Santana cover

Santana

Released

Released the same month that they stole the show with a spectacular mescaline-fried slot playing Woodstock, Santana hits like one of those “no way this is a debut” albums: they already sound fully formed, able to compress sprawling jams’ worth of instrumental interplay into three and four-minute doses of radio-ready hits. Like a West Coast mutation of the Latin soul explosion concurrently emerging from NYC, Carlos Santana and his band built such a powerful foundation around their percussive drive — Michael Shrieve, Michael Carabello, and José “Chepito” Areas were absolute monsters from the get-go here, with bassist David Brown adding some low-end adhesive — that the band’s own namesake guitarist feels more like a secret weapon than the catalyst. The prominence of Gregg Rolie on vocals (workmanlike if passionate) and keyboards (Booker T. Jones with a brandy snifter full of greenies) gives the pop-friendly stuff like their version of the Willie Bobo-popularized “Evil Ways” and the manic energy of “Persuasion” its most obvious charge. But then you hear Carlos absolutely erupt on a gnarly-yet-expressive solo in a cut like the Olatunji cover “Jingo” or the serrated blues of “You Just Don’t Care” or the guaguanco acid drop closer “Soul Sacrifice” and it hits: oh right, that’s why his name’s on the cover.

Nate Patrin

Suggestions
Sports cover

Sports

Huey Lewis & The News
Abraxas cover

Abraxas

Santana
Your Turn cover

Your Turn

Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog
Situations cover

Situations

Skyron Orchestra
Let It Bleed cover

Let It Bleed

The Rolling Stones
Trout Mask Replica cover

Trout Mask Replica

Captain Beefheart
Mahal cover

Mahal

Toro y Moi