What is your favorite live version of Sara?

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

I completely agree. To me, Sara is one of the songs that showcases FM's studio mastery at its finest. It's just so baroquely lush. In my opinion, Sara's transfer to stage was never particularly flattering towards this gorgeous song. There is just a dreamy atmosphere in the original that can never be duplicated onstage.

That's Lindsey. I'm trying to recall which interview (audio) it is where he details his approach to it-- can't recall if it was that guy's podcast or ...maybe elle in her infinite wisdom can remind us which interview it is. But he talks about wanting to blur the edges of the song. And his production of the background vocals is magic... they slowly, slowly build to a big crescendo, then fall totally away, then build again to give the song an ebb and flow it doesn't have in her original. But the riff is hers.

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

However, I do have one favorite live version of the song, and that is Stevie's Soundstage rendition. In my opinion, that version completely fixed the pacing issues the song had long suffered from in a live format. To my ear, the live versions of this song just meandered and seemed anticlimactic. Oddly enough, I think Stevie's vocal here is way better than any other live version of Sara, too. Whereas old versions of the song Stevie sounded shaky and overly billy goaty, the Soundstage version just completely nailed it. Somehow it ended up being the closest to the Tusk album version, too.

Have to disagree re: Soundstage. Her voice on that is just too far gone for me. The Live version, and most versions from the Tusk tour are the best, for me. When they go from the acoustic piano to electronic keyboards of any kind it just totally loses its magic for me.