of us hover when we weep for the other who was
Dying since the day they were born
Well, this is not that
I think that I'm throwing, but I'm thrown
And I thought I'd live forever, but now I'm not so sure
You try to tell me that I'm clever
But that won't take me anyhow, or anywhere with you
I've had the opportunity to see Lisa live a few times. It's always been a treat. Nothing like a genuine singer/songwriter just belting out tunes and strumming on a guitar. No crazy drum machines or synthetic sounds. Just all natural talent.
There are a lot of great live, acoustic videos on YouTube of this song -- including the link I posted earlier. But I thought I'd embed the original music video, which itself is a mini-masterpiece. It was directed by Hawke and was shot in one continuous take. Pretty cool! My favorite lyric comes in at 1:37.
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