If You Want Me to Stay

"If You Want Me to Stay"
Song

"If You Want Me to Stay" is a 1973 hit single by Sly & the Family Stone, from their album Fresh. The single was the band's final Top 20 pop hit, and is the best-known of its post-There's a Riot Goin' On recordings.

Stone recorded the song without much input from the rest of the band; by the early 1970s, he had begun crafting most of his material by himself. An alternate version of "If You Want Me to Stay", as well as most of the rest of the Fresh album, was completed before Stone decided to scrap the masters and re-record the album. These alternate versions have surfaced in underground markets, online auctions, and specialty shops. However, in Epic's 2007 reissue of Fresh, 5 bonus tracks are included, all of which are directly from the alternate mix of the album.

"If You Want Me to Stay" reached number 12 on the Pop Chart, and number-three on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart. The song has been covered extensively since its introduction, by artists ranging from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, to Etta James, to Eric Benet, to Mercury Rev, to Victor Wooten, to Soulive, to Pama International. The song has also been featured in the movies "Talk to Me" and "Dead Presidents".

Song Analysis

The lyrics of "If You Want Me to Stay" feature frontman Sly Stone informing his lover that she has to let him be himself, otherwise he feels that he would have to leave. The composition has its origins in an apology Stone wrote to his future wife, Kathleen Silva, after a fight. However, the message of the song is also considered to be pointed commentary from Stone towards detractors who had begun to criticize his then-recently public problems of drug abuse and professional unreliability. For example, when it came to attending his own concerts, he was notoriously flaky, missing a great deal of performances with the Family Stone.

Credits

• Vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards by Sly Stone
• Drums by Andy Newmark
• Trumpet by Cynthia Robinson
• Saxophones by Jerry Martini and Pat Rizzo.

Note: A transcription of the bass part for this song appears in the October 2006 issue of Bass Player magazine (pages 78-81). According to the article accompanying the transcription, written by Chris Jisi:

"The ambitiously named 'Fresh' hit the streets in early July. A stripped-down, more raw outing than previous Sly albums, the 11-track set was boosted by the bass waves of Graham's hand-picked replacement, Rustee Allen. Sly himself laid down some of the album's bass tracks, but it was Rustee whose lilting line drove "If You Want Me To Stay," the disc's hit single (No. 12 on the Pop charts, No. 3 on R & B)"