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Rating: The first and highly charged album by Santana, the last great band of psychedelic San Francisco, nothing to do with the commercial Santana of duets with Sean Paul or Joss Stone. Vibrant, warm, erotic: irresistible.
October 1966, two boys, Carlos Santana and Stan Marcum are at the Fillmore to hear the Butterfield Blues Band, at the end of the concert Mike Bloomfield organizes a jam session with Jerry Garcia and Jack Casady participating, among others. Marcum, knowing his friend is too shy to do it, asks Bloomfield if Carlos could join the jam. Bloomfield agrees, the small guitarist dazzles and catches the attention of Gregg Rolie, the future keyboardist who, after the concert, asks the young Santana to join his band.
Three years after this episode, rechristened first Santana Blues Band and then simply Santana, they release this album tested on the explosive jam sessions they performed live in the Bay Area; anyone expecting a soft record of romantic songs is very wrong: this album is groove and rock. Lots of rock. Music that drives the five hundred thousand at Woodstock crazy and convinces the skeptical Columbia executives about the material to release the album given the overwhelming result of the festival; anyone who has seen footage of them playing "Soul Sacrifice" at the legendary concert will agree that we are witnessing an exceptional formation, capable of taking the stage as unknowns and stepping off with a million copies sold.
The foundation on which everything rests are the organ and bass riffs on which Carlos' solos, gritty and very bluesy, describe Aztec landscapes painted by mescaline, flames burning in the middle of the desert fueled only by passion, mystical sex; the work of the rhythm section is exceptional, proceeding steadily throughout without ever showing any sign of fatigue, among all it is worth highlighting the remarkable work of Mike Shreive who manages with his drums to perfectly season the congas and timbales free to engage in rhythmic battles that are mesmerizing, a good thing since their main goal was to convey on album what they did live, perhaps a slight weak point of the album is that this intention means all tracks were recorded live with very few variations in the band's sound.
Santana's phrasing lacks that distinctive technique for which anyone would recognize him among thousands; it is based more on minor blues pentatonics and logically, on Dorian scales which provide a mournful tone, where some figures more typically mariachi than rock are recognizable.
Another downside of this album is that the structure of the tracks often repeats, in fact, the second degree-fifth degree figure typical of Afro-Cuban music is present in almost all tracks, it must be added that Santana is very skilled at not making it noticeable, in fact, I only realized it afterward, upon reading the scores.
In conclusion, an album that hits you with its rhythm and can be listened to very well, although the unpolished production tends to make the whole album sound a bit the same, nonetheless a classic of '60s-'70s music.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Evil Ways (04:00)
You've got to change your evil ways, baby
Before I stop lovin' you
You've got to change, baby
And every word that I say is true
You've got me runnin' and hidin'
All over town
You've got me sneakin' and a peepin'
And runnin' you down
This can't go on
Lord knows you've got to change
Baby, baby
When I come home, baby
My house is dark and my thoughts are cold
You hang around, baby
With Jean and Joan and a who knows who
I'm getting tired of waiting and fooling around
I'll find somebody that won't
Make me feel like a clown
This can't go on
Lord knows you've got to change
When I come home, baby
My house is dark and my thoughts are cold
You hang around, baby
With Jean and Joan and a who knows who
I'm getting tired of waiting and fooling around
I'll find somebody that won't
Make me feel like a clown
This can't go on
Yeah, yeah, yeah
03 Shades Of Time (02:28)
Tell me the things that you see
Or is it some time that you need
All of the things that you've done
I'm certain that you had your fun
Go out and make it better
You can make it if you try
Try to make it better
Somebody calls in the night
Says he can make things go right
I know there'll soon come a day
Things will start falling your way
I'll try to help if I can
So don't hide your head in the sand, oh no
Why are you feeling so low
You're wondering where will you go
05 Jingo (05:18)
Jingo
Jingo
Jingo
Jingo Ba
Lo
Ba, Ba, Lo
Ba, Ba, Lo
Ba, Ba, Lo
Ba, Lo
Ba, Ba, Lo
Ba, Ba, Lo
Ba, Ba, Lo
Ba
Jingo
06 Persuasion (03:09)
You got persuasion
I can't help myself
You got persuasion
I can't help myself
Something about you baby
Keeps me from goin� to somebody else
Yeah, any way you want
Now, now baby
You put me in a daze
All the time
Look whacha got for me baby
Like the devil in disguise
Something about you baby
You're one
You're one of a kind
Oh this spell you put on me
Has just outdone me babe
I can't keep the rain from comin down
Look out now
I can't get out from under
But I wouldn't want to
Even if I can
Something about you baby
Make me feel
Make me feel like a man
08 You Just Don't Care (05:02)
I told you
You'd have to leave
And you listened with a cryin stare.
Now you've got the nerve
To tell me baby
Yeah, Yeah, a no, no
You don't care
You just don't care baby.
Sun
Turns back at the sight of you
And your evil only clouds the air.
You you just laugh at what you do.
Hey, Hey, Hey, Hum
Now you don't care.
Hey
You don't care for me.
Your feelings smashed
Now you're leaving to find
Someone who'll dare
To change all the wrong
Like you done to me
Hey, Hey, Hey, No, No
You don't care.
Hey, Hey, Hey, you don't care.
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