{"id":8228,"date":"2011-07-13T06:50:41","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T10:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=8228"},"modified":"2017-04-15T10:26:07","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T14:26:07","slug":"midweek-music-break-carlos-santana-and-peter-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/midweek-music-break-carlos-santana-and-peter-green\/","title":{"rendered":"Midweek Music Break: Carlos Santana (and Peter Green)"},"content":{"rendered":"H<\/span>e sounded like nothing else on the rock landscape at the time. When you first heard Carlos Santana’s music, your mind did a little double-take: What is <\/em>that?!?<\/em> Afterwards, it pretty much made no difference which song you encountered: above all,\u00a0you could count on that guitar, cutting like a singing knife through the jazzy, infectiously smoky rhythms.<\/p>\n

“Black Magic Woman<\/a>” (from the 1970 Abraxas<\/em> album) had been written a couple years earlier, by the great blues guitarist Peter Green<\/a> in Fleetwood Mac’s original configuration. As Wikipedia notes:<\/p>\n

…[A] curious blend of blues, rock, jazz, 3\/2 afro-Cuban son clave<\/em>, and “Latin” polyrhythms, Santana’s arrangement added conga, timbales and other percussion, in addition to organ and piano, to make complex polyrhythms that give the song a “voodoo” feel distinct from the original.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The version of the song on Abraxas<\/em> actually opened and closed with a riff on a melody called “Gypsy Queen,” by Hungarian jazz guitarist G\u00e1bor Szab\u00f3. It’s a little like eavesdropping on some ritual in a Caribbean jungle clearing. Here’s Santana:<\/p>\n\n

Lyrics:<\/p>\n

Black Magic Woman\/Gypsy Queen<\/em><\/strong>
\n(by Peter Green; performance by Santana)<\/em><\/p>\n

[instrumental]<\/em><\/p>\n

Got a black magic woman
\nGot a black magic woman
\nI’ve got a black magic woman
\nGot me so blind I can’t see
\nThat she’s a black magic woman
\nShe’s trying to make a devil out of me<\/p>\n

Don’t turn your back on me baby
\nDon’t turn your back on me baby
\nYes don’t turn your back on me baby
\nStop messing round with your tricks
\nDon’t turn your back on me baby
\nYou just might pick up my magic sticks<\/p>\n

[instrumental]<\/em><\/p>\n

Got your spell on me baby
\nGot your spell on me baby
\nYes you got your spell on me baby
\nTurning my heart into stone
\nI need you so bad, magic woman
\nI can’t leave you alone<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here’s the original, from Fleetwood Mac’s The Pious Bird of Good Omen<\/em> (1969).<\/p>\n\n

(This version is a lot shorter than many of the live-performance recordings available, such as those on YouTube<\/a>.)<\/p>\nI<\/span>t’s been great to see Carlos Santana’s career booming again. This most recent phase, after a long dry spell (some of it without a label), kicked off with his 1999 album, Supernatural<\/em> — particularly, the hugely best-selling single with Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas: “Smooth.” Says Wikipedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

On Billboard magazine’s rankings of the top songs of the first fifty years of the Hot 100 singles chart, “Smooth” was ranked as the number-two song overall (behind only “The Twist”) and the number-one rock song in the history of the chart.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s the video:<\/p>\n