"Sara" is a song written by singer-songwriterStevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac as a single from the 1979 Tusk double LP. The vinyl album version is 6:22 minutes and the edited version is 4:41 minutes. The song peaked at No. 7 in the US for three weeks, No. 37 in the UK for two weeks, No. 11 in Australia and No. 12 in Canada.
Origin
Speaking in an interview, Stevie Nicks said that the song was about her best friend, Sara, who married Nicks' ex and bandmate, Mick Fleetwood. Her former boyfriend Don Henley however claimed that the song is about their unborn child. In a 1979 interview, Nicks said, "If I ever have a little girl, I will name her Sara. It's a very special name to me." On Henley's claim, Nicks said in a September 2014 interview with Billboard magazine: "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." In his 2014 autobiography, Mick 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 70s. 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 Lindsey Buckingham. Although the relationship was not exclusive on either side, Fleetwood states that Nicks became upset when Fleetwood began a relationship with her best friend, Sara. This relationship effectively ended the romance between Nicks and Fleetwood.
Versions
The version of the song featured on the original vinyl release of Tusk was the unedited 6:22 version, but when Tusk was originally released as a single compact disc in 1987 it featured the edited 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. 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. It 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.
In 1980, the year after the song was released, Nicks was sued for plagiarism by a songwriter who had submitted a song called "Sara", which she had sent to Warner Bros., Fleetwood Mac's recording label, in 1978. Nicks defended the lawsuit by proving that she had written and recorded a demo version of the song in July 1978, before the lyrics were sent to Warner. The case was dropped and the complainant accepted that no plagiarism had occurred.
