Questions about Sara
 

Sara is one of my most favorite songs. I love the infamous "Cleaning Lady" version and have heard a lot of the live versions. My question is this... they took Stevie's demo and layered all that fabulous Lindsey guitar and the rest of the band in there, but edited the song down. In the outtakes of the Tusk documentary you can hear them mixing down the ending of the song that was eventually cut before the song made it to the album. Is there any existing recording of the full band mix of Sara before it was edited? Or is the Cleaning Lady version the only one out there?

Stevie has also talked about a version that had many more verses. Has that ever surfaced?

And finally, there was a court case where a woman claimed that Stevie stole her lyrics and/or melody. I don't know all the details. Is there a recording around of her song?

the answer to all your questions, grasshopper, sadly, is no

at least, to my knowledge

Yay another Sara nut. I love that song. It's gotten me through a lot of **** and has a new meaning every time I listen. I must say that I prefer the finished product the demos, although I love the demos too.

I would do a lot to get my hands on the original 16 minute demo, but I've never heard of a bootleg being in existence. I hope it's somewhere in some archive and hasn't been destroyed forever. It would have been a nice inclusion on the Tusk reissue. There were two SOTM, TAM, and a gazillion Lindsey demos that kind of sound the same to me if I'm not really paying attentioon...why not 2 versions of Sara...yes I know it would need it's own cd :D

Maybe some day...

Do you have Sara with alternate lyrics 8:24?

Yes, I have heard this one. It's pretty interesting, of course nowhere near as good as the cleaning lady version. My ultimate favorite version is the one from Melborne. Oh, that's just gorgeous.

I've seen several different sources which say that the court case was absolutely, totally laughed out of court by the judge. Stevie apparently had the original demo tapes with the dates on them, and they pre-dated what the woman had claimed.
There's been some speculation that this was the same woman who recently got into trouble for an "animal shelter" scam which she apparently tricked Stevie and her Mom into endorsing (they apparently hadn't known it was the same person).
Anyway this is all speculation but I have the impression that this person has been a thorn in Stevie's side for decades now - she's got some sort of "jealousy thing" going and probably has some kind of a mental problem.

Hi All!! I'm new to The Ledge. Been a lurker for a while now, but I finally signed up, and it took a while to get activated.

I've been a Fleetwood Mac fan since the white album came out in 1975, when I was a mere little girl. However, slipping ahead, I think I was the first person in New York to get the Tusk album back in 1979, I was sooo eager to hear their new work. I saw them at Madison Square Garden in November of 1979 too...so I'm a living witness to the Tusk tour. :o

I sooo wanted to be Stevie Nicks back in those days....the impossibly adorable turned up nose, the sexy, hippy rockster...in love and living a romantic drama with a beautiful Byronic music man who loved her, hated her, blessed with blue eyes, amazing lashes, and a guitar technique that could make a girl's knees shake. The White Album/Rumours period is the era I treasure; however, Tusk was a great period too. I almost burned off my hair, trying to emulate the perm Ms. N. had in those days. My nickname in school became "Stevie", and whenever I'd run into certain friends while walking down the hallways, they'd sing..."SARA!!! YOU'RE THE POET IN MY HEART!!!" As a fan, I've been in a love-hate relationship with Buckingham, because I felt that he went through a really big asshole period in the 80's. And sadly, I felt that after the Mirage album, or even The Wild Heart, I lost the Stevie I so adored to big 80's hair, bustiers and football shoulderpads...not to mention cocaine, but I wasn't aware of it at the time. However, since "The Dance", and after many tears and incredulous head shaking over the fact that these two have become the Buckingham/Nicks I so love again, I've returned to my FM fascination. I still marvel at Stevie's style and grace, and I lust for Mr. Buckingham and his intense guitar technique, and big blue eyes...even if the lashes have gone just a touch grey. I get a kick that he is such a spaz on stage, too. :)

I digress...back to the post at hand. Can I ask...where can I find a copy of the Tusk Documentary? I'd love to see this moment in sound mixing history, noted in the original post on this thread. In fact, I'd love to see that whole thing. Damn the industry for not having it out on DVD. Tusk has become somewhat of an iconic album.

Anyway, Nice meeting everyone! And I look forward to participating on this board. :wavey:

Hello and welcome. Any of the traders on the board may have what you're looking for. I think some of the Tusk outtakes were posted on youtube recently also. You might want to check that out as well. :)

I got a 10:44 mp3 version, it is not the "Cleaning lady" version but similar, it has the same background woman voice. I remember I also had another version,but no idea if it's with the whole band (guess not), a solo demo, etc. Never heard the 16-m version. I think.. somebody posted once all those aditional lyrics, but not sure, if it happened it was several years ago.

Thanks, gldstwmn!!! :wavey:

I'll try youtube, but I always have trouble downloading the video.:shrug:

I remember Stevie-nicks.info had this one demo of Sara that was like 11:45 long. anyone remember this? it was on there about a year and a half ago I tihnk.