Sara (Fleetwood Mac song)

"Sara" was originally conceived as a poem without any music attached to it, although Nicks later came up with a chord progression and melody to accompany it. Nicks told Fleetwood Mac engineer Hernán Rojas that she developed the lyrics and melody while doing ballet with a Russian teacher in a mirrored room with Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygène playing in the background.^[2]

Speaking in a radio interview for the Friday Rock Show with Tommy Vance in the early 1990s, Stevie Nicks said the song was partially written about her good friend, Sara Recor, who later married Nicks' ex-lover and bandmate, Mick Fleetwood.^[3]

However, Nicks' former boyfriend Don Henley claimed that the song is about their unborn child.^[4] In 1979, Nicks said, "If I ever have a little girl, I will name her Sara. It's a very special name to me." In a 2014 Billboard interview Nicks said, "Had I married Don and had that baby, and had she been a girl, I would have named her Sara... It's accurate, but not the entirety of it."^[5]

In his 2014 autobiography, Fleetwood agreed with the suggestion that the song referred to an affair with a friend named Sara which ended his own relationship with Nicks. Fleetwood and Nicks had been involved in a romantic relationship in the late 1970s. The lyrics, "and he was just like a great dark wing/within the wings of a storm" refer to Fleetwood being an emotional comfort zone for Nicks following her breakup with fellow band member Lindsey Buckingham.^[6] Although the relationship was not exclusive on either side, Fleetwood stated that Nicks became upset when she learned of Fleetwood's relationship with her best friend, Sara. This relationship effectively ended the romance between Nicks and Fleetwood.^[7]

"Sara" began as a 16-minute demo with Sara Recor by her side. "[She] kept the cassettes coming and made sure we didn't run out of batteries, and it was a long, long night recording that demo." Upon completing the demo, she showed the 16-minute song to JD Souther and Don Henley, who both said "You know what, it's almost not too long. It's almost good in its full 16 minuteness–it's got all these great verses and it just kinda travels the world of your relationships." While Nicks knew she had to cut some verses, she struggled to bring the song under seven minutes.^[8]

Rojas and producer Ken Caillat heard the cassette for "Sara" and encouraged Nicks to refine it further so she could present it to the rest of the band. Rojas suggested to Nicks that they record another demo on a Sunday, which she agreed to.^[9] Tom Moncrieff, who later played bass on Nicks' Bella Donna album in 1981, assisted with the recording of the new demo at The Village Recorders by providing acoustic guitars and bass.^[10] Moncrieff's girlfriend, Annie McLoone, also sang backing vocals.^[2] Moncrieff used a Fender Precision Bass for this recording, which was sent through a fat box effects unit.^[2]

Nicks sang her lead vocals while playing a tack piano, which was recorded with two AKG 451 microphones.^[2] Originally, the band wanted Christine McVie to redo Nicks' piano part and planned for Nicks to record a new vocal take, but upon listening to the recording, they realized that "the timing of it was so individual-there was no way Chris could get in there." Nicks' piano leaked into her vocal mic, which made it difficult to separate the vocals and piano. Some of the other members objected to the use of Nicks' vocals and piano; they believed that the timing was "all over the place", so Fleetwood decided to play brushes on the recording instead of drum sticks to allow for a more fluid drum performance. Fleetwood spent around 24 hours "dropping in phrases, schmoozing my way around her timing... that's the track that survived, with Stevie playing the piano".^[8]

John McVie later replaced Moncrieff's bass track, although Moncrieff claimed that some of his acoustic guitar playing was retained in the final mix.^[10] Caillat also invited Christine McVie back to the studio to record a second piano part. The two piano tracks were then hard-panned to separate channels.^[9]

Cash Box called "Sara" "a lush, entrancing Stevie Nicks composition, with effectively echoed lead vocals by Nicks" and called the arrangement "glistening".^[11] Record World said that "While Stevie's vocals haunt, the inimitable McVie-Fleetwood rhythm section hypnotizes."^[12] Matthew Fiander of PopMatters described the single-edit of "Sara" as a "claustrophobic four-ish minutes", but was more complimentary of both the 6:22 version and the extended mix found on the deluxe edition of Tusk.^[13] Tyler Golsen of Far Out Magazine wrote that the song "acts as one long crescendo, never once rushing its way to the explosive finale" and is "one of the many anchors that keep Tusk from flying off into some other dimension."^[14] The Guardian and Paste ranked the song number five and number 15 respectively on their lists of the 30 greatest Fleetwood Mac songs.^[15][16]

The version of the song featured on the original vinyl release of Tusk was the unedited 6:22 version, but when Tusk was first released as a single compact disc in 1987 it featured the edited single version, which leaves out the middle verse and musical bridge. It was not until the 1988 Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits compilation was released that the 6:22 version of the song became available on compact disc.^[17]

There is also a version known as "the cleaning lady" edit, so-called as Nicks is heard at the beginning of the demo recording, "I don't want to be a cleaning lady!" This version lasts almost nine minutes and was released on the 2-disc remastered version Tusk in March 2004. The song contains an extended vamp, which includes excised lines previously only heard in live performances, such as, "and the wind became crazy", "no sorrow for sorrow, you can have no more", and "swallow all your pride, don't you ever change—never change".

On 5 November 2015, a live version was released as part of a remastered Tusk. This recording features a heavier hitting drum beat from Fleetwood.^[18] The 2018 Fleetwood Mac 50 Years – Don't Stop album includes the single edit of the song.^[19]

In 1980, Nicks was sued for plagiarism by a songwriter who had submitted a song called "Sara", which she had sent to Warner Bros. in 1978. Nicks showed that she had written and recorded a demo version of the song in July 1978, before the lyrics were sent to Warner, and the complainant accepted that no plagiarism had occurred.^[20]

• Stevie Nicks – lead vocals, tack piano^[8]
• Lindsey Buckingham – guitars, backing vocals
• Christine McVie – piano, backing vocals
• John McVie – bass guitar
• Mick Fleetwood – drums