stand by me

20:20 Feb 22, 2012 

I can tell you from experience that when you get to the recording studio, a lotta stuff gets on the final track that was never included in the lyrics; each artist has his/her way of interpreting the song and a lot of ad-libbing is pretty typical. The examples are ubiquitous.
eski :))

20:18 Feb 22, 2012 

"Unfortunately, once it gets translated into French etc you're forced to give gender to the singer. Shame!"

I don't think it's a shame at all. To me this is song is about a man singing to a woman, and that's partly why I find it so beautiful. I like it exactly this way and I wouldn't want to think about this song in any other way.

@Jenni - the whole imagery with mountains, sky, etc., falling does have a tumultuous colossal events kind of feeling, very much like political ones, although not necessarily so (as well as making some apocalyptic/biblical associations). It doesn't sound like he is talking just about his personal life crashing.

20:10 Feb 22, 2012 

The article I read even suggested that these songs were written the way they were so that they would not get pulled off the air as subversive. I, for one, never thought they were anything but love songs until I read otherwise.

20:04 Feb 22, 2012 

Believe it or not, I used to play in a rock band, WAYYY back in the day...I remember that when Vanilla Fudge came out with "You keep me hangin' on"...we came out with a version of Dionne Warwick's "Reach out for me": Everyone on the scene ('The Place', in Miami) thought it was radical...but, thank God...we've come a long ways since.
Hi from Acapulco,
eski :))

20:00 Feb 22, 2012 

"Like you said, throughout the song, he is asking her to stand by him, doesn't it make sense that he offers the same to her?" :)
=======
In a relationship it's the only thing that makes sense! :-)

But in the song, no, it doesn't make any sense to have this tacked on like this at the very end, since the entire song is not about a give and take.

I'm not saying I dispute that it's what he is saying, I just find it odd that he should turn it around with seemingly no reason at the end.

I have found the spiritual:
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/s/t/standbym.htm

And a Johnny Halliday version: :-) actually the refrain works in terms of cadence in French, although most of the words have been considerably changed:
http://www.paroles-musique.com/paroles-Johnny_Hallyday-Reste...

19:55 Feb 22, 2012 

but I see it being about a couple - one stands by the other and hopes the other will stand by him/her. With today's fashion for same-sex marriage there doesn't even have to be one of each! ;-) Unfortunately, once it gets translated into French etc you're forced to give gender to the singer. Shame!

19:55 Feb 22, 2012 

"Ain't no Mountain High Enough" and "Reach Out" are another songs that were mentioned in the article I read about the civil rights movement. They have the same ambiguity and the same universal appeal as "Stand by Me."

19:48 Feb 22, 2012 

Linguistically it can be sung by either. I said "he" because it was written by Ben King, and he recorded it. That's who I had in mind singing the song. You can see one of his live performances here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmGQ5SlazJA

19:37 Feb 22, 2012 

The song is in the first and second person throughout, isn't it? I don't see anything in it that says "he stands by her" or "she stands by him". OK, it was written by a man, or 3, but linguistically the implication doesn't exist. My husband sings it but says it could equally well be sung by a woman.

19:05 Feb 22, 2012 

Like you said, throughout the song, he is asking her to stand by him, doesn't it make sense that he offers the same to her? :)
"I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
...
Whenever you're in trouble won't you stand by me"

But I get your dilemma.. I was wondering about the same thing when I was translating the song into Serbian.. the 'solution' was - in the end, he simply tells her to stay beside him (not sure how that helps with your understanding but here are some definitions + some info about the song itself)

stand by someone = to be loyal to someone who is in a difficult situation (she is in trouble and she should stand by him? but, it's a song :))
stand by someone = to support someone; to continue supporting someone even when things are bad; To remain loyal to; aid or support
stand by (someone) : to remain loyal to (someone) : to continue to support (someone)
▪ They promised to stand by each other until the end. ▪ She stood by her husband throughout the trial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_by_Me_(song)