Stay Together

"Stay Together" is a non-album single by English band Suede, released on 14 February 1994 through Nude Records. It is the last single released while guitarist Bernard Butler was in the band, though subsequent singles from Dog Man Star feature his music. It is tied with "Trash" as the highest-charting single the band has released, reaching 3 on the UK Singles Chart. The song also charted in Ireland, peaking at No. 18. The single was released in the US on 26 April as a six-song EP, and was the first release by the band as the London Suede. The State-side name change was the result of a successful lawsuit brought by Suzanne deBronkart, who had already been performing and recording in the US under the name Suede. The title track and the popular B-side, "My Dark Star", were ranked Suede's third and fourth-best songs by The Guardian in 2014. Background Following the death of Bernard Butler's father, relations within Suede started to deteriorate. Butler kept to himself on the following tour of the US, while the other band members indulged in some of the worst excesses of their career. Butler travelled to concerts by himself or on The Cranberries tour bus, rather than travel with his bandmates. This influence became prevalent as Butler later stated, "Whatever I did on Stay Together was the A to Z of the emotions I was experiencing... defiance, loss, a final sigh." What was intended as a couple of days' recording stretched out to two weeks. It was later revealed that the song had almost 50 tracks of recorded material on it. Two versions of the song were released, the full length 8:35 version and a shorter 4:21 radio edit. According to an entry in Simon Gilbert's diary in the biography Love and Poison, Butler objected to the lyrics in "Stay Together". The entry read: "Lyrics not to be printed on cover of single in case his mother reads it. '16 tears', obviously paedophilic!." The lyrics for "The Living Dead" were also criticised by Butler. At the time he said: "I've written this really beautiful piece of music and it's a squalid song about junkies." Release and promotion Suede first premiered the song at a four-city French tour in late 1993. There were many press interviews at the time, with Brett Anderson appearing on the front cover of Vox and Sky magazines. While in Scotland, The List and The Scotsman wrote lengthy features and interviews with the band to promote the band's Edinburgh gig at the Queen's Hall. Suede secured two performances on Top of the Pops.