― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:03 (7 years ago) Permalink
― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:07 (7 years ago) Permalink
I thought the song was about (if anything) the child she had with Don Henley she ended up...um...aborting.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:17 (7 years ago) Permalink
― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:22 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Lotta Continua (Damian), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:24 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Harrison Barr (Petar), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:25 (7 years ago) Permalink
(As for the original question...well, I wanted to exploit ILM's penchant for rhetorical questions :) )
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:29 (7 years ago) Permalink
The following quote is taken from Don Henley's 1991 interview with GQ:
[Henley's prodigious romantic escapades would include an affair with Stevie Nicks, who] "I believe to the best of my knowledge became pregnant by me. And she named the [unborn] kid Sara, and she had an abortion and then wrote the song of the same name to the spirit of the aborted baby. I was building my house at the time, and there's a line in the song that says 'And when you build your house, call me.''
...
Stevie was also asked about the GQ comment in an interview with Mary Turner in 1994. She responded by saying Don had to make many an apologetic phone call.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:38 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:40 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:45 (7 years ago) Permalink
LOL! La Dolce Daddino!
― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:48 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:53 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:56 (7 years ago) Permalink
― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 17 March 2006 02:59 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 17 March 2006 03:02 (7 years ago) Permalink
My rhetorical flourish aside, T.S. Eliot would say something about "objective correlatives," Tim.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 03:13 (7 years ago) Permalink
I think neither of them are strangers to fabrication, with Henley probably more of a dick about it than even most (former) coke fiends, and Nicks more apt to tell stories about wee fairies and rainbow unicorns.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 17 March 2006 03:21 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 03:29 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 17 March 2006 03:34 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 03:45 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Mitya (mitya), Friday, 17 March 2006 04:48 (7 years ago) Permalink
Um ... the 80's poll results are available?
But yeah, "Hold Me" >> "Sara"
― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Friday, 17 March 2006 05:08 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 17 March 2006 06:16 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Le Baaderonixx de Benedict Canyon (baaderonixx), Friday, 17 March 2006 09:37 (7 years ago) Permalink
1) (tack?) piano sounds like harpsichord-mandolin-dulcimer? typical buckingham production, bright, shiny, slightly clunky block chords.2) backing vocals = that 10CC wafting-in-and-out thing; they don't sound like real voices, they sound like droning infrastructure noises
― s/c johnson wax (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:04 (7 years ago) Permalink
― s/c johnson wax (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:11 (7 years ago) Permalink
― s/c johnson wax (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:21 (7 years ago) Permalink
See, I think she knows exactly what she's doing. Now it's true that "Sara" and at least two of her other songs on Tusk ("Storms" and "Beautiful Child") follow this decentralized-vague vibe you describe, so different from her tight pop songs on Rumours and the s/t; but it's also the template she'll follow for most of her solo work.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:41 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Le Baaderonixx de Benedict Canyon (baaderonixx), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:43 (7 years ago) Permalink
― s/c johnson wax (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:44 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:50 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 17 March 2006 14:03 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 14:04 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Le Baaderonixx de Benedict Canyon (baaderonixx), Friday, 17 March 2006 14:23 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 14:24 (7 years ago) Permalink
― gear (gear), Friday, 17 March 2006 19:46 (7 years ago) Permalink
― s/c johnson wax (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 March 2006 19:48 (7 years ago) Permalink
http://s65.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=014YQSAA7TA7J0BHTY0X6I0YTJ
― s/c johnson wax (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:09 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:40 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 17 March 2006 20:44 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Le Baaderonixx de Benedict Canyon (baaderonixx), Friday, 17 March 2006 22:46 (7 years ago) Permalink
― Zeno, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 14:47 (6 years ago) Permalink
― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 06:01 (6 years ago) Permalink
Funny how the extended version lacks everything that makes the songs so great.
i disagree with this, in many ways i like the outtake just as much, but part of that may be novelty (haw and the cleaning lady line. wasn't she already filthy rich by then???)
― electricsound, Tuesday, 29 July 2008 02:47 (4 years ago) Permalink
Take two equally amazing production jobs and strip 'em each down to the barest skeleton of words & rudimentary instrumentation. Notice that one of the two is still a good song at its lowest level, whereas the other is much weaker and can't really stand on its own. Which song of the two had the *greater* production? (Don't ask me.)
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 29 July 2008 04:22 (4 years ago) Permalink
The best part of "Sara" is that Hill Street Blues piano.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 29 July 2008 04:23 (4 years ago) Permalink
"that's sarah/you are the poet in my heart/never change/never stop"
― I know, right?, Tuesday, 29 July 2008 09:18 (4 years ago) Permalink
Christgau liked the production but for some reason hates Nicks:
Tusk [Reprise, 1979] A million bucks is what I call obsessive production, but for once it means something. This is like reggae, or Eno--not only don't Lindsey Buckingham's swelling edges and dynamic separations get in the way of the music, they're inextricable from the music, or maybe they are the music. The passionate dissociation of the mix is entirely appropriate to an ensemble in which the three principals have all but disappeared (vocally) from each other's work. But only Buckingham is attuned enough to get exciting music out of a sound so spare and subtle it reveals the limits of Christine McVie's simplicity and shows Stevie Nicks up for the mooncalf she's always been. Also, it doesn't make for very good background noise. B+
http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=fleetwood
― o. nate, Tuesday, 29 July 2008 15:51 (4 years ago) Permalink
I am probably the biggest defender of Tusk on ILM and this is my least favorite production job of the Nicks' songs. "Beautiful Child" is far better.
― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 29 July 2008 17:10 (4 years ago) Permalink
is it possible to get sick of this song?!
― max, Thursday, 1 April 2010 11:44 (3 years ago) Permalink
i skipped it when it came up in random this evening, but tbf i have heard it upwards of 200 times
― from the unhip (electricsound), Thursday, 1 April 2010 11:50 (3 years ago) Permalink
i hope that never happens to me
― max, Thursday, 1 April 2010 11:50 (3 years ago) Permalink
Is it possible that this song actually doesn't have any homoerotic ambiguities?
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Thursday, 1 April 2010 11:59 (3 years ago) Permalink
The drum sound alone could make anyone lez out.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Thursday, 1 April 2010 12:12 (3 years ago) Permalink
how do fleetwood mac pull the same production/ arrangement tricks as so much cheesy rubbish from the same era, yet still sound so awesome?
― tomofthenest, Thursday, 1 April 2010 12:43 (3 years ago) Permalink
What cheesy production tricks? And what bands/acts are you comparing FM against?
― filling the medicare donut hole with the semen of liberal (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 1 April 2010 12:44 (3 years ago) Permalink
"Sara" and, actually, "Go Your Own Way" sound nothing like the Eagles or Jackson Browne.
― filling the medicare donut hole with the semen of liberal (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 1 April 2010 12:45 (3 years ago) Permalink
...neither of whom are produced in a style even remotely like Buckhingham's.
― Twink Will Ferrell (J0hn D.), Thursday, 1 April 2010 13:00 (3 years ago) Permalink
actually, i think the cheesy stuff came later, lots of eighties stuff ( eg Nothing's gonna stop us now, lots of tv themes etc) sound superficially similar to my ears, but with the "interesting" fader turned down, and the bombast dial right up to 11
― tomofthenest, Thursday, 1 April 2010 13:16 (3 years ago) Permalink
the lead-off track on tusk (over and over) is superior to this.
― by another name (amateurist), Thursday, 1 April 2010 13:18 (3 years ago) Permalink
'Sisters of the Moon' is actually my favourite production job on Tusk. If only the song were less silly.
― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 1 April 2010 13:24 (3 years ago) Permalink
tusk is such a monster of a song -- production-wise, too. love sara, but tusk stands up better over time (also, like electricsound, i've heard sara 200 (really 200K) times).
― Daniel, Esq., Thursday, 1 April 2010 13:26 (3 years ago) Permalink
― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, July 29, 2008 10:10 AM (1 year ago)
Not a challop but seriously, "Sara" may be my least favorite Stevie song with FM. At least on the big albums. FWIW "Gypsy" kicks the living shit out of this song.
― ✌.✰|ʘ‿ʘ|✰.✌ (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 1 April 2010 14:09 (3 years ago) Permalink
I am probably the biggest defender of Tusk on ILM
You've got quite a bit of competition for that
― Collectible Spoons of the 3rd Reich (Tom D.), Thursday, 1 April 2010 14:11 (3 years ago) Permalink
The whole album appears to have vanished from Spotify
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 1 April 2010 15:34 (3 years ago) Permalink
ILM stole it to keep it for themselves
― Collectible Spoons of the 3rd Reich (Tom D.), Thursday, 1 April 2010 15:36 (3 years ago) Permalink
IF YOU BUILD YOUR HOUSE I'LL WALK BY
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 19 February 2011 03:35 (2 years ago) Permalink
Just starting Rob Trucks' 33 1/3 book on Tusk--so psyched!
― Iago Galdston, Saturday, 19 February 2011 04:05 (2 years ago) Permalink
listened to tusk 3 times in the last two days. today in reverse... side 4 -> 3 - > 2 -> 1
― not everything is a campfire (ian), Saturday, 19 February 2011 05:28 (2 years ago) Permalink
(this ends the album with sarah. it's a good closer.)
― not everything is a campfire (ian), Saturday, 19 February 2011 05:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
This thread confused me until I remembered Fleetwood Mac and Starship were not the same band.
― DJP, Saturday, 19 February 2011 06:12 (2 years ago) Permalink
Was going to ask about the 33 1/3 book. Anyone else finish it?
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 19 February 2011 18:34 (2 years ago) Permalink
i have always wanted to hear red house painters or sun kil moon cover this
― akm, Saturday, 19 February 2011 19:50 (2 years ago) Permalink
I would have liked to've heard early Pretenders covering it (mainly because I've always thought Farndon/Chambers was the closest comparable rhythm section to McVie/Fleetwood, both with that rich sexy throb).
― old man yells at poop first thing in the morning (pixel farmer), Saturday, 19 February 2011 20:28 (2 years ago) Permalink
― max, Thursday, April 1, 2010 7:44 AM
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 12 July 2012 03:26 (11 months ago) Permalink
my preliminary findings are that no it is not possible to ever get sick of this song
― max, Thursday, 12 July 2012 11:23 (11 months ago) Permalink
the outtake is always a good alternative
― i've got a cock like the M79 (electricsound), Thursday, 12 July 2012 11:37 (11 months ago) Permalink
I made myself a playlist long ago of just Lindsey's songs from Tusk, and it's one hell of a record!
― Clarke B., Thursday, 12 July 2012 12:24 (11 months ago) Permalink
hell a McVie Tusk playlist would be one hell of a record!
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 12 July 2012 14:27 (11 months ago) Permalink
Sara probably isn't the greatest production ever; it does have the best bassline in the history of recorded music.
― Three Word Username, Thursday, 12 July 2012 14:38 (11 months ago) Permalink
I wouldn't call "Sara" the greatest production ever, but damn do I like the unobtrusive artifice of Buckingham-era Mac. Listening to "Tusk" through "Tango in the Night," especially, the drum parts alone are so ornate and perfectly composed ... and of course unplayable by a single drummer. "Tango" is this fascinating mix of Mick, overdubs and likely programming, at least to some extent. As on Buckingham solo albums, the drums are so fussy it's hard to tell if they're even real drums, or even played by humans.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 12 July 2012 14:44 (11 months ago) Permalink
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, July 12, 2012 10:27 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
True dat. Think I'll give it a try... Josh OTM too about the drums on Tango!
― Clarke B., Thursday, 12 July 2012 19:40 (11 months ago) Permalink
That assumes a universe in which Rhiannon doesn't exist.
― Marco YOLO (Phil D.), Thursday, 12 July 2012 19:54 (11 months ago) Permalink
Both lines sound simple and are actually pretty hard to play at all, and nearly impossible to play well; but where the bass part in Rhiannon is a really gorgeous countermelody, the Sarah line sounds like a kick drum has somehow developed the ability to sing beautifully, which is something of a miracle.
What we're both trying to say is that John McVie is a goddamn genius and people need to recognize.
― Three Word Username, Thursday, 12 July 2012 20:47 (11 months ago) Permalink
he seemed like such a broken man on that classic albums movie. ;_;
― mizzell, Thursday, 12 July 2012 20:57 (11 months ago) Permalink
aw yeah, he seemed pretty sensitive -- and still bummed that christine divorced him! he pours all that pain into the bass.
― tylerw, Thursday, 12 July 2012 20:58 (11 months ago) Permalink
btw word is that the mac is BACK next year. w/o christine still tho.
― tylerw, Thursday, 12 July 2012 20:59 (11 months ago) Permalink
my fave bit on the classic albums is when fleetwood is listening to a soloed bassline and goes "you're a monster john".. beautiful moment
― i've got a cock like the M79 (electricsound), Thursday, 12 July 2012 22:44 (11 months ago) Permalink
^ Seconded.
Rhythm section solidarity.
― collardio gelatinous, Friday, 13 July 2012 15:01 (11 months ago) Permalink
BTW, am I the only one who feels that Nicks' persona has undergone a quasi-ethnic shift as she's gone from youth to old age? Watching her in interviews, it strikes me how Jewish she comes across these days. It feels odd to write that. It's been a subtle but striking shift: back in the seventies, she was the uber-shiksa, emerging from the eucalyptus-scented California hills; more recently, it's more like she stepped out of a deli in Forest Hills.
It can often be a challenge to locate the unchanging core of a person over the course of decades, but even more so when they appear to change ethnicities on you.
― collardio gelatinous, Monday, 16 July 2012 06:10 (11 months ago) Permalink
Do like the stereo shift of the piano chords from left to right. I can picture whoever engineered that track moving their hands up and down like little squirrel paws for that.
― pplains, Monday, 16 July 2012 15:36 (11 months ago) Permalink
Just listened to this in earnest last night for the first time -- and I dunno about the production but the "Don Henley's aborted kid" read on the lyrics is pretty powerful.
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 28 July 2012 21:08 (10 months ago) Permalink
there are like five million guitars that float in and out of this thing
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Saturday, 28 July 2012 21:15 (10 months ago) Permalink
that's not a nice way to discuss Stevie Nicks.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 28 July 2012 21:17 (10 months ago) Permalink
anyone else think "Over My Head" and Buckingham's solo single "Trouble" are especially noteworthy as productions?
― Vic Perry, Saturday, 28 July 2012 21:41 (10 months ago) Permalink
Yes.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 28 July 2012 21:52 (10 months ago) Permalink
The last forty seconds of "Trouble"! Fleetwood's drumming!
Wasn't his drumming just looped for the whole song?
― pplains, Sunday, 29 July 2012 02:28 (10 months ago) Permalink
regardless, it IS awesome.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Sunday, 29 July 2012 02:57 (10 months ago) Permalink