Music Tuesday: “Sara” by Fleetwood Mac

“Sara” has always been one of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs, but I have to say the lyrics have always baffled me.  It seemed disconnected.  I guess there was a rumor as to the meaning of the song that had been spoken of for years, but I had never heard it.  A couple of weeks ago, Stevie Nicks,   the composer and lead singer of the song, confirmed the rumor.  The song was about an aborted child she had conceived with Don Henley, the lead singer of The Eagles.  From Life News.

Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks has confirmed that she was once pregnant with Don Henley’s child.

The Eagles singer has said in interviews that Fleetwood Mac song ‘Sara’ was dedicated “to the spirit of the aborted baby” they conceived together.

In a new interview with Billboard, Nicks confirmed Henley’s story. “Had I married Don and had that baby, and had she been a girl,” she said, “I would have named her Sara. But there was another woman in my life named Sara, who shortly after that became Mick’s wife, Sara Fleetwood.”

“It’s accurate,” she added, referring to Henley’s suggestion of the song’s meaning, “but not the entirety of it.” Nicks wrote the song in 1979, when it appeared on the band’s Tusk album.

 Now it all made sense, but as I listened to the song, the chorus section just about choked me up. 

Sara, you’re the poet in my heart

 Never change, never stop

 And now it’s gone

 All I ever wanted

 Was to know that you were dreaming

 (There’s a heartbeat

 And it never really died)

Here’s the song. 

This to me was so sad.  For shear convenience.  So that her life wouldn’t be altered.  Love does alter one’s life.  I’m reminded of this post by these Dominican Friars at their blog, Dominicana, titled “Lessons of Love.”  In that post they go through some of the theology of the great Dominican saint, Catherine of Siena, the patron saint of my blog.  In Catherine we find the notion that “Love makes room. In love we forget about ourselves and make room for another.”  Ultimately an abortion is a failure of love.  We can always make room for another.  I’m getting too close to preaching.  Peace.