Very poignant and moving ballad with an exquisite and very tasteful electric guitar solo from Syd Riley

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Several years ago I was having a beer with an acquaintance in the Vittoria, a pub in Clifton, Bristol. At the time, his failing relationship meant he stood to lose an awful lot out of the spoils of their joint home being divided. It was a situation I could empathise with because I'd been through something similar a few years earlier. When I got home I composed the entire song on the piano. The person it's addressed to is imaginary - somebody who would help to dispel the acrimony and difficulties such experiences bring.

Stay Around


Can you lift me from this coldness
This indifference, this distance?
I've hurt too long and hard
And I'm needing your assistance.
Haggling and legal fees,
The chill of bitter memories,
Blackmail, its counterparts,
Memorial to broken hearts.
Can you help me open out again?


Can you take this resignation,
Can you help it gather rust?
Can you show me a different way,
A different world where there is trust?
With cynicism outward bound
Is tenderness what we've both found?
Is it a kind of peace which starts
And says goodbye to frozen hearts?
Can you help me open out again?


Chorus
Can you lift me, pick me up, dust me down,
dust me down?
Can you take me, give me hope, stay around,
stay around?


Guitar solo


Repeat of Verse One and Chorus