Sara by Fleetwood Mac Lyrics Meaning – Unraveling the Ethereal Mystery of Love and Loss
Lyrics
Stay with me awhile
Said you’d give me light
But you never told me ’bout 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
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 the laces
Undoing the laces
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’ll 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 of love
Where everyone would love to drown
But now it’s gone
They say it doesn’t matter anymore
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
Sara
Sara
In the canon of Fleetwood Mac’s storied discography, ‘Sara’ stands as a testament to the band’s complex emotional landscapes. The track, released in 1979 on the ‘Tusk’ album, is not just another love ballad; it is a multifaceted jewel, glinting with shades of passion, pain, and introspection that reach beyond the confines of the quintessential rock love song.
Underneath its ambient instrumentals and Stevie Nicks’ haunting vocals lies a narrative both deeply personal and universally relatable. While it might seem to echo the sentiments of star-crossed lovers, ‘Sara’ also touches on themes of inner turmoil, transformation, and the ever-elusive nature of artistic inspiration.
Diving into the Sea of the Song’s Emotions
Stevie Nicks’ voice, both vulnerable and commanding, navigates the waters of ‘Sara’ with the ease of a siren’s song. The lyrics speak of love as an ocean – a vast, consuming force capable of both sustaining life and swallowing it whole. This duality, the bliss and the melancholia of love’s aftermath, is a cornerstone of the song’s enduring allure.
Fleetwood Mac, known for translating personal upheaval into musical genius, draws listeners into a contemplative state with this track. ‘Sara’ surges with the complexity of emotions associated with a love that is both illuminating and destructive, highlighting the band’s ability to lace vulnerability with unparalleled sonic landscapes.
The Hidden Meaning Behind the Poetic Verses
At the heart of ‘Sara’ lies ambiguity – a deliberate move by Nicks, which allows the song to morph and find relevance within the framework of each listener’s personal experiences. However, hints of the track’s roots can be traced to Nicks’ own life. It’s been speculated that the song is a tapestry of her relationships, her unrealized motherhood, and her creative musings.
The name ‘Sara’ was rumored to have been the planned name for a child Nicks might have had, making the song a poignant reference to what might have been. This layer of loss, of an alternate path not taken, gives ‘Sara’ a haunting resonance, as it mingles real-world heartache with the ghosts of possibilities.
A Storm of Passion: The Turbulent Romance
Nicks’ lyricism often creates an atmosphere of intimate narrative and ‘Sara’ is no exception. The line ‘He was just like a great dark wing within the wings of a storm’ evokes the presence of a tumultuous lover, possibly a reflection of her relationship with bandmate Lindsey Buckingham. This personifies the fierce intensities found within passionate but fraught relationships.
The unraveling of the laces mentioned in the song could be emblematic of an untying of bonds, a letting go of what was once tied tightly together. In Fleetwood Mac’s tumultuous history of personal relations, such lines speak volumes of the bittersweet entanglements that often fueled their most profound work.
Calling Out for Home: The Deep Longing for Solace
In ‘Sara,’ there is a recurrent plea – ‘when you build your house then call me home.’ This is not just a yearning for physical shelter but for an emotional hearth, a return to a sanctuary of acceptance and recognition. It’s a call for an anchor amidst the storm, revealing a universal human desire for stability and belonging.
This lyrical motif rings as a poignant refrain as it ripples throughout the song, etching a deep sense of purpose and hope. The home becomes a metaphorical and central theme – an existential dwelling built out of the tangible bricks of love’s memories and the intangible mortar of dreams.
The Enchantment of ‘Sara’: Lines That Echo in Eternity
Beyond its personal roots and metaphors, what gives ‘Sara’ an enduring place in the pantheon of classic rock is its hypnotic and memorable lines such as ‘Said you’d give me light but you never told me about the fire.’ It is evidence of Nicks’ masterful ability to channel the complexity of experience into a line that burns bright with raw emotion.
The song’s tapestry of words isn’t just about the past; it’s about carrying the fragments of lost loves into the present, transforming ache into art. It is this alchemy, this ability to transform intimate reflections into universal truths, that has cemented ‘Sara’ as an enchanted chronicle of the human spirit.
