Is Fleetwood Mac's "Sara" the greatest production job ever?

anyway I've moved on to Radiohead now so at least I'm out of the 80's. Give me some credit.

duly notes in your file!

noted

Hahahahhah my fucking file in the creaky drawers of the local police department!

Onward to Alice Cooper!!!!!!!!

is it possible to get sick of this song?!

i skipped it when it came up in random this evening, but tbf i have heard it upwards of 200 times

i hope that never happens to me

Is it possible that this song actually doesn't have any homoerotic ambiguities?

The drum sound alone could make anyone lez out.

how do fleetwood mac pull the same production/ arrangement tricks as so much cheesy rubbish from the same era, yet still sound so awesome?

What cheesy production tricks? And what bands/acts are you comparing FM against?

"Sara" and, actually, "Go Your Own Way" sound nothing like the Eagles or Jackson Browne.

...neither of whom are produced in a style even remotely like Buckhingham's.

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

the lead-off track on tusk (over and over) is superior to this.

'Sisters of the Moon' is actually my favourite production job on Tusk. If only the song were less silly.

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).

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, 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.

I am probably the biggest defender of Tusk on ILM

You've got quite a bit of competition for that

The whole album appears to have vanished from Spotify

ILM stole it to keep it for themselves

IF YOU BUILD YOUR HOUSE I'LL WALK BY

Just starting Rob Trucks' 33 1/3 book on Tusk--so psyched!

listened to tusk 3 times in the last two days. today in reverse... side 4 -> 3 - > 2 -> 1

(this ends the album with sarah. it's a good closer.)

This thread confused me until I remembered Fleetwood Mac and Starship were not the same band.

Was going to ask about the 33 1/3 book. Anyone else finish it?

i have always wanted to hear red house painters or sun kil moon cover this

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).

is it possible to get sick of this song?!

― max, Thursday, April 1, 2010 7:44 AM

my preliminary findings are that no it is not possible to ever get sick of this song

the outtake is always a good alternative

I made myself a playlist long ago of just Lindsey's songs from Tusk, and it's one hell of a record!

hell a McVie Tusk playlist would be one hell of a record!

Sara probably isn't the greatest production ever; it does have the best bassline in the history of recorded music.

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.

hell a McVie Tusk playlist would be one hell of a record!

― 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!

Sara probably isn't the greatest production ever; it does have the best bassline in the history of recorded music.

That assumes a universe in which Rhiannon doesn't exist.

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.

he seemed like such a broken man on that classic albums movie. ;_;

aw yeah, he seemed pretty sensitive -- and still bummed that christine divorced him! he pours all that pain into the bass.

btw word is that the mac is BACK next year. w/o christine still tho.

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

^ Seconded.

Rhythm section solidarity.

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.

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.

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.

there are like five million guitars that float in and out of this thing

that's not a nice way to discuss Stevie Nicks.