Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Stevie Nicks & # 39; "Sara"

"Tusk" was the long-awaited follow up to the landmark multimillion best-selling album "Rumors". Several songs made from it "Tusk" to the charts but none rose as high as Stevie Nicks "Sara," reaching # 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts. So how did this gentle, mystical masterpiece come about?

Fortunately, we have the answer in Nick 's own words. In various interviews she explained that she wrote this song in 1978, assisted by singer / model Sara Recor, for whatever the song is named. Quietly dating the recently divorced Mick Fleetwood, drummer for the band. A few months later Fleetwood left Nicks after falling for Recor (they would later marry, and then divorce).

So what is this song about? Fleetwood Mac? Sara Recor? Or someone else?

He said he was building a Nicks has not disputed this. In an interview with US Magazine in 1990 she said, "That is true.

Nicks once said the song was about Fleetwood. Sara was pretty much about Mick. So, he was the most dark wing., the beginning of it, "she said on MTV Fanatic in 1996.

But in an interview on the Tommy Vance Show in 1994, Nicks said, "It 's about me, about her [Sara], about Mick, about Fleetwood Mac. that song and when it had all the other versions it really covered a wide bunch of people.

Other versions?

It sees the original song was 16 minutes long. But the version on the original vinyl release of Tusk was only 6: 27. Yet when Tusk was originally released as a compact disc single in 1987 this later version was only 4: 37, with the vinyl version of middle verse and musical bridge omitted. Later on the original vinyl 6:27 version appeared on 1988 Fleetwood Mac & # 39; s " Greatest Hits ", released in 1988. But neither of these was the" real version, "which Nicks claims has about 9 more verses.

When there is no new version known as & # 39; the cleaning lady & # 39; s even another version! the demo recording & # 39; This particular version lasts nearly nine minutes and is lyrics which have previously done performed performed live, such as "and the wind became crazy," "no sorrow for Sara, you can have no mor, e" and "swallow all your pride, don & # 39; t you ever change - never change.

All that whittling down ever got to Nicks because, as she said in the Tommy Vance interview, "The original Sara It got edited down to 14 minutes, down to 11 minutes, down to 9 minutes, down to 7 minutes, down to 4 minutes and 40 seconds.

And then there was the lawsuit.

In 1980, Hinton had written a song called "Sara", which she had sent to Warner Brothers, which is Fleetwood, 1980, the year after the song was released, Stevie Nicks was sued for plagiarism by Carol Hinton of Rockford, Michigan. The lyrics in Hinton & s 39 s song and Stevie Nicks' song were similar. Both shared the lines, "Drowning in the sea of ​​love" and "When you build your house, Call me. "The suit lasted for months, even though Nicks had multiple witnesses (including, Kenny Loggins). Nicks refused to settle, defending against the lawsuit by provoding that she had written and recorded a demo version of the song in producer Gordon Perry & # 39; s Dallas studio in July 1978, months before Hinton sent her lyrics to Warner. Occasionally, Hinton brave up, accepting that Nicks had not stolen her song

"Calling the wrong songwriter. To call me a thief" in the lyrics, "Stevie said later," and I never said she did not write the other she was did. about my first love, my songs, that & # 39; s going too far. "

Saur. "She wrote" Welcome To The Room, Sara "about her experience" Sara. About her experience composition? In 1986, Nicks checked in to the Betty Ford Clinic for cocaine addiction. There, which ended up on Fleetwood Mac & # 39; s 1987 album "Tango In The Night."

In an interview with Jim Ladd in 1979 she said, "If I ever have a little girl I will name her Sara. Much in Sara And it is the poet in my heart, for sure.