"Sara"

[nicolel118]

What's your favorite version of "Sara"? Any that you have heard.

Just curious.

I like the "Cleaning Lady" version. That one part, "no sorrow for sorrow you can have no more." I just love that part of that version!

yeah, that has to be it for me...however, i wish there was the same version of that minus the additional vocalist in the background (Lori?)...My favorite live is from St.Louis '79 show.

[golddustchic]

I love the cleaning lady version too!! I just adore the end when she goes "and the wind became, it became craaaaaaaaaaaazy"

I just love that
But every version is wonderful.

[nicolel118]

Originally posted by golddustchic
I love the cleaning lady version too!! I just adore the end when she goes "and the wind became, it became craaaaaaaaaaaazy"

I just love that
But every version is wonderful.

"and the wind became, it became craaaaaaaaaaaazy"
That part is great!!!!

[nicolel118]

Originally posted by joe
...however, i wish there was the same version of that minus the additional vocalist in the background (Lori?)...

Is that Lori or Chris? I always thought it was Chris!

[Sugar]

I have a live version that's marked "12-04-79 LA Forum" (I only have Sara, not the whole concert) and she's a lot more intense at the end than she usually is for "Sara". She kind of growls through a couple of the end bits. It's just a lot different than other versions of "Sara" I've heard. Also at the beginning Lindsey introduces it as "A very pretty song sung by the very beautiful Stevie Nicks." Must have been a rare night when they were getting along!

[bjk3047]

Melbourne '80
Simply an epic version of the song, everyone seemingly on the top of their game and as tight as a live band could play..Very cool echo too.
-Brian
P.S. Upon listening, I just had to add, I think this is the only live recording I've heard where Stevie, Lindsey, and Chris sing three part harmony on "Oooh, Sara" It's really cool.

[Sorcerer386]

Melbourne '80
Simply an epic version of the song, everyone seemingly on the top of their game and as tight as a live band could play..Very cool echo too.

Now see, I have a copy of the Melbourne 1980 show, and I think the band doesn't sound too great. Stevie sounds bored out of her mind, most of the upbeat songs are played much slower (Don't Stop and The Chain go at a snail's pace), vocals were off...it just doesn't seem very good to me. It's probably also the quality of the cd too...I should account for that. It just sounds so quiet and mellow, I think that's actually what I don't like about it. It's just strange to me how points of view are so different...baffling, really it is.

Originally posted by bjk3047
Melbourne '80
Simply an epic version of the song, everyone seemingly on the top of their game and as tight as a live band could play..Very cool echo too.

I have this version and it's pretty good although i still think the Tusk documentary version is the best....I have a bootleg tape from Melbourne 1980 but it must be a different night cause Stevie and Lindsey sound drunk and the "Sara" is different than the one floating around online.

Originally posted by joe
yeah, that has to be it for me...however, i wish there was the same version of that minus the additional vocalist in the background (Lori?)...My favorite live is from St.Louis '79 show.

I meant to say i thought this was Sharon NOT Lori... When i first heard it i instinctively thought "what is Sharon doing on here"...It surely doesn't sound like anyone in FM to me...

Johnny Stew posted some thoughts on WHO this extra vocalist might be...it's on the STEVIE forum....maybe i'll go back and post his response.

this was originally posted by Johnny Stew on the Stevie Forum:


The "cleaning lady" demo of "Sara" has been the subject of some heated discussion in the past. Some people feel that those background vocals have to be Lindsey and Christine... feeling that Fleetwood Mac would have never had Stevie's background singers on one of their tracks.

Others feel it has to be either Sharon, or Lori, or both... since the vocals don't sound like Chris or Lindsey.

I feel that both sides of the argument are right.
IMHO, I think some of those backing vocals we hear definitely belong to Sharon (and probably Lori).

Stevie met Sharon in Hawaii in 1978, so they were already working together... and Stevie knew Lori thru Lori's then-husband, Gordon Perry, who had a studio in Dallas... which is, in fact, where the original demo for "Sara" was recorded (this tidbit was revealed when a woman from Grand Rapids, MI. tried to sue Stevie in 1980, claiming that she had written "Sara." At one point during the case, Stevie presented her first demo of the song, which was recorded in TX., in 1978, at Gordon Perry's studio).

Since the "cleaning lady" version is merely a working demo that the Mac were obviously adding tracks to, I don't see why it *couldn't* be "the girls."
We know now that, at this point in time, Stevie was recording her demos seperate from the band, and we also know that FM used her basic piano demo to record around (Yep, the piano-line in "Sara" is played by Stevie, not Christine).
And none of the background vocal parts in question are in the final mix of the song... which would make sense, given the valid opinion that the Mac would not have had Stevie's background singers on one of their albums at the time.

So basically, it seems that the "cleaning lady" version is a hybrid of Stevie's original demo, recorded in Dallas, TX., and the instrumentation Fleetwood Mac was adding to it.
Eventually, those particular background vocals were stripped away, and the song was edited down to the version we hear on Tusk.



Johnny Stew

[David]

I like the "cleaning lady" recording the best probably---it's really similar to the final edit/mix of the album, but it also has a little more of that raw quality that makes it more immediate. As for "Sara" live, I love some Mirage Tour performances of it, especially the US Festival, Oakland, Irvine, Baton Rouge & Detroit.

Maybe Irvine is my favorite of all of those---Irvine continues to be my favorite from many angles. I always thought it was a shame that the concert video they filmed was the ordinary L.A. shows instead of this amazing & scary Irvine show.

I'm not super-crazy about Stevie Nicks solo performances of "Sara" in general, but if I had to choose, I would pick 1983 performances like Tempe, Los Angeles & Bristol.

[buckmacnicks]

Hi there,

Just wondering,

I seem to have read somewhere (was it Mick's biography?) that Sara was about Sara Recor (the later Mrs. Fleetwood) who was a friend of Stevie's and who also sings on the cleaning lady demo version. I think this version is great, however it's presumably not the original version of the song. I read somewhere that it was originally about 16 (!) minutes long!! They edited out several verses to fit the song in 6.26. Too short if you ask me, the fading is too early, I would have loved to hear a proper ending with Stevie rambling on and on!! To me, it's the most haunting song she has ever recorded and I hope they will resurrect it for the upcoming tour and play it often!

I really hope Ken Caillat will put the original 16 minute version of Sara on the new Tusk DVD/Audio he is preparing as well as the Tusk Tour Documentary, which would be greatly appreciated!!

Marcel (BuckMacNicks)

[Mac Fan]

I've only heard the version from 'Tusk' and 'Greatest Hits(1988)'
I don't like the edited version.

[nicolel118]

it's presumably not the original version of the song. I read somewhere that it was originally about 16 (!) minutes long!!

We had this discussion on the Stevie board & the original version was rumored to be about 16min. long. The cleaning lady version is something like 8-still longer than the version on Tusk or GH.

As for them resurecting the original version-doubt it! I don't even think anyone has ever heard that & probably for Stevie's own reasons!

BTW, have you checked out the lyric interpretation of that song on the Penguin. If you haven't, it's the best I have seen yet! Go check it out!