Stay is a song that has a very powerful message: Sometimes it’s only tonight that matters. Not the consequences. Not the ramifications or even the meaning. Sometimes this type of moment between two people defies all logic and is more than needed, it’s necessary, because what has transpired is bigger than just love at first sight. It’s a reconnection of souls. It’s a moment that yearns for a run at the airport gate, or standing outside a house raising a boom box over your head. But time is the enemy, because no matter how much we plead with each other to stay, responsibility creeps back in, we have to return to our respective lives and then the moment is lost forever.

"Gonna feel it baby Oh I don’t wanna cry I know we’ll get to tomorrow and say goodbye That’s why I’m asking for Tonight"

"Stay tonight Don’t come morning, don’t come light They may be lies, but say that we’ll be alright Say that we’re gonna be alright Tonight"

I encourage you to listen to this song several times in a row and at each listen focus your attention on specific instruments that make up the composition. They each represent how in-sync the two people are in Sara’s lyrics. The strings, light piano, rhythm guitar and even the backing vocals are all musical layers that work in concert with each other while contributing to a crescendo that is the overall magic and message of Stay. By the end Sara’s passionate vocal exudes so much pain, heartache and love, it’s easy to identify with her thoughts, especially if we connect with the words. The way she holds out “tonight” before the final chorus, conveys those aforementioned emotions, and just like the night we don’t want it to end.

andrepeat this song again and again and it never will.

musicalmorphine.com

Two frames I see structure-wise: 1) realistic Sara 2) romantic Sara

1) realistic Sara starts by setting the stage at a room for a Saturday get-together. It appears that her significant other went off to go use the restroom, whereby she commences to focus on what they mean to each other, being as they are only two lovers intermingled before the glaring daylight that is day-to-day business comes sweeping them apart. 'Who needs that shit?' she thinks resignedly. She decides to enjoy the things for which the skies overhead foretell doom.

2) romantic Sara starts by setting the stage with her sitting cross-legged in an empty dark room in the middle of the night. Then, the meditative story begins, filling the room with people of all shapes and sizes. Once upon a time (another time), there were two spirits named Reality and Idea. Reality is a murderous motherfucker responsible for every crime that's happened under the sun for all of time because Reality is anything being hit by the sun, on its way to eventually rotting away to expiration. Idea is none of that, but is very weird, weird enough to confuse her. But Idea has her heart, and that is the ringer. Seeing this, she begs this beloved spirit to stay with her, holding her hand, huddled together against morning and light who might not be what they say they are (as happens when anything truly steps into the sun), as they wait for the murderous motherfucker Reality to strike again. But here:

Keep your eyes closed You've seen it baby You've seen where this goes

, there's an insinuation that she is talking to herself. That would mean that she's broken free from the meditation and that she's become a spirit herself. In elevating herself thus, her self-command to stay is an affirmation to feel life and not let it make her cry before she says goodbye to it. So she tells herself she'll be alright before everything is fucked by Reality.

Just like my final examination tomorrow will fuck me, now that I've played so long with Idea.

For me, the song is about her and another person that have or had a history together. I think at some point they both realised that they still have/had feelings toward each other, but there is something that is throwing a monkey wrench in the mix that keeps them from being together. Based on that, I think they had a moment were they could be together in a way, however, she knew that once the next day came that things would change for the better or worse and reality would set in.

"Don't come morning, don't come light They may be lies, but say that we'll be alright."

That line leads me to believe, that maybe the other person is conviencing her that everything will be alright so that she'll give into the idea more. Also, I think in some way she wants to hear from that person, they will be alright so she dosnt have to keep going back and worth with the idea. Kind of a "enjoy the moment,and worry about it later" kind of thinking.

Much in the vain of 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?' I think here Sara is describing someone she has fell for whilst on a night out, and they have slept together. She doesn't want the morning to come and the reality hit her that it is just a one-night stand.