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Thanks - final post

There are some words and an image that have been with me during the 366 Days of Sara. The words come from the poet Allen Ginsberg, and are often quoted as

Follow your inner moonlight, don’t hide the madness.

In fact he didn’t ever quite say or write them like that (as this reveals - read it, it’s great) but coming across that in the autumn of 2011 was enough to give me the ‘mad’ idea to try and blog about one song for a whole year. And in that year I’ve discovered that I couldn’t have chosen a better song. Stevie said she always knew ‘Sara’ was a song “you could fall in love with”, because she did. It called her, and she followed, and that took courage - so many times it took courage for her to stay with that strange, transcendent song, but she did.

The image that’s been with me is the one above this post. Stevie, eyes closed, singing to and about the poet in her heart, a poster child for the beauty and power of inner-moonlight. Over the past year I just grew to admire her more and more. For me, she’s the best, just the best.

And you guys. I can’t thank you all enough for following and being alongside at the end of this journey. I’ve loved seeing my dashboard fill up every day with your posts. You are without exception funny and insightful and passionate people, and I hope someone somewhere is telling Stevie that she can be very proud of the sort of fans she attracts on the big bad internet!

A half dozen or so of you have given me ‘likes’ and other encouragement when it mattered most. I’m not going to name names because I’m terrified of overlooking someone, so hopefully you will know who you are, and that you have my heartfelt thanks.

I am, though, going to have to name a few people who have specifically helped me to complete this, in various ways:

battleofthedragon – You keep changing your name, and I know I don’t always ‘get’ you, but you were a frequent correspondent when I didn’t realise how much I needed one. Thank you.

girlboymusic – Your brilliant essay about Stevie simply inspired me to write more (so all the reading’s her fault, everyone).

goldduststevie – Truly, where would this fandom be without you? You never fail to come up with amazing pictures and seem to know everything! We are all in your debt.

ogypsybird – Reblogging you was the first post I made, and your Tumblr was the one that made me wonder if here was a place where it’s okay to think out loud about why we feel so much for music and musicians.

And in the non-Tumblr world…

Sara Fleetwood – We never did quite manage to connect, Sara, but it was thrilling to know that you knew about this and thought it was fun. I didn’t share the story you told because I haven’t been able to ask you if I could, but it was great and made me laugh!

The Ivory Keys Facebook group – An essential resource for anyone interested in Stevie rareties, and I made full use of it for versions of ‘Sara’.

The Ledge – The fan forum at www.fleetwoodmac.net was great for Tusk info, Q&A transcripts and the articles index.

On Twitter, @CA_Dream has been wonderful. Thank you so much for all the RTing and talking to me.

Love & thanks to you all. 

*****

New blog link: As you know, I’m moving now to a new Stevie/FM blog called smile-at-the-sea. I’ll still answer messages and stuff here, but there won’t be any new posts.

girlboymusic asked: Oh and: I've also always thought of fire as having meaning desire in those lines as well -- especially fire is a shorthand for attraction in a lot of Stevie's songs. Which is another reason why I've always read them as being from someone still in the middle of an affair -- now that she's in it, she's realizing she's consumed by it, and she doesn't know if she can stop.

Oh yes, that’s another interesting interpretation of ‘fire’. And, as you say, it fits with Stevie use of it as code for attraction elsewhere. I’ll link back to these thoughts too.

Thanks!

girlboymusic asked: I never thought of the "said you'd give me light / but you never told me 'bout the fire" lines as break-up lines -- to me it always meant that this person promised her something warm and lovely, but now she's realizing that with that warmth comes the danger of getting burned. Which sounds to me like someone still in the middle of an affair, and which is why I always thought of them as being about Mick too.

Thanks so much for that feedback. Again, that’s interesting that you thought Mick too.

As far as what I mean by ‘break-up’ lines, I guess the thing to be clear on is whether you agree that all four of the opening lines are a single statement, addressed to one person? Because if you do, then it seems to me that that statement is about a relationship that the man who is ‘baby’/’you’ thinks is over, and the woman who is ‘me’ would like to prolong ‘a while’. As I said before, if you look at ‘Storms’, there’s a very similar vibe in ‘I wait for you to say just go’, ‘I bite my lip, can you send me away?’ - the idea that the man is trying to end it (albeit it’s complicated by ‘You touch, I have no choice, I have to stay’, which suggests Stevie being lured back, so not all one way).

But, even taken in isolation, the lines ‘said you’d give me light / but you never told me bout the fire’ are both in the past tense and convey a feeling of reproach. So I do think the whole intro has an aura of something ending, or trying to end. 

This is great, though. Thanks again.

moonsiren asked: I'm really enjoying these posts. Every time I think I see something you've missed, you address it in the next post! I'd also say that I always think of Mick when I hear the "Said you'd give me light/but you never told me 'bout the fire" lyric, although I don't think you're wrong about it being a reference to the end of her affair with Don, either. I think, like so much of the song, it has layers of meaning, and that she's referring to the allure of fame but also the danger of it. The light is

Oh, that’s such an interesting reading of the ‘give me light’ and ‘the fire’ lines. It makes a lot of sense and I really love the ‘light’ as a symbol for stardom. 

I’m still a bit inclined to think ‘Don’, because of the timing and the simple question of why Stevie would be writing ‘break-up’ lines about Mick when she was still with him? 

BUT then I think about ‘Storms’, and I think about everything the two of them have said about their affair, and it hits me: their entire relationship  was a kind of breaking-up. Or the reverse of that: a kind of ‘we can be together’. The whole thing in tension, all the time. So of course Stevie would write ‘break up’ lines about Mick when she was still with him, because they were perpetually trying to end it!

I’m going to add a link to this post in that section.

Thanks again for adding this possibility!

[NB: Please also see these thoughts from girlboymusic]

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‘Sara’ interpretation: Part 1 of 7

Lyric from the Album Cut from Tusk vinyl release (1979 – 6min 27sec)

 

Lyric variations

Some pre-Album Cut demos/mixes have ‘But you never showed me ’bout the fire’. This part doesn’t vary all that much in live performance.

 

Biographical possibilities

Comments from Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, Don Henley, Tom Moncrieff and Sara Recor (later Fleetwood) confirm that there are two women and at least three men who figure in the whittled-down lyric of ‘Sara’. The women are Stevie and Sara, and the men are Mick, Don and J.D. Souther. I think there could be two more men as well: Lindsey Buckingham and Tom Moncrieff.

In these four lines, the ‘you’ Stevie is addressing stays the same throughout, and I think that it’s Don. The reason I think that is to do with the time this was written: lyrically, ‘Sara’ was at an advanced stage when Mick and Sara got together, so the theme of trust-betrayed didn’t fit with Mick when Stevie wrote those lines. (Although see this for some alternative views on that.)

Stevie has also spoken of Don in terms that resemble a mentor-protégé relationship, that he taught her to spend money, and about fame and stardom. So it fits the portrait of someone who was a source of guidance and protection but who turned cold when the going got tough.

 

Stevie’s poetry

‘Sara’ sets out on a theme of loss and separation. These words are trying to, if not prevent, then at least delay the end of an affair. There’s also a nip of reproach in casting up to the guy who’s bailing out the fact that he used to present himself as a source of good things – light being a metaphor for truth and knowledge. But he apparently didn’t say he also brought fire, the light that burns.

The opening lines also set out the language of extremes, of elemental power. Extremity is all the way through ‘Sara’, from the light and fire, to the always and never, everyone drowning and flying for days and staying home all the time. It just hammers on the door to your heart with both fists until you let it in.

Other posts that might be of interest:

Day 104, on the mystery of discussing someone else’s inspirations.

[Go to Part 2]