Sara (Fleetwood Mac song)

"Sara" is a song written by Stevie Nicks and released in an edited 4:37 version by Fleetwood Mac as a single from the 1979 Tusk double LP. The song reached #7 on the U.S. charts, #37 in the UK, #11 in Australia and #2 in Canada. The extended version of the song runs for 6:27 on the Tusk album.

Origin

Commenting on the track in interview, Stevie Nicks says that the track is about her best friend Sara Recor Fleetwood, the wife of Mick Fleetwood,^[1] and the effect she had on relationships within the band during 1978.

Nicks herself had an affair with Mick Fleetwood in early 1978 while he was married to Jenny Boyd. Then her best friend, model Sara Recor (at the time married to music manager Jim Recor), fell for Fleetwood and began an affair with him whilst Nicks and Fleetwood were still together. The pair ultimately moved in together, and were subsequently married. Nicks felt very betrayed, but Recor and Fleetwood were undeniably in love. Sara Fleetwood has stated that Nicks and Fleetwood were no longer together when they began their affair, at least that is what Mick told Sara. "Sara" was actually written with Sara Recor sitting by Nicks at the piano. Sara claims that Nicks was never upset with her, only with Fleetwood.

"Sara" originally had many more verses and ran for 16 minutes in demo form, according to Nicks, and referenced all Fleetwood Mac band members. The song was a commentary on all the tangled relationships and love affairs that were occurring in 1977-1978, but the final recorded version omitted most of this and focused on the triangle between Nicks, Fleetwood and Recor.

Nicks wrote the track on a piano, and it was very hard for Mick Fleetwood to put a drum track together for it. He used brushes to make it work.^[2]

Nicks has stated in interviews that the line "When you build your house/I'll come by" was about Don Henley, who was actually building a house at the time, and also that the lyric "and he was just like a great dark wing" was a reference to Mick Fleetwood.

Plagiarism suit

In 1980, the year after the song was released, Stevie Nicks was sued for plagiarism by Carol Hinton of Rockford, Michigan. In latter months of 1978, Hinton had written a song called "Sara", which she had sent to Warner Brothers, Fleetwood Mac's recording label. The lyrics in Hinton's song and Stevie Nicks' song were similar. Both shared the lines, "Drowning in the sea of love" and "When you build your house, call me." Stevie Nicks defended the lawsuit by proving that she had written and recorded a demo version of the song in July 1978, months before Hinton sent her lyrics to Warner. Eventually, Hinton gave up, accepting that Nicks had not stolen her song.^[3]

Versions

The version of the song featured on the original vinyl release of Tusk was the unedited 6:27 version, but when Tusk was originally released as a single compact disc in 1987 it featured the edited 4:37 version (the single version) of "Sara" which leaves out the middle verse and musical bridge. It was not until the 1988 Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits compilation was released that the 6:27 version of the song became available on compact disc. Nicks is famous for hating shortened versions of her songs.

There is also a version known as 'the cleaning lady' edit, so-called as Nicks is clearly heard to say at the beginning of the demo recording 'I don't want to be a cleaning lady!'. This version lasts almost nine minutes and was actually released on the 2-disc remastered version Tusk in March 2004. It contains an extended vamp, which includes excised lines previously only heard in live performances such as "and the wind became crazy", "no sorrow for Sara, you can have no more" and "swallow all your pride, don't you ever change- never change". ^[4]

Many different versions are available on bootlegs.

Personnel

• Stevie Nicks - lead vocals
• Lindsey Buckingham - guitar, vocals
• Christine McVie - keyboards, backing vocals
• John McVie - bass guitar
• Mick Fleetwood - drums, percussion

Chart positions

References