Too often these days, I’m seeing bands from the Woodstock
\ngeneration being destroyed by their greatest enemy – time.<\/p>\n
Some bands like Quill were almost immediately forgotten after
\nall the garbage was picked up from Max Yasgur’s farm. Others, like
\nTen Years After, have just been forgotten by time.<\/p>\n
Then there is the story of Santana. Coming from out of nowhere,
\nthey made a big splash at Woodstock, and then went on to release
\ntheir at-the-time groundbreaking second disc,
\nAbraxas<\/i>. But what was special (and, judging from the
\npainting of the naked woman on the cover, controversial) in 1970 is
\ntired and weak in 1997.<\/p>\n
Oh, sure, the two hits off this one are still very enjoyable.
\n“Black Magic Woman,” the cover of the Fleetwood Mac song, still
\nblows me away, and is some of Carlos Santana’s best guitar playing.
\nThe merge into “Gypsy Queen” adds a Latin flavor to the track that
\nsounds like it belonged there all the time. And Tito Puente’s “Oye
\nComo Va” is great, though I wish that Santana had just cut loose on
\nthis one instead of playing more controlled, rhythmic solos.<\/p>\n
But the remainder of
\nAbraxas<\/i> seems to rely on creating a Latin feel to the music
\nrather than letting the music do the talking. The organ of Gregg
\nRolie sounds incredibly dated, and even on a cut like “Oye Como
\nVa,” is simplistic to the point of annoyance. Where he could have
\nbeen making a unique voice in the background during the chorus, he
\nssticks to a “duh-duh—duh-duh-duh” rhythm (hey,
\nyou<\/i> try to make organ noises without a keyboard) that sounds
\nso out of place in that portion of the song.<\/p>\n
The opening track, “Singing Winds, Crying Beasts,” tries to set
\na gentle mood, but the jazz feel of the song sounds forced,
\ndistracting from the performance. Luckily for Santana, they follow
\nthis up with the two classic-rock hits previously talked about.<\/p>\n
The rest of
\nAbraxas<\/i> then falls into shambles. “Incident At Neshabur” is
\nthe closest the band comes to cohesiveness, though even this tends
\nto ramble. The remaining tracks, including “Se A Cabo,” “Samba Pa
\nTi” and “El Nicoya” fail to light the speakers on fire the way
\nSantana did in his band’s brief set at Woodstock.<\/p>\n
And the two Rolie compositions, “Mother’s Daughter” and “Hope
\nYou’re Feeling Better,” don’t help matters much. I don’t know if
\nthe problem is the songwriting or a poor attempt at adding a rock
\nflavor to the Latin rhythms, but these two tracks fall apart
\nquickly.<\/p>\n
It’s not that I’m against Latin music; I think Gypsy Kings are
\none of the genre’s most underrated bands, and I often put one of
\ntheir discs in one of the players scattered throughout the Pierce
\nMemorial Archives whenever I need a pick-me-up. But Santana, from
\nall of my recollections, has been spotty on vinyl, and
\nAbraxas<\/i> is no exception.<\/p>\n
And Santana’s guitar playing has its moments, but from what I
\nhear on this one, it sounds like he’s more comfortable in the role
\nof rhythm guitarist. His leads lack the development of many other
\nplayers, tending to concentrate on just a limited range of notes.
\nEven that wouldn’t be so bad, if he could make them do more than
\njust plink away on the track.<\/p>\n
The band will live in the hearts of classic rock fans for “Black
\nMagic Woman,” and for good reason, but
\nAbraxas<\/i> is a relic of time that is better left to the
\nages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5724],"rating":[11203],"class_list":["post-35600","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-santana","rating-rating-d-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35600"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35600"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}