Sly & The Family Stone - If You Want Me to Stay
The first time I heard this song was during Dead Presidents. I was only 13 when that movie came out and this song made my head knod uncontrollably. My pop bought the soundtrack to the movie and I immediately stole it and it’s still sitting in my car today. This song is one of my all-time favorite songs, by one of my favorite artists. One of the baddest bass lines ever that is prominent throughout the whole song. The backing hammond organ that gives you the quick church shakes. The funky ass muted trumpets going for it in the back. The song defines funk and soul to me.
The vocals though are what takes the song over the top. Sly puts so much flavor, funk, and emotion into his voice. This actually brings up an issue that I have with many vocalists in the mainstream r&b scene right now. I just don’t feel anything from their voice, no emotion, no passion, nothing that really makes me feel the lyrics. Don’t get me wrong there are a lot of artists today that will sing the hell out of a song, but it seems like the r&b audience today is almost scared of vocals that aren’t filtered through auto-tune (note auto-tune’s use before your boy t-pain was to fix notes that were off key aka make bad vocalists sound “good”)
The song is basically Sly telling his woman that he needs to be him. He seems to be in a position where he’s just trying to be him and do him, yet she is attempting to make him into something else. But sly’s basically like screw it right now, i’m out of here for a bit. However, through this difficult time he still loves her and still tells her that she’s always number one. Just about everyone I know has been in this position in a relationship, where they just need to get away because they feel like they are losing themselves in the relationship. Sometimes you need to leave forever and sometimes just a little while.
If you want me to stay
I’ll be around today
To be available for you to see
I’m about to go
And then you’ll know
For me to stay here I’ve got to be me
You’ll never be in doubt
That’s what it’s all about
You can’t take me for granted and smile
Count the days I’m gone
Forget reaching me by phone
Because I promise I’ll be gone for a while
When you see me again
I hope that you have been
The kind of person that you really are now
You got to get it straight
How could I ever be late
When you’re my woman takin’ up my time
How could you ever allow
I guess I wonder how
How could you get out of pocket for fun
When you know that you’re never number two
Number one gonna be number one
I’ll be good
I wish I could
Get this message over to you now
When you see me again
I hope that you have been
The kind of person you really are now
[Instrumental Interlude]
When you see me again
I hope that you have been
The kind of person that you really are now
I’ll be so good
I wish I could
Get the message over to you now
