CARLOS SANTANA & JOHN MCLAUGHLIN: LOVE DEVOTION SURRENDER

It was something like 2 or 3 years ago when i went to my beloved Saturday`s Tianguis del Chopo, where i found this album by "mistake" i have found many others albums by mistake as well, but this was when i was so new in the prog scene, actually when i bought it i classified as a Santanesque latin rock album, but i was wrong.

Now that i know a bit more, let me tell you that you dont need anything more but see the names of this coupled of guitar monsters, John Mclaughlin and Carlos Santana, do i have to say more?, well there have been albums done by excellent musicians gathered and have failed, maybe the name is more than the album, but this time the album is a complete representation of the virtuosism of this guitarists which met long time ago and become friends, what a better way to make music than with a friend, i mean with a virtuoso friend. Also this album was released in 1973, when both artists were in their highest moments, and with a help of their spiritual soul, "Love, Devotion and Surrender" was created.

Now let me tell you the sound of the different songs, this album whcih reaches almost 40 minutes of exquisite music, starts with "A Love Supreme", yes, Coltrane has been an inspiration to both, and the song is excellent with a Latin style which belongs clearly to Santana, but with the powerful and virtuoso guitar playing of Mclaughlin, having in the organ the best friend to go with them in the song, here is a song when voices are heard, saying a love supreme. The next track is an acoustic and calmed song which shows us the delicated and beautiful sound of the acoustic guitars, but different to the other songs and i could say that this is my less favorite.

"The Life Divine" is a Mclaughlin creation with the best that Santana could have offer in his guitar, as the first song this time you will hear voices sayin the life divine, this is a song totally in the fusion side with that great organ as a background, excellent drums, Billy Cobham participates in the album, so in drums term, what more can we ask for, the song has to be a fusion stuff with a brief psychedelic emotion, a fast fast song, or at least i fell a faster atomsphere within me when i listen to it, but i happens actually in every Mclaughlin`s crazy guitar driven song.

"Let us go Into the House of the Lord", okay, keep your mind clean and hold into your sit or bed or whenever you are, because this song is the masterpiece of the album, 15 minutes of amazing virtuosism which you will love for sure, starting since the first note with powerful guitar solos, and a kind of jamming because you will listen to the drums and organ making company to that marvelous guitar, it`s funny because the solos never end, i mean of course in a moment the guitar doesn`t sound, but it is so constant and better constant beauty, it is until over minute 3 when a different sound appears , this time with the latin sound characteristic of Santana`s music with that congas and faster exquisite sound, the virtuosism has no boundaries here, it simply doesn`t end, the song is so constant and always with a progress, this is a crazy trip to the fusion world.

And the album finishes with "Meditation", see their album title and their clothes in the cover, a clear connection between them in this topic, but the song is not for meditation at all, is just the other soft and calmed song with a nice piano and the spanish acoustic guitar trhough it, the trip and craziness guitar sound has finished, here you will also love those "rasgados" sounds of guitar, but the temperature has decreased and you can go with a calmed emotion and more tranquil.

I absolutely love this album, though the second song is not so enjoyable to me, i would say that it is almost a masterpiece, something like 4.7 stars, which with your interpretation coudl be a 5 star album.

Get the album please!

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