SANTANA

As Finnforest pointed out in his review of Zappa's "Freak Out !", the debuts of certain bands that came out in the sixties were very significant. Sure with some of these bands you could say they released better albums later on, but unless you were there it's hard to appreciate how groundbreaking and important albums like "Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn", "Freak Out !" , "Are You Experienced" and many others were. This is another one of those. SANTANA was different with those Latin beats and Carlos' unique guitar style. I prefer the next three albums they put out more than this debut but man this album is very significant on many different levels. This was released in the summer of 1969 and my edition has three bonus tracks from their performance at Woodstock in August of that same year.

"Waiting" opens with lots of percussion as the organ joins in. Check out the guitar before 3 1/2 minutes. "Evil Ways" is of course a popular hit for the band with that catchy beat. Some nice organ after 2 minutes. It picks up before 3 minutes with guitar. "Shades Of Time" opens with guitar,organ and drums. It settles in with vocals and percussion as contrasts continue.

"Savor" opens with percussion galore then some powerful organ runs invade the scene. It blends into "Jingo" which has a heavy beat with organ then some wicked guitar. Themes are repeated. Great tune. "Persuasion" is uptempo with vocals. The guitar after 2 minutes is excellent with the organ helping out. "Treat" opens with piano as percussion joins in and it builds. Guitar after 2 minutes. Great sound ! It settles back late. "You Just Don't Care" has a bombastic intro then it settles with vocals but there are outbursts of bombast that come and go. Love the guitar and organ 3 minutes in. "Soul Sacrifice" is my favourite track on here. Percussion is joined quickly by a full sound. Nice guitar 3 1/2 minutes in with organ and percussion. Some killer organ follows.

The summer of 1969 was one special time not only for SANTANA but for their fans too.