Wait a minute baby
Stay with me awhile
Said you’d give me light
But you never told me about the fire
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
Ooh…
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
Ooh-woo..
Ooh…
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
Then call me home
Hold on
The night is coming
And the starling flew for days
I’d stay home at night
All the time
I’d go anywhere, anywhere, anywhere
Ask me and I’m there, yeah
Ask me and I’m there
I care
In the sea o’ love
Where everyone would love to drown
But now it’s gone
They say it doesn’t matter anymore
Well, if you build your house
Then please call me…home
Sara…
You’re the poet in my heart
Never change
And don’t you ever stop
Now it’s gone
No, it doesn’t matter anymore
When you build your house
I’ll come by
Ooh…Sara…
Ah…ooh…
Ooh…Sara…
Ooh…ooh…
Crazy…
Well, there’s a heartbeat and it never really died
Dreaming…. (Ooh…)
Never really died (Sara…)
Would you swallow all of your pride (Ooh…)
Could you speak a little louder (Ooh…)
Dreaming… (Ooh…)
All I ever wanted (Sara…)
Was to know that you were dreaming (Ooh…)
(Stevie Nicks) © 1979 Welsh Witch Music admin. Sony/ATV Music Publishing
About the Song
ABOUT: Mick Fleetwood, Don Henley, J.D. Souther, Sara Fleetwood, and other things
Stevie’s first song on the album began as a 16-minute home demo, condensed into a nine-minute studio version, further trimmed to a six-and-a-half minute album track and, later, a four-minute single edit, which was a Top 10 U.S. hit and the version used on subsequent CD editions of the album. [Editor’s note: A different edit of “Sara,” not the official single edit, was actually used for the first CD pressing ofTusk.] The nine-minute first take, mixed down for listening purposes but not intended for release, is sometimes referred to as the “cleaning lady version,” after the dialogue at the start. It is among the bonus material in this edition.
Lindsey: “Some of Stevie’s songs were hard to rein in. If you’re very lyric driven and not overly worried about time and structure, if it’s more freeform, which a lot of Stevie’s things can be, six or more minutes is not hard to get to. The nine-minute version of this was something we cut but probably never intended it to go out at that length.
I wasn’t delving into Stevie’s private life at the time, so I was never told what it was actually about. I always assumed it was addressed to her friend, who was Mick’s wife at the time.”
Stevie: “It was a 16-minute demo. My friend Sara was there when I wrote it. She kept the coffee going and kept the cassettes coming and made sure we didn’t run out of batteries, and it was a long, long night recording that demo. She was a great songwriter helper. Sara was the poet in my heart. She likes to think it was all written about her, but it really wasn’t. She’s in there, for sure, but it’s written about a lot of other things, too. Mick was the “great dark wing within the wings of a storm,” but when I was going with Mick I was hanging out with J.D. Souther and he kept saying, ‘You do know this relationship with Mick is never going to work, don’t you?’ And I said, ‘Well, when I get out of it, I’ll let you know.” And so there’s bits and pieces of him there talking to me.
I played it for J.D. and Don Henley and the both said, ‘You know what, it’s almost not too long. It’s good in its full 16 minuteness — it’s got all these great verses and it just kinda travels through the world of your relationships.’ They were really complimentary to me and these are two great songwriters. I knew I had to edit it down, but I found it hard to get below seven minutes. As simple and pretty as the song was, it turned into a magical, rhythmic, tribal thing with all those ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs.” It’s a fun song to sing.”
—Tusk Deluxe Edition (2015) liner notes
Chart Performance
“Sara” was the second single released from Tusk. Serviced as a 4:37 edit for radio play, the single reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Sara” was a Top 40 hit in many other countries, reaching as high as No. 2 in Canada.
| Country | Chart Peak |
|---|---|
| Australia | 11 |
| Canada | 2 |
| Germany | 44 |
| France | 31 |
| Holland (The Netherlands) | 10 |
| Italy | – |
| Japan | – |
| New Zealand | 17 |
| Peru | – |
| Spain | – |
| South Africa | 18 |
| UK | 37 |
| US | 7 |
