When Stevie Nicks began writing “Sara,” featured on Tusk, her life was turned upside down. Following the whirlwind success of Fleetwood Mac’s 11th album, Rumours, Nicks’ personal life was fraught with turmoil. Her relationship with The Eagles‘ Don Henley was frayed, and she was having an affair with bandmate Mick Fleetwood, who at the time was married to Pattie Boyd’s sister Jenny Boyd.
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The Meaning
All of these events culminated in a flurry of lyrics, Nicks ended up writing one night and was an insertion of different people and experiences. Though, the song is named after Nicks’ good friend at the time, “Sara” was about several individuals in one. “Sara” was more of a muse, or alter ego, during so much upheaval in her life.
Nicks remembers writing the song one night, while she was with her good friend Sara Recor, who would later come between Nicks’ relationship and eventually marry Fleetwood in 1988.
“I knew that Sara would be very popular because I loved writing that song,” said Nicks on The Tommy Vance Show in 1994. “I remember the night I wrote it. I sat up with a very good friend of mine whose name is Sara [Recor], who was married to Mick Fleetwood. She likes to think it’s completely about her, but it’s really not completely about her. It’s about me, about her, about Mick, about Fleetwood Mac. It’s about all of us at that point.”
On the lyrics, Nicks continued, “There’s little bits about each one of us in that song and when it had all the other verses, it really covered a vast bunch of people. ‘Sara’ was the kind of song you could fall in love with, because I fell in love with it.”
Recor later started dating Fleetwood, which ended Nicks’ relationship with him. Though Nicks was initially heartbroken by their union, she remained friends with both. Recor and Fleetwood were married from 1988 through 1995.
Don Henley and “Baby Sara”
In a 1991 interview with GQ, Henley revealed that Nicks had an abortion during their relationship and wanted to name their child Sara. “And she named the kid Sara, and she had an abortion and then wrote the song of the same name to the spirit of the aborted baby,” said Henley. “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.'”
Drowning
In the sea of love
Where everyone would love to drown
But now it’s gone
It doesn’t matter what for
When you build your house
Then call me home
Though Henley later apologized to Nicks “800 times” for sharing something so personal, Nicks said she never would have shared that story of “Sara,” and that part of her life.
“He blew it on the fact that I had an abortion,” said Nicks in 1994. “He told a big magazine.” She added, “Don accidentally let the whole cat out of the bag. … There are things that I could write about, but I never would have told that. I would never have told the world that.”
In 2014, Nicks also revealed that if she had remained with Henley, and given birth to their child, she would have named her Sara. “Had I married Don and had that baby, and had she been a girl, I would have named her Sara,” said Nicks. “But there was another woman in my life named Sara [Recor], who shortly after that became Mick’s wife, Sara Fleetwood.”
There’s a heartbeat
And it never really died
Never really died
Mick Fleetwood
“Sara,” Nicks later admitted, is also about Fleetwood.
“‘Sara’ is pretty much about Mick,” said Nicks. “So, he was the ‘great dark wing’. And, ah, it was about everything that was going on at that particular time, too, but he was the, the reason for the, you know, the beginning of it.”
And he was just like
A great dark wing
Within the wings of a storm
I think I had met my match
He was singing
And undoing
And undoing
Ooh, the laces
Undoing the laces
Stevie Nicks’ “Sara”
Upon its release, “Sara” went to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Several years after the release of the song, Nicks checked into rehab for cocaine addiction under the alias Sara. She later revisited the name in 1987 on Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night track “Welcome to the Room…Sara” — When you hang up that phone / Well, you cease to exist / Welcome to the room, Sara.
The longest track on Tusk, “Sara” was originally 16 minutes long before it was edited down to six minutes, 22 seconds. Written during one of the most tumultuous times in her life, “Sara” was one of the most personal, and special, Fleetwood Mac songs for Nicks.
“If I ever have a little girl I will name her Sara,” said Nicks in 1979. “It’s a very special name to me. I love singing it on stage. It’s the absolute delight of my night. There’s so much in ‘Sara.’ And it is ‘the poet in my heart,’ for sure.’
Said Sara
You’re the poet in my heart
Never change
Never stop
But now it’s gone
It doesn’t matter what for
But when you build your house
Oh, then call me home
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
