Fleetwood Mac’s “Sara” is today’s classic song of the day. Written by Stevie Nicks and included on the Mac’s 1979 double-album Tusk, “Sara” went to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980, after being released as a single in December of 1979.
Stevie Nicks’ songwriting style, such as it is, is somewhat simple. She typically takes one of two similar approaches. The first is to play a static chord or group of notes (often a fifth) with her right hand and then vary the bass line up or down, thus creating the appearance of new chords when, in reality, the top of the whole thing is static. The second approach is just the opposite; she’ll use a static bass line and then alternate between a couple of chords on top of it. The effect is the same; it sounds more complicated harmonically than what it really is.
Ms. Nicks uses the second approach on “Sara.” For example, the verse holds on an F in the bass while alternating F and G Major chords on top of that. It’s almost modal in approach, although I doubt Ms. Nicks considered the music theory behind the song. It’s almost as if she were just vamping between the two chords with her right hand while holding down a single note with her left, on the piano.
To be fair, Stevie Nicks’ songwriting is more about the words than the music, and that’s how she starts most of her songs. In her own words:
“I go from writing in my journal to typing out some ideas on the typewriter. I make it into a full-on stanza poem. It’s really fun for me because I just put on music that I like that’s got a good beat and makes me feel good and then I type along to the beat. I just read the words and put it into rhyme and then I’ll that paper to the piano and just start writing, and it either happens or it doesn’t. Usually if I get it pretty complete on the paper before I get to the piano, then it’s usually real easy. If I go to the piano without anything, with just an empty piece of paper and a pencil, then it’s harder. But I do that sometimes. I just sit down and play a chord and I’ll just write a line, like say, ‘the white winged dove,’ then I’ll play a chord, or a couple of chords and I’ll start humming something.”
Given that she’s not a trained or skilled instrumentalist, on either piano or guitar, it makes sense that the music she writes to accompany her words is somewhat simple. If there’s any complexity in the music at all, it comes from her bandmates (led by guitarist Lindsey Buckingham) who take her initial music and arrange it in a more pleasing fashion. (As Mr. Buckingham once noted, “I was the one who was sorting out [Nicks’] songs and making them into records.”) Or, as Stevie admitted:
“I’d write my song and then Lindsey would take it, fix it, change it around, chop it up and then put it back together. Doing that is second nature to Lindsey, especially on my songs. He does better work on my songs than on anybody’s because he knows that I give them to him freely.”
As with many of Ms. Nicks’ songs, “Sara” was born as a poem. This one was about her friend Sara Recor, who was having an affair with Mick Fleetwood while Nicks was also in a relationship with him, after her long relationship with Lindsey Buckingham had ended. Ms. Recor went on to marry Mr. Fleetwood, while she and Ms. Nicks remained close friends. (I don’t get it, but there was a lot of inbreeding going on within the members of that group.)
However it came about, “Sara” is an entrancing track, just kind of floating along in its own hypnotic, droning fashion. I particularly like Mick Fleetwood’s back-to-basics drumming on this one, played with brushes, which a terrific example of playing for the song. I think Mr. Fleetwood is an underappreciated drummer, kind of like Ringo Starr was back in the ’60s.
Now, today’s daily bonus video of the day, a live version of “Sara.” This one was all over the radio back in the day.
