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
Face to Face cover

Face to Face

Angel City
Led Zeppelin II cover

Led Zeppelin II

Led Zeppelin
Emotional Rescue cover

Emotional Rescue

The Rolling Stones
Vive La Trance cover

Vive La Trance

Amon Düül II
Freeze-Frame cover

Freeze-Frame

The J. Geils Band
Situations cover

Situations

Skyron Orchestra
BBC Sessions cover

BBC Sessions

The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Big Brother & The Holding Company cover

Big Brother & The Holding Company

Big Brother and the Holding Company, Janis Joplin