Carnaval (Santana) (LP 4802 - 4805)

Argent  Circus (CD, CBS Records, 1975) ***  

John Lennon  Johnny Moondog (Vinyl, Bootleg recording) *

Van Morrison  Remembering Now (Vinyl, Virgin Records, 2025) ****  

Santana  Festival (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1977) *** 

Genre: Prog rock, pop, celtic soul, rock 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Down to Joy (Van)

Gear costume: Let the Children Play (Santana)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8

Active compensatory factors: These four albums are from a recent purchase from Real Groovy. I saw they had a copy of Johnny Moondog so I got that and padded that out to get free shipping with three other albums on my list. I lost the Lennon bootleg in that infamous house move, so it's good to find a replacement. The quality is pretty dire at times and the songs have all appeared elsewhere but it repairs a hole in my psyche, so it's invaluable.

I think the only two missing bootlegs I'm still looking for are a Lennon 10 inch called A Guitar's All Right, John, and The Beatles Hahst az Son - made up of Let It Be sessions on a double album.

The Argent album is their sixth album, their last for CBS and their first without Russ Ballad. John Verity is the new vocalist/ replacement for Ballad. 

My reviews of other Argent albums can be found here, here and here. Why so many, and why Circus? I like Argent's unpretentious brand of prog rock. Yes, this is a concept album but it's built around a circus experience as a metaphor for life. As Obi Wan might say - nothing pretentious going on here, move along, move along. It's a solid mid seventies light prog album which does no harm.

I've written about my Van Morrison collection three times so far (here, here and here). He's an artist that refuses to be ignored as the years go by and his releases stack up.

The reviews for Van's 47th studio album, 2025's Remembering Now, were uniform in their opinion that this one of his best ever albums. It's staggering that his first album was released almost 60 years ago. Obviously, given the amount of music he releases (22 albums in the last 26 years), the quality will vary. Plus, being in his eighties - he's no spring chicken. When the inspiration hits, though, as it does on this album, he's in a class of his own.

There's something extremely gratifying when each song starts and then Van the man begins his vocals - that familiar reassurance that comes with his familiar delivery. May he make many more albums like Remembering Now. 

I was alerted to the fact that I failed to own Santana's Festival album when I did the late seventies section of my Santana posts. I haven't been missing much it seems. Only Carnaval/Let the Children Play and Let the Music Set You Free stand out. The rest is slow paced and sludgy. Not Santana's best moment.

Where do they all belong? Back to the countdown next - we're up to Rick Wakeman.

All I ever wanted (Santana) (LP 3716 - 3717}

Santana  The Best of Santana (CD, Columbia Records, 1998) ****  

Santana  Carnavel: The Best of Santana (2CD, Sony Music, 2009) ****  

Genre: Latin rock, rock, pop

Places I remember: The Warehouse, JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Samba Pa Ti

Gear costume: Evil ways

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: Selecting songs for a Santana compilation must be a nightmare. So many great moments!

The advantage of these two (the Wikipedia discography has 23 Santana compilations) is that they both predated Supernatural. 

If you want a short cut into the Santana-verse, Carnaval shades The Best of Santana of these two because it's a double CD so it has a wider range (but doesn't include Soul Sacrifice for some bizarre reason).

After that taster you next need to go to the source.

A recap on my five-star Santana albums for you:

• Santana (1969)
• Abraxas (1970)
• Santana III (1971)
• Caravanserai (1972)
• Love Devotion Surrender (1973)
• Borboletta (1974)
• Africa Speaks (2019)

Where do they all belong? Phew. So much great music in their catalogue. Given the vast amount of music, there will be peaks and troughs, but Carlos and his revolving roster of collaborators should all take a bow. This is a very impressive body of work stretching from 1969 to 2019. Fifty years and counting! Go Carlos! I take my hat off to you!

Smooth (Santana) (LP 3710 - 3715)

The Santana Brothers  Viva Santana! (CD, Spectrum Music, 2000) ****  

Santana  Supernatural (CD, Arista Records, 1999) ***

Santana  Shamen (CD, Arista Records, 2002) ***

Santana  All That I Am (CD, Arista Records, 2005) **

Santana  Santana IV (CD, Santana IV Records, 2016) ****

Santana  Africa Speaks (CD, Concord Records, 2019) *****

Genre: Latin American rock, rock, pop

Places I remember: Shona Walding's collection, JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Cho Cho (Santana IV)

Gear costume: Thoughts, Contigo (Viva Santana!), Blue Skies (Africa Speaks)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: The Santana Brothers' album - Viva Santana! compiles material from their 1994 album called The Santana Brothers with Sacred Fire, a live album from 1993.  So, you get the best of both on one album. For both, Carlos and his brother Jorge (yes - a guitarist) are joined with nephew Carlos Hernandez (yes - a guitarist).

The brothers + nephew play a heavier kind of driving rock than the standard Santana band with rock drums and bass turned up more and, on the studio set at least, there are limited Latin influences. For the most part, there are no timbales, conga or percussion embellishments. Contigo is an exception, as they add a beautiful texture to the song which builds from a meditative start into some fierce guitar from Carlos Santana.

Generally, that approach allows for some concentration on the trio's guitars and they are, as you'd expect, pretty spectacular, whether in lyrical relaxed mode or rocking out mode.

Supernatural. It came out of nowhere, by simply adding some superstar guest vocals to some jam type songs, Carlos produced a commercial behemoth. Whaaaat? How is that possible? Two words: Clive Davis - the man who signed the band to Columbia in 1968, does it again in 1999 - signs them to Arista.

The guests?  They included Rob Thomas, Eric Clapton, Eagle-Eye Cherry, Lauryn Hill, Dave Matthews, and CeeLo Green.

That said, I am not a fan of this album. I don't like the approach - the push towards a commercial pop sound resulted in six singles coming from the album and I don't like the procession of guest vocalists - there is no uniform/consistent vocal presence. 

The positive was that it (hopefully) generated interest in Santana's earlier work. Hopefully the screeds of new admirers checked out Love Devotion Surrender.

Shaman repeated the trick of Supernatural (Clive Davis and Carlos probably looked at each other and said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"). It worked again - including the number 1 status, by using modern artists like Seal, Macy Gray, Dido, Michele Branch and, erm..Placido Domingo! My reservations expressed for Supernatural are also repeated. Again, maybe people headed off to listen to a real Santana album like Abraxas as a result. I sure hope so.

All That I Am was a three-peat of all-star guests - Steven Tyler does okay but I'm not a huge fan of the rappers in attendance. The album starts off well with some non-famous guest Latino rock but then it's a parade of what by now is the tried and true. 

It's a long album too - I sometimes think it's a different band playing. The only distinguishing feature is Carlos' guitar that pops up from time to time. Enough already with the pop albums Carlos! Time for a rethink! In the meantime I sat out the next three releases.

My interest was reactivated by the announcement that the classic band who made the first three Santana albums was back together for an album. Excuse me?

Yes. It was true and Santana IV emerged. Could it possibly be as good as those iconic classic five-star albums? Well, not quite, but it is way better than those superstar vocal albums that preceded it. 

For some reason Chepito Areas wasn't invited but the other guys from Santana III are onboard for some deep grooves and some fiery interplay between Neal and Carlos. Ronald Isley is on a few songs for vocals and his voice feels right at home in this company.

Carlos has always been a restless kind of musician - always looking for a challenge and some freshness. Sometimes he's got stuck - most noticeably those few albums after Supernatural, but mostly he's forged his own path and moved forward.

He followed up Santana IV with Africa Speaks, in which he sounds re-energised, reinvigorated and renewed as a musician. The Latin, rock and jazz strands of his music are fused together in a quite brilliant way. The band is on fire (Cindy Blackman Santana's drumming is brilliant), and vocals by Laura Mvula and Concha Buika are similarly inspired. 

What are the odds that I'd end my Santana wrap up of the live and studio albums with a five-star album? After All That I Am, I'd have given you great odds. Thankfully, it's a brilliant record.

After Africa Speaks he went back to the Supernatural formula - I'll pass. 

Where do they all belong? next up - a couple of compilations to wrap things up Santana-wise. I also need to find a copy of Abraxas Pool's self-titled album. The Santana III band without Carlos made this album in the late nineties. Chepito is on it too, so it's a must have.

Changes (Santana) (LP 3706 - 3709)

Devadip Carlos Santana  The Swing of Delight (CD, Columbia Records, 1980) ****  

Santana  Zebop! (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1981) ***  

Santana  Shango (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1982) **  

Carlos Santana  Blues for Salvador (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1987) **** 

Genre: Jazz fusion, rock

Places I remember: Fopp, Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: American Gypsy (Zebop!)

Gear costume: Hold On (Shango), 'Trane (Blues for Salvadore)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: Deep breath y'all. Into the eighties we go. As a reference point on the right is what I looked like in the mid-eighties. Buckle up!

Carlos put the disappointing Marathon behind him and went full on jazz fusion for The Swing of Delight - before returning to the rock moves of Zebop! and Shango. Who knows what he was thinking.

First up - The Swing of Delight was the real deal, although, as a double album, it's hard to sustain the high intensity throughout. 

Carlos again uses musicians from Santana as well as iconic members of Miles Davis' 1960s quintet: saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams.  Guys that Santana described as 'the best musicians on the planet'. He's not wrong. They perform as such on this album too, in case you had any doubt. 

It's a well named album - the music swings over the expansive, mostly instrumental double album. If you are a Santana fan, you need this one - ignore the reviews from critics.

Zebop! was the first Santana album of the decade. It's way better than Marathon. The rock songs are delivered better (Winning, Changes, The Sensitive Kind, Searchin for instance) and the Latin rhythms are retained for a couple of the tracks. Alex Ligertwood's vocals are a bit more convincing as well.

In many ways, Shango was a carbon copy of Zebop! Both are lively rock albums that enjoyed success with singles lifted from them. Hold On (Shango) is a catchy song, and probably my pick amongst them. 

The album is notable for Gregg Rolie's return on organ for one track and a co-producing/ co-writing role. 

It's just not the sort of Santana I really enjoy - a couple of the songs are even done in a cod reggae style and they don't work for me - hence the meh rating. 

Book-ending my eighties Santana collection is another solo Carlos album. Blues for Salvador was named for his son. The album is another where the lines between the solo Carlos and band merge as a number of Santana members play on Blues for Salvador.

The guest star list is also impressive: Greg Walker returns on vocals; Alphonso Johnson – bass; Tony Williams – drums
Buddy Miles – backing vocals.

Although the songs come from a variety of sources (soundchecks, outtakes from other albums), the whole album hangs together remarkably well. It's a much more rewarding album that Zebop! or Shango.

Where do they all belong? There are a couple of other albums released in the eighties I didn't buy: solo one - Havana Moon (1983); Santana - Beyond Appearances.

The nineties onwards is next in this Santana-a-thon.

Let it shine (Santana) (LP 3701 - 3705)

Santana  Amigos (CD, Columbia Records, 1976) ****  

Santana  Moonflower (CD, Columbia Records, 1977) **** 

Santana  Inner Secrets (Vinyl/CD, Columbia Records, 1978) *** 

Devadip Carlos Santana  Oneness: Silver Dreams - Golden Reality (Vinyl/CD, Columbia Records, 1979) *** 

Santana  Marathon (CD, Columbia Records, 1979) ** 

Genre: Latin American rock, San Francisco rock, jazz fusion

Places I remember: Fopp, Marbecks Records, Amoeba Records, Hope collection (Marathon)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: I'll Be Waiting (Moonflower)

Gear costume: Savor/ Toussaint L'Overture (Moonflower)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: Amigos was clearly a change in approach for Santana. The jazz fusion years were done and dusted. 

As the mid-seventies kicked off, Santana unveiled a much poppier sound that fused funk, R&B and Mexican folk music into a winning combination. 

New vocalist, Greg Walker, was in fine form and Tom Coster's influence was also clearly apparent. Dance Sister Dance sets out the stall right from the off and Let It Shine ends the album with a gut punch. Along the way, Carlos' guitar extravaganza - Europa, was jaw dropping.

That song would be the perfect song to follow Dance Sister Dance on Moonflower - a great live collection interspersed with some new studio songs. It's hard to see where the join is sometimes which I guess could be a criticism - these live versions stick pretty closely to the studio ones for the most part. The cover of She's Not There was a smart move, the inclusion of a lengthy drum solo is not so smart.

Inner Secrets was the next studio album, and another abrupt change in style. Tom Coster was no longer in the band (although he was back for Oneness), and this was now a rock band playing rocking arrangements of some covers: Stormy, Dealer, One Chain (don't make no prison), Well Alright. Maybe they'd run out of material - I don't know.

I like the album - I love rock music! But in the context of Santana - it seemed a little bit of a compromise to commercialise the sound.

A Carlos solo album came in the following year. While it's a 'solo' album, he also uses quite a few present or former Santana band members. The style? Well - I'll opt for jazz-rock (different to jazz fusion), but it features quite a few ballads and is an eclectic album on the whole.

Final album of the seventies belonged to a reconstituted Santana and Marathon. Alex Ligertwood's lead vocals are very eighties rock band oriented and tend to sound a bit dated in 2025. Marathon continued the rock approach but not as successfully as Inner Secrets.

All of that made me nervous for how the band might evolve in the eighties.

Where do they all belong? As should be obvious by now - while I love Santana and have a lot of their albums, as well as Carlos Santana's side projects, I am not a completist. For instance, missing from this post is Festival. Which I was surprised to discover when I did this post. May have to correct that aberration at some point.

Into the eighties...

Waves within (Santana) (LP 3692 - 3700)

 

Santana  Abraxis (CD/ Vinyl, CBS Records, 1970) ***** 

Santana  Santana (CD, CBS Records, 1971) ***** 

Carlos  Santana & Buddy Miles  Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live! (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1972) ****

Santana  Caravanserai (Vinyl/CD, CBS Records, 1972) ***** 

Carlos Santana & Mahavishnu John McLaughlin  Love Devotion Surrender (Vinyl/CD, CBS Records, 1973) ***** 

Santana  Welcome (CD, CBS Records, 1973) **** 

Santana  Lotus (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1973-75*) **** 

* My copy is the European version released in 1975

Santana  Borboletta (CD, CBS Records, 1974) ***** 

Turiya Alice Coltrane & Devadip Carlos Santana  Illuminations (CD, CBS Records, 1974) **** 

Genre: San Francisco Rock, Latin American rock, jazz fusion, rock

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records,  Marbecks Records for Abraxis; Taupo music shop; Monterey music shop (Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles Live!); Chaldon Books and Records (Love Devotion Surrender); Slow Boat Records (Lotus);

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Oye Como Va (Abraxis)

Gear costume: Para los Rumberos (Santana III), When I look Into Your Eyes (Welcome)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: After 1969's Santana, the question was - could they sustain that success/ intensity/ quality. The answer with Abraxis was unequivocably - oh hell yes! And then some!

No difficult second album syndrome for Santana. Instead, a vibrant eclectic album of ideas that all pay off handsomely. No surprise that the second album would contain a lot of covers but these now all sound like Santana songs - yes even Black Magic Woman.

Abraxas covers a lot of stylistic territory - rock, jazz, salsa and blues, but all of the album works as a whole. Therefore, it's hard to pick out highlights but Oye Como Va, Incident at Neshabur, Samba Pa Ti, and Black Magic Woman are all standouts.

Their third studio album is called Santana but it's often referred to as Santana III to avoid confusion with the 1969 debut. It keeps the same classic band personnel as that album (but would be the last to do so until they reunited for Santana IV in 2016). 

The sound is a tad harder hitting and that's possibly down to the introduction of a certain 17 year old guitarist, named Neal Schon, to the band. 

Again, it's hard to single out any one song on what is a superb album, but the final track is especially special - a frantic, insanely fast version of Tito Puente's Para los Rumberos. It has to be heard to be believed. It's a third five-star classic album in a row - hence why the 'classic' 1968 to 1971 Santana is held in such regard.

From December 1971 to April 1972, Carlos and several other members of Santana toured with drummer/vocalist Buddy Miles. The live album contains both Santana songs and Buddy Miles' evergreen song - Changes. 

Side two has a 25 minute jam called Free Form Funkafide Filth, that I can probably live without it. Still - its intensity and experimental approach prefigures to some extent where Carlos was heading next with Santana.

We are still in 1972 and the fourth Santana studio album - Caravanserai. This album bewitches me. I NEVER get tired of listening to it. It holds a definite spell over me.

Some of the classic band remain (Shrieve, José 'Chepito' Areas, Gregg Rolie) and Neal Schon from Santana III returns, but there are many new additions - some of whom would be featured on future albums, like James Mingo Lewis, Doug Rauch and Tom Coster.

The jazz fusion sound on Caravanserai is beguiling. I'd give this album 6 stars if I could, because somehow the magic was captured! And it repays multiple plays. Actually, the same goes for Carlos' next collaboration. This time with Mahavishnu John McLaughlin. 

Backed by members of their own bands, the intensity levels shoot into the red on Love Devotion Surrender. Larry Young on organ is a pivotal player for both guitarists as they peak, and peak again and again throughout this extraordinary album. It has to be experienced to be believed, and while not for the faint-hearted, it's also weirdly accessible. AllMusic sums up the album's lasting effect: After three decades, Love Devotion Surrender still sounds completely radical and stunningly, movingly beautiful.

Welcome continued along the jazz fusion route but with some key personnel changes. Although Michael Shrieve and Chepito Areas remained, Neal Schon and Gregg Rolie had left to start Journey and were replaced by a variety of new musicians and guests (John McLaughlin is on one track). I'm not a great fan of Flora Purim's vocal style though, so not every track is a masterpiece for me.

The lavishly presented and expansive live in Japan set (a triple album) called Lotus was recorded in July 1973. I had a CD copy of it many years ago but the vinyl is much better - you can't beat vinyl!

Side one's 11 minute Every Step of the Way is an early peak (Carlos is in ferocious form), then it's into Black Magic Woman, Oye Como Va and onwards through an extraordinary concert - recorded brilliantly in Japan too.

Borboletta ('butterfly' in Portuguese) was Santana's sixth studio album. It came out around the same time as Carlos' collaboration with Alice Coltrane. I'm not sure which one came out first. 

Whatever the case, the jazz funk fusion continued in brilliant fashion on Borboletta. There is a quiet tranquility about the album that is very appealing to me. 

Illuminations, which features John Coltrane's compositions, is an underappreciated album of free jazz exploration for the most part (side 2). I admit to enjoying side 1's more meditative, contemplative style but kudos to Carlos for trying something different in his musical quest for fresh challenges.

This now seems to be a good place to pause. In five years since the debut, Carlos Santana with/without Santana had created five essential albums, and collaborated along the way with Buddy Miles, John McLaughlin and Alice Coltrane.

Not bad for the kid from Autlán de Navarro in Jalisco, Mexico.

 

Where do they all belong? Next up - 1976 to 1979.

Savor (Santana) (LP 3686 - 3691)

Santana  Santana '68 (CD, Prism Records, 1997) ***  

Santana  Live at the Fillmore '68 (CD, Columbia Records, 1997) ***  

Santana  Santana (CD, Wisepack Records, 1994) ***

Santana  Spiritual Ascension (The Very Best of) (CD, Musicbrokers Records, 2007) ***   

Santana  The Woodstock Experience (CD, Sony Music, 2009) *****  

Santana  Santana (3 versions on CD*/ Vinyl, CBS Records, 1969) ***** 

* 1) 1998 three bonus tracks from Woodstock 2) 2004 two CD 'Legacy Edition' from China 3) 2009 version came with The Woodstock Experience.

Genre: San Francisco rock

Places I remember: First 4 - the Warehouse, JB Hi Fi, Shona Walding collection; RCA Record Club/HMV for Santana; Fopp

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Soul Sacrifice (Woodstock - YouTube); Soul Sacrifice (Santana)

Gear costume: Jingo (Santana)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: I will need to divide my Santana collection into multiple posts as there are roughly 40 albums in it (30 CDs and 11 records). My approach will be chronological until the last post which will feature a couple of compilations. 

So, first up are the albums from the sixties where they started out life as the Santana Blues Band in 1967. That quickly became shortened to Santana with the classic line-up stabilised by 1969: Gregg Rolie, Mike Carabello, David Brown (bass), Michael Shrieve (drums), Jose 'Chepito' Areas and Carlos, of course, on visionary guitar.

Their debut studio album, Santana, would emerge in 1969, but our story starts with live Santana albums pre their debut album, and I have five. They sometimes cover the same ground but they all provide a fascinating glimpse into the band's evolution towards Santana - the first studio album.

Santana '68 has six tracks and comes in a variety of covers. Jingo is a long rambling version (over nine minutes), Soul Sacrifice is short with no drum solo - under 5 minutes, Persuasion is also there, as well as three other jams - Jam in E, Latin Tropical (a.k.a. Fried Neckbones), and La Puesta Del Sol. It's of great historical value, reasonably well recorded and definitely listenable.

Still in 1968 and Live at the Fillmore '68 is fitting because the band was championed by Bill Graham, to the extent that he only agreed to help out at Woodstock if they signed Santana to appear. This is before they'd released any albums! The deal was agreed, Santana played a 45 minute set at Woodstock and the future was set!

But I digress. Back to Live at the Fillmore '68 double set. It's great to have Bill's introduction and a full set by the nascent band on their pre-Woodstock set (which was essentially the debut studio album). 

These live versions in 1968 are all long workouts. Fried Neckbones is 10 minutes long (and it doesn't go anywhere especially) while the still evolving Soul Sacrifice has ballooned out to 14 plus minutes (it meanders around and still has no drum solo). 

These are both short sprints though compared to closer Freeway which is over 30 minutes long! It's a pretty rocky number but the drum solo is not great.

Santana is an el cheapo version of these live '68 tapes that I kept from Shona Walding's collection. There is no information on where the tracks come from and some of it sounds un Santana-like.

Spiritual Ascension is a double CD, hilariously subtitled 'The Very Best of'. Again, there is no information about where the tracks come from so it's not helpful. The vocals are still developing, while the music sounds tighter, so I'm thinking it's early 1969. If I'm right it's good to hear the process towards Woodstock. Even Fried Neckbones sounds as if it's developed a bit more purpose (it still plods though).

As mentioned elsewhere on this blog, I am obsessed with Woodstock (indeed - rock festivals generally, but specifically Woodstock). Santana provides a real highlight to the film via the now ready to go Soul Sacrifice with Michael Shrieve absolutely killing his drum solo. Gregg Rolie's organ is now a perfect counter to Carlos on more economical guitar. Yes, he was stoned - how he played anything this great is a mystery of the cosmos. After playing the songs for a year, the arrangements were punchier, more succinct and the vocals had improved a lot!

And so, finally - the studio and the debut - Santana. A five-star glorious triumph of an album. In 1969. my dad received a copy as a member of the World Record mail order club (cunning - they'd send an album out a month and if you didn't like it - you had to mail it back). He didn't like it. But I did!

In fact, I loved everything about it. That cover!! Iconic. The music - like nothing I'd ever heard on the radio in the sixties. It grabbed me and pulled me in and has never let me go.

Every song on the album is perfect. Gone were any lengthy noodling passages; the arrangements were tighter; the strengths of each band member enhanced. It was if these guys were deep into their career so all of those live shows and studio work outs before Santana arrived were crucial to the success of the album.

What emerges are definitive versions of each song and all are songs of joy!

Where do they all belong? The early seventies albums are next up. Could they sustain this high level? If so, for how long?