Let's talk about...SARA...
 

So I was thinking of a new thread idea and I came up with this:
How about we take turns picking a Stevie song we LOVE and talk about it for a few days? We can write what we think it's about.....what we've heard it is about....what it makes us think of....questions we have.....any sort of connection or anecdote.....After a few days...someone else can pick a new song and we can move on.

What do you think? Who is up for it?
Let's give it a whirl.

Ok, so I choose Sara: ( I know...a difficult one to start but I love it!!!)
**Ok...so we all know that it isn't about her friend Sara Recor. (maybe just her love for the name inspired it)

**I think it's about mulitple men...has this been confirmed?I think it is mostly about Don Henley. ( building his house, I met my match...he was singing...the pregnancy)

**I've read a few times that Mick is the great dark wing. something about his loud sports car.

**Any Lindsey references? I know they must be there.....any thoughts???

**I know it was totally staged....but I loved the S&L interaction during Sara on the unleashed tour.


Ok...your turn....what do you think?

I like "Sara" a lot because of the same reason I like "The Nightmare": the arcane, random unfurling of imagery has the rhythm & intensity of an ancient saga. It doesn't fix referents in a traditional narrative pattern; just the opposite -- it bats emotions & moods one off the other in a nonstop murmur, like a babbling brook in a cedar forest dappled with sunlight. "Sara" speaks of ages past & obsessive lives that are largely irrecoverable but that nonetheless hold us spellbound.

I always used to like the way Fleetwood Mac played "Sara" onstage -- so different from the mood of the album track but with a gamboling energy & briskness. The solo band never created much magic with it because they usually anthemized it, & even Fleetwood Mac on recent tours pours glue all over it.

"Sara" has a good beat & you can dance to it. I give it four (4) stars out of five. ****

Sara is actually my least favorite song of Stevie's of the Tusk album. Just can't get a connection with it as I can with her other 4 songs. It's a good song - maybe even a great one but I can't get anything out of it personally.

I love Sara...its one of my faves. I would love to hear it as it was orginally written, before it got edited down.

I've always loved how the first couple lines in Sara seem to answer Lindsey from the previous song.

"don't know why I have to go, don't know why I can't stay"... "wait a minute baby, stay with me a while"

:angel:I love Sara on the Tusk bonus cd! It puts me in a dreamy mood, I love it!

^Very nice point there!


I love "Sara" - I think it's so beautiful and it's just so Stevie. Raw emotion.

I think part of it is about Mick ("he was just like a great dark wing") and I also think that the "when you build your house, call me home" line is in reference to Don Henley.

I also see it relating to her abortion... "you're the poet in my heart", "there's a heartbeat and it never really dies..." lines really connect that up.

Of course I can always somehow relate every Stevie song to Lindsey just because I like to dream about things like that! :cool:

My favorite lyric in Sara: "Drowning in the sea of love, where everyone would love to drown" <-- like... WOW. How does it get any better than that?! Love it.

This was a great idea for a new topic, singatnight! :thumbsup:

My daddy named me after this song! On all of my irthday cards and even on my graduation card he writes, 'To Sara, the poet of my heart' :)
I love this song. It is so beautiful! I was so excited to see this live and it didn't fail to blow me away!

Awwwww oh my gosh, that is so sweet!!
How awesome :)

And this is why I love Fleetwood Mac.

I know! When I was younger I used to make him skip to the chours because I used to think the chours took to long to get to and he would sing it to me whenever I asked him too. My dad is the best :)

What is the Lindsey song that is being answered in Sara?
I like the sound of that.......


I agree that this song is so Stevie..such raw emotion.....every word is.....perfect!

I love the live version on the Tusk Documentary!!

Keep the comments coming everyone.......this is fun :)

She told Jim Ladd in an interview that Sara was about everyone in the band during the making of Tusk. I think it was all about her and Mick

That's great Luke. I never thought of it before. I wonder if it occurred to them in the sequencing. Ha, that can go right up there with Say Goodbye and Goodbye Baby, as a call and response.

Michele

Sleepless Child- Why do you think it is all about her and Mick?

I like the way it sounded on stage during the 'Tusk' tour, I love the filmed version that VH-1 used to show sometimes (back in the 80's), with the orange chiffon robe and the big hair bun.

This is my favourite FM song as well as my favourite song of all time...AND I CAN'T BELIEVE I never noticed this. So cool.

The guitar solo makes my jaw drop. So simple. So perfect.

So off topic for the Stevie forum, but oh well...

I love "Sara." I call the version from the HBO special my "audio Prozac," because it instantly makes me happy.

It obviously doesn't sound the same as it does when it's with the Mac, but the sheer joy on everyone's faces in that video as they play the song is just great to me.



Happy!

There are some different comments about the song here, http://inherownwords.com/sara.htm

In one, she says it's pretty much all about Mick, but in the others, she says it's about everyone and everything that was going on at that time.

I love love love it when Stevie writes from the "poet in her heart" and not just from a musically-oriented place. There's usually a big difference between a poet and a songwriter and with songs like this, that line disappears.

I think that there are very few Stevie songs that originate from one source. Think "Gold Dust Woman", "Landslide", "Goodbye Baby", "Beautiful Child"... the list goes on. There are few songs that we can easily pinpoint to one general part of Stevie's life ("Silver Springs" comes to mind). I think Sara is a great example of that-- I believe Stevie's music tends to be more of an expression of a specific feeling or worry rather than people and events. Because of that, many different aspects of her life get thrown into one song. It's the same for many writers, I think.

"Sara", we can assume, is a little Don Henley, a little Mick, a little Lindsey, a little abortion, a little "life of a rock n' roll star"... It is an illustration of HER at that time with oh-so vague references to specific events-- references that drive us fans crazy :)

HA! Beautifully put. You have a way with words.

[QUOTE=FMlex;830020]^

Drowning in the sea of love, where everyone would love to drownQUOTE]

Those words and the bass line pulled me in...have loved this song from the first moment I heard it (a million years ago). My current favourite version is the 7 minute from Tusk sessions.

I thought it was about her and Mick, and Sara recor whom Mick had an affair right after.

Anyway, im not bothered its one of my alltime favourites whatever its about.

I think the ends of all of stevie's songs are better than the beginnings. or at least when they're played live.

Rhiannon.
Sara.
Silver Springs.
Gold Dust Woman.
Edge of Seventeen. (from Live in Chicago)

Anyone agree with me?

Yes it is about her friend Sara. Didn't Stevie lock herself in a room all night, when she heard about Sara and Mick, and write this song? She and Mick were having an affair on the Rumours tour. Mick stopped seeing Stevie for Sara. I think she is speaking to Mick when asking him to stay but then she says it's gone and it doesn't matter why. I think simply because it's gone.

Drowning in the sea of love... I just though jeez that sounds like a great love that literally kills you. I think Stevie romanticized everything and created most of the great part of their love in her head. How can it be a great love when he is married with children and the "love" is a big secret? Stevie's a love addict.

It's about Don too, she's mentioned the "when you build your house part" is about him. She's mentioned the "great dark wing" part is about Mick and his car when he would visit.

I like the rhythm and dreamy quality of this song. This song is my absolute fave.

Right after that opening stanza, why does Stevie address "Sara" as the poet in her heart? Is that "Sara" just an alter-ego of the Stevie Nicksmeister herself? I've never heard Stevie call any other contemporary a poet -- except Dylan, I guess. But Stevie has certainly called herself a poet hundreds of times in the press -- even saying lightly to Jim Ladd in 1981, "Nobody likes a poet, Jim."

I think that line refers to the "sea" of fans at the rock concert -- the thousands of indistinct faces that Stevie saw as she looked out across the footlights from onstage. At one time, Stevie didn't have contact lenses & couldn't see very far into the audience, but once she got her contacts, she saw this "sea of love" -- "The people they love her . . ." And she loved drowning in this adulation.

Also, I don't think the part about going anywhere, ask me and I am there is about Mick. Mainly because he was right there in the band with her. He never asked her to go anywhere.

That part of it sounds like it's directed more towards a man who might have wanted her to give up her career for him. Which is more like what she's said of Joe Walsh who would come into the picture later.

But anyway, the message in that line to me is that "you're the man that I'd give it all up for," which I think is a contrast to Lindsey, because she'd said he was the type who would like his old lady to stay home and do the laundry. So, I almost see it being a message, "Yeah, I wouldn't do it for you, but I'd do it for him," whoever "him" was.

What I like about the current tour is the way they sing that line towards each other. Feels like pushing (a sea of) water under the bridge in a reconciliatory way.

While a couple of lines are probably about Mick, I don't think the whole song is about any one person. When she said it was about all of them, I don't think she was lying . I mean, it's about all of them to the extent that it's about any of them. It's not all meaning. Sometimes it's just emotion.

Michele

I actually think she literally means Sara. Her friend inspired her to write this song, hence she's the poet in her heart. The building your house lyric I always thought was about Mick and Sara and Stevie was saying when they got married she would be there. She's mentioned it's about Don. I think it's about all three of them, Mick, Sara, and Don.

Of course the song ultimately is about Stevie herself as all of her songs seem to be.

This could be. I've always interpreted the lyric as describing an all encompassing romantic love that completely envelopes you with its warmth and passion.

Sara is definitely in my top 5 of favorite FM songs. I love everything about it- the lyrics, and Stevie's vocal, as well as something simple like Mick's drumming.

I actually presented this song earlier in the year in my Art class as one of my favorite lyrical poems.

Here's my favorite live version of Sara:




The way she holds out "Saraaaa" at the end... I love it!

Oh, I love that version. I had forgotten about it until you posted. Thanks. :cool:

I like that version as well ....thanks for sharing it....I love the Tusk versions & the BD/WH ones'......the SS isn't too bad but I love her voice back at that time than.....it was special......the funny thing about the 'dark wing ' & Mick....she states...and he was singing to me...but Mick doesn't sing?? but Don (Henley) does? .....so that's always strange to me.....oh well....I guess we'll never totally know what the whole song is about.....just what we've heard through the yrs.....:shrug::thumbsup:

See, I think that the Soundstage version of "Sara" is the best of Stevie's in a long time. I love "Sara" from Tusk/BD/WH as well, but when I first heard all 8 minutes of the SS version, I was blown away.

I was driving down a dark highway in the middle of nowhere Texas at night, with the moon shining above me, and I had "Sara" cranked up as loud as possible. I was mesmerized by the magical aura around me.

Also, I suggest you not only listen to SS "Sara", but the version that is taken from the Center Channel (also known as Center Channel Mix).

All you hear is Stevie's beautiful voice, some claps along with the beat, and a little bass. It's kind of acapella-esque... it's really beautiful!
If anyone would like, I could put it up on Mediafire and post a link here. :)

I always imagined the "singing" wasn't in the professional sense. More of a "singing" while "undoing the laces" thing...sexy and private...and I've always thought that whole verse was about Mick.

Of course, she could mean Don was "just like" the Great Dark Mick.

I love the imagery of your description!
I was watching you from above, as if in a dream.

This is a pic of Stevie performing Sara live on the Tusk Tour(just for you)

I've always loved how Sara has a "choppy" feel to it and yet is still "smooth" in a dreamy kind of way - almost like if she (with the listener) is on a boat, getting
tossed around - or maybe like trying to walk up a steep rocky hill and trying to keep her balance and keep walking in rhythm, but not quite being able to do it - it goes with the themes of the song very well, and it's totally beautiful. And there seems to be so much "light" - but surrounding a VERY dark core - and yet, one is left with a feeling that there's hope and light at the very center.
I think it's brilliant.

This is a great idea for a thread! I wonder what song will be next. I do love Sara but since I discovered this thread a little late I think that almost everything I could say about the song has been said already...oh well!

I love Sara and I thought I would discuss my very first exposure to this song. It was during the first year MTV was on the air, and the live video of Sara was one of the videos that was on heavy rotation (they didn't have too many to choose from back then). This was before I was a Stevie fan but I remember sitting back and watching with such wonder at the image of Stevie Nicks before me: huge platform boots, layers upon layers of fabric, hair pulled up in a large, unkempt bun. She was fascinating to watch due to her utter uniqueness. It was almost as if I was having some sort of premonition of my obsession that was still a few years down the road. I also remember asking my brother about Stevie and he told me that she often cried on stage. That was it. I was completely intrigued by this notion, that this person who so visually appealing apparently had equally powerful actions and emotions. I didn't really listen to the song in depth until I was a true Stevie fan and purchased Tusk. It think Sara captures perfectly Stevie's sense of romance on many different levels.

"all I ever wanted..."

Very well written. Beautiful! Have you ever considered being a writer?

I remember a long frickin' time ago when I heard Stevie sing, "dreams unwind, love is hard to find." I knew it would be nearly impossible to find true love if a major hottie like her couldn't find it.

Thank you! And yes, I have thought about being a writer but haven't done much about it. I have written volumes of poetry which I hope to have published one of these days!!