Quote:
Originally Posted by bwboy
I agree, I’d rather hear Sara live than Gypsy. And I do believe Stevie also sang Sara live on her Soundstage Live CD as well. As for why FM doesn’t perform the song anymore, I recall a Q&A with Rick Vito years ago, I think here on the Ledge, where he said Sara was difficult to perform live, and someone followed up asking him if he meant hard for Stevie to sing because it was such an emotional song, and he clarified no, that it was hard to make it sound good live. So perhaps that was why they dropped Sara from their setlist midway into their 1987 tour, although from reviews I read at the time, the song was received well by the audience.
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The song was never performed during the 1987 Tango tour. I saw the show very early in the tour and no Sara. The band did perform Sara the next year in Europe but only a few stops. Believe it or not but they did not even drop a song to perform Sara. Their standard set was 20 songs but for a few lucky Euro stops they got 21 songs and Sara.
Sara no doubt is not easy to perform live since its very intricate. But guess what? The Mac nailed it every time. I never bought that reason. I don't find it a coincidence that once the Don Henley article was released, Sara disappeared in the set for an entire decade except these few Euro stops. I was in shock in 1988 when I read Sara was performed in Europe. I was like...what gives? Is there not an article in the Greatest Hits package that talks about the band and mentions Stevie dressed in red performing Sara in Europe? Or that was from somewhere else. I just remember being in shock the band chose to perform it there instead of the states. But maybe they just wanted to try it out there and was not crazy the way it sounded.
Standard Tango setlist from the states performed in Europe - London stop
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/fleet...-5bd39730.html
Sara added a few London shows, Birmingham, and Scotland
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/fleet...-53d3974d.html