Fleetwood Mac - Sara
 

Damn, this a masterpiece! Remember when it was this good?!

Yes, Stevie at the height of her FM greatness! I love this version and the one on the 1980 live album! :thumbsup:

Seems like she was creating a visual character around this song - the red cloak, her hair up in a pompadour.

When 'Sara' was finally brought back into the FM set in the new millennium, she dressed up in the same way at some shows, but it just didn't work. The red cloak made her look big, and her piled-up straightened hair didn't look like it did back then.

'Sara' on the 2008 'The Soundstage Sessions' version is just awful. Her voice is flat and with no nuances. :sorry:

Agreed about the soundstage performance. In fact the whole show was dull and leaden.

I always thought Stevie looks wasted in this video. I know they were all wasted during this time but her eyes are so glassy. IMHO not many flattery pictures of the band during this era but I always thought Stevie looked horrible in this video.

Just love:

- Lindsey's guitar finger-picking throughout the song. More obvious on the 1980 Live album (some overdubbing in the studio afterwards?)

- Stevie's "All I ever wanted was to knowwwwwwwwwwwwww..." at the end

I'm almost positive that MOST of the "1980 Live" guitar is overdubs.

and most of the vocals.

I love this video. I love Stevie's look, boots, vocals, and facial expressions. I can't stand the way she sings Sara nowadays. But, her range is so small it is what it is.

This song peaked from a live perspective on the Tusk Tour. Some of those performances are just magical to listen to. The Live album of course, and Tusk Deluxe...but some of the bootlegs too. Melbourne and Japan (can't remember what city) were always amazing to me.

It lost something on the Mirage Tour (tempo seemed a bit faster, her vocal nuances were just blah as compared to Tusk), seemed okay from the few versions I have heard from 1988, and then has just been perfunctory since it got reintroduced in 2004. I would have loved to have heard it on The Dance tour, with Christine actually playing along and Stevie still able to potentially nail the vocal.

I agree Sara peaked on the Tusk tour and should have retired after that but because it was a “Hit” it came back. Sara and Gypsy are two songs and “Hits” that never really translated we’ll live. Sara did for the Tusk tour but Gypsy didn’t even work for the Mirage tour. Studio magic by master Buckingham.

Gypsy has never been good, live.

Even on the Mirage tour, with a 6-7 piece band.

Master Buckingham made it pretty much impossible to capture live...

The closest they came was on The Dance. Though I’m sure studio magic post-production helped out there. The current version is dreadful. And any solo version she has done is just Waddy butchering the hell out of the song.

Gypsy - AHA Benefit 2000
 

I always liked the acoustic version performed at the AHI benefit in 2000. Lindsey, and two others on acoustic guitars (I think Waddy was one of the other two). There is a video on YouTube of that performance.
https://youtu.be/m5HeRgOVOMw

I think if Christine would have expanded her role on the song it could have been a bit more flushed out. She plays basic chords on it.

She certainly has the ability to play a chord and cover one of the layers with her right hand. I think they either were trumped by LB, or just lazy on her part.

I suspect the latter. And that's all she plays now. :distress:

I like the "Gypsy" on the Mirage video and, even more so, the acoustic one from the 2000 AHI benefit.

The one on the Mirage video is stripped down compared to the studio version, and if only for a change of pace that's okay by me. Stevie's vocal is a bit rough but she keeps in interesting by varying both the sonic and emotional tone of the delivery throughout the song. I also like Lindsey counter singing "she was just a wish" in place of "lightning strikes" on the last line.

Lindsey's guitar solo at the end of both versions (as in all versions) is fantastic.

I would agree with this....it’s what saved the song. Stevie’s voice was completely shot due to not taking care of her pipes.

But she sings the verses in such monotonic fashion. I remember when the Mirage video came out, and we made fun of her monotone on it, back then!

I guess I've always been a sandy ***t.:wavey:

Yes Waddy and who ... Carlos? I can’t recall.

Didn’t the Soundstage producer beg her to do the song, even though she would have preferred not to?

Carlos Rios

Yes she introduces the song by saying she usually reserves it for FM performances only, but the producer specifically asked her to do it for the Soundstage show.

Just "she is dancing away from me now" is monotone (which I think works). She mixes up the delivery throughout the song, to good effect.

I too like this version. Her vocals work for me on this video. Her version of it in Memphis, (same tour) are horrible in comparison.

Yeah, me too. I really like the new look she took on here. If I remember correctly she was ditching all her black clothes to dispel the RUMOURS that she actually was a witch. Seems like she doesn't give a **** these days, nor does anyone else, because all she EVER wears, is black!

Aside from the looks and vocals of Nicks though, the song soars on the merits of the rest of the band. Some say Tusk was fragmented, but "Sara" comes across to me as a full on band effort. So lush and majestic that really no one minded listening to its' long running order on the radio at the time.

Yeah, her butt was a lot bigger by then! :laugh: The youthful beauty of the original Sara was long gone and the same take of that just became a wasted parody. Even her parading over to Lindsey's mic to sing the last few lines of the song was a little too cliché for me. We all appreciate a little nostalgia, BUTT....

I agree with how much of a band effort it is. You have Christine doing the intro on a tack piano. The rhythm section soars on this song. Stevie really shines.

I hate when she tries to parody herself. It's usually a big fail. Her attempts on the piano is always a horrible thing, too.