Sara (Cleaning Lady Version)?????

[Lala]

I absolutely love Sara, and I was browsing yesterday and came across something called 'Sara (Cleaning Lady Version)'. However, it was just a name in a trading list, and not an mp3 available for downloading. It also said it was like 9 minutes long!

*DROOL*

What can you guys tell me about this version. Is there anywhere I could download it from or anyone who could send it to me?

Thanks for any help.

[mylittledemon]

I *believe* that is was the original demo of Sara before its final chopping to fit on the Tusk album. In the beginning Stevie says softly "I wanna be a star....I dont wanna be a cleaning lady..."

I have it on CD that was an silver pressed disc called TUSK: Take II. It's from Mainstream and you can find them on ebay once in awhile.

[Hawkeye]

Sara Cleaning Lady version is by far the definitiv version of Sara. Nothing else comes close for me. I really hope that this cleaning Lady version is on the Tusk remasters.

[secondhandchain]

Originally posted by Hawkeye
Sara Cleaning Lady version is by far the definitiv version of Sara. Nothing else comes close for me. I really hope that this cleaning Lady version is on the Tusk remasters.

It is the version of Sara you hear now, just an early work in progess. The finished version is just edited down and with added overdubs. And you can bet Stevie would have left in every verse. You'll notice in the final version, the "ah Sara" harmonies at the end of the song replaced Stevie vocals from the Cleaning Lady version. When I listen to the final version, I really think they kept the best parts. But it is so cool to hear the whole unedited version.

[Johnny Stew]

It seems that the "Cleaning Lady" version of "Sara" is basically Stevie's demo (recorded in Dallas, TX. with Lori Perry and Carolyn Brooks on backing vocals), as it went thru the process of being overdubbed by Fleetwood Mac with their instrumentation (drums, guitar and bass... it also sounds like there are some additional keyboard parts, but the basic piano-line is actually Stevie playing).

Eventually Lori and Carolyn's backing vocals were removed completely, Lindsey & Christine added their own backing vocals, and the song was pruned down to the 6:26 version they released on the 'Tusk' LP (and the 4:39 single edit - released on the 'Tusk' CD).

I seriously hope they included the "Cleaning Lady" version on the remastered 'Tusk's' bonus-disc, but, failing that, Ken Caillat has said that he has mixed it for inclusion as a bonus on the 'Tusk' DVD-audio... so there's still hope.

I don't care for those backing vocals....i don't think they fit in so i kind of have to tune them out when i listen. I wish there was a version without.

[Livia]

LOVE this version!

~*~*~And the wind became....craaaaazy~*~*~

[strandinthewind]

Originally posted by Livia
LOVE this version!

~*~*~And the wind became....craaaaazy~*~*~

" . . . and you listen for that carzy wind and in it you will see me smiiiillleee" or"stay awhiillle" I am usure what she says there.

or something like that

I love the four part harmony "WHY" and then "would swallow all of your pride" . . . "could you speak a little louder."

I love that song!!!

[David]

Originally posted by Johnny Stew
It seems that the "Cleaning Lady" version of "Sara" is basically Stevie's demo (recorded in Dallas, TX. with Lori Perry and Carolyn Brooks on backing vocals), as it went thru the process of being overdubbed by Fleetwood Mac with their instrumentation (drums, guitar and bass... it also sounds like there are some additional keyboard parts, but the basic piano-line is actually Stevie playing).

That doesn't make sense to me. It may be possible, but I don't think it's practical. Generally, you need to lay down the drum tracks first. How on earth could Fleetwood Mac record over a "demo"? Where did the demo meter come from? And where did you learn that Lori Perry & Carolyn Brooks are vocalizing? On the Nicks Fix singers page, Carolyn just says that she remembers Lori & Gordon doing some vocals for some Stevie demos a few years before "The Wild Heart" was being recorded. Other fans think it's Lori & Sharon. When we're listening, how do we know which witch is which?

The "cleaning lady" thing is, to my ears, a Fleetwood Mac work in progress. You can hear Mick Fleetwood's brushes & kick, John's bass, Lindsey's guitar & Stevie's lead vocal -- most of which are all still there on the finished track. The "demo" nomenclature is beyond me at this point; it's like salt in a frozen dinner -- it's thrown on everything.

[strandinthewind]

I remember reading that Stevie recorded a demo (or whatever) of Sara in Dallas with Gordon Perry. She also said that she played Sara on the piano everyday for months was the rest of FM was walking in the studio to make them interested in it. Finally, in the end the "Cleaning Lady" version, one or more people (someof which are Stevie) are singing harmony and the coices do not soumd like CM or LB. To me, the voices sound like Stevies back up singers

In the end, I think it is FM on there as it just sounds like them.

[Johnny Stew]

Originally posted by David
That doesn't make sense to me. It may be possible, but I don't think it's practical. Generally, you need to lay down the drum tracks first. How on earth could Fleetwood Mac record over a "demo"? Where did the demo meter come from? And where did you learn that Lori Perry & Carolyn Brooks are vocalizing? On the Nicks Fix singers page, Carolyn just says that she remembers Lori & Gordon doing some vocals for some Stevie demos a few years before "The Wild Heart" was being recorded. Other fans think it's Lori & Sharon. When we're listening, how do we know which witch is which?

The "cleaning lady" thing is, to my ears, a Fleetwood Mac work in progress.

No one seems to have a conclusive answer on the origins of that "Cleaning Lady" outtake... which is why I said, "it seems that...."

You're right, Carolyn Brooks only mentions putting backing vocals on "a couple of demos," but Lori Nicks actually identifies those demos as being "Sara" and "Beauty And The Beast."

She says:

One night, after a show in Dallas, Stevie came to Gordon’s studio, “Goodnight Dallas,” to record some demos. She recorded two songs: “Sara” and “Beauty and the Beast.”

Stevie found out that I sang, and suggested I try to put some background parts on the songs. I was so flattered, but a bit reticent to do so.... I really didn’t feel that I had the talent to sing on a “Stevie Nicks” song. Finally, after much urging by Gordon, and the promise that my best friend, Carolyn Brooks, would sing with me, we went into the studio and added background vocals and had a musician put keyboards on the demo “Beauty and the Beast”. When Stevie heard the demo, she called me and told me right then that when she started her solo record, she wanted me to be one of her back-up singers, along with Sharon Celani.

Some fans have long argued that there's no way Fleetwood Mac would have had other backing singers on one of their songs at that time, and they're right in that argument... and yet, the backing vocals on the "Cleaning Lady" outtake are most definitely not Lindsey and Christine. So the only explanation for that, would seem to be that this "Cleaning Lady" version must be a hybrid of Stevie's Dallas demo and FM's overdubbed instrumentation... of course there's no conclusive proof that that's the case.

Perhaps Stevie's Dallas demo was recorded using a metronome to keep time?
Mick has said that "Sara" was one of the most difficult songs he ever worked on, because he had to get it "just right" to fit the song... of course that doesn't necessarily prove anything either.

I guess the best thing we can hope for is that they did indeed include this version on the remastered 'Tusk,' and that those "extensive liner notes" will offer some explanation as to the song's origins.

[David]

Originally posted by Johnny Stew
Some fans have long argued that there's no way Fleetwood Mac would have had other backing singers on one of their songs at that time, and they're right in that argument... and yet, the backing vocals on the "Cleaning Lady" outtake are most definitely not Lindsey and Christine. So the only explanation for that, would seem to be that this "Cleaning Lady" version must be a hybrid of Stevie's Dallas demo and FM's overdubbed instrumentation.

Could be. Maybe we're looking at the genesis out of order. Apparently, Stevie went to Gordon's studio in July 1978 after the band's concert at the Cotton Bowl (Stevie verifies this at the Dallas "Wild Heart" show). By that time, FM had already started tracking "Tusk." They may have tracked early takes of "Sara" by then, too (I have some "Saras" from 1978, but specific dates aren't given). Maybe Stevie took the FM beginnings (brushes, guitars, piano) to Goodnight Dallas with Carolyn & Lori & did some singing on top of the instrumental stuff. To me, that makes more logistical sense than that Fleetwood Mac somehow laid down instrumentation atop an old piano & vocal demo.

Something else Lori says was a bizarre reminder of something to me. She says that Stevie played her the "Beauty & the Beast" demo from July 1978 in Dallas & told her to sing on her album. Back in '78, I thought the whole solo album thing for Stevie was an "if" rather than a "when." This makes it sound as if Stevie had already decided she would make an album. Danny Goldberg said the omission of "Silver Springs" (1976) was the "last straw," or something like that. I know in '78 Stevie was dating Fishkin, & Goldberg says that the idea of Modern Records came up when Stevie was still living in the El Contento house, & that Modern Records had already actually been formed by the time she had moved to the Doheny mansion, which she moved to early in 1979, I guess.

[Johnny Stew]

Originally posted by David
Maybe Stevie took the FM beginnings (brushes, guitars, piano) to Goodnight Dallas with Carolyn & Lori & did some singing on top of the instrumental stuff. To me, that makes more logistical sense than that Fleetwood Mac somehow laid down instrumentation atop an old piano & vocal demo.

You know, that's actually a very good possibility.

Since the typical order of things always seemed to be: record demo - play it for the band - band then turns it into a full-blown song... I guess it was natural to assume that Stevie's Dallas recording had to have come before Fleetwood Mac worked on the track.
But the scenario you suggested shows that doesn't necessarily have to have been the case.

Yet another one of our Mac-related unsolved mysteries!

[dissention]

Originally posted by Johnny Stew
I seriously hope they included the "Cleaning Lady" version on the remastered 'Tusk's' bonus-disc, but, failing that, Ken Caillat has said that he has mixed it for inclusion as a bonus on the 'Tusk' DVD-audio... so there's still hope.

I actually hope that it isn't. It's my favorite version of Sara, but I'd love to hear a different version that we've never heard. Maybe with a really different vocal and guitar.

[MacMan]

Another tid-bit of info on the early demo version of Sara.

She recorded that demo in Dallas early on and used that as an example in court to prove when she wrote and recorded the song when that woman tried to sue her claiming she had submitted the song to Warners or something like that.

Don't know the date the woman gave, but Stevie had said thank god they had this demo recorded cause that put an end to the lawsuit.