SANTANA 3

I got the CD of this album from a boxed set containing two albums : debut and this "Santana III". I was not interested to purchase the CD, actually, because Santana has already my past - it was the band during my childhood. But looking at the economic price offered and the remastered condition PLUS bonus tracks for each CD, so I finally purchased the boxed set. No doubt, this is one of the band's masterpiece throughout its career. Personally, "No One To Depend On" was my childhood hero because there was local band called Kecik Boys who regularly played the song in its gigs in Madiun, East Java, Indonesia. This song in itself is a great composition where all components of latin music, rock, percussions and stunning guitar solo work nicely from start to end of the song. The interlude part is amazing especially with guitar solo, keyboard work and dynamic percussion. Listening to this track must be started with opening track "Batuka" which serves like an overture for this track.

The following tracks are also excellent especially track 4 "Toussaint L'Overture" which represents one of the finest compositions the band has ever made. Observe how dynamic the music flows from start to end accentuated by dazzling percussion, great duets of Carlos Santana's guitar and Greg Rollie's keyboard. It's really enjoyable and it's truly an adrenaline exploder. Listening to this track one cannot let himself not stimulated with the soul of this song. It's so powerful, in my opinion. You cannot deny, definitely, that Carlos Santana is one of the best guitarists the world has ever had.

For those who enjoy upbeat music with dynamic percussion, you might find "Everybody's Everything" is a very energetic track with rich percussion sounds. It flows wonderfully to the next upbeat song "Guajira" which has become my childhood favorite due to its simplicity. But actually the piano solo in this song is very interesting to explore.

What can I say, overall? Well, it's hard to deny if you like hard rock music but you do not enjoy this album. Overall, this is an excellent album with great songwriting. In addition to the music, this CD is really informative on information about the band: story of the band (prior to this album, Santana was success with previous two albums where each title sold a million copies).