Not only has Carlos Santana had a lengthy career, he's displayed his talents with a wide range of styles, both solo and with the eponymous band that's had dozens of players over the years. The range is about as wide as the fluctuations in career. Particularly in terms of popularity and commercial success, Santana seems to have cycles of 10-12 years. The band's latest release, Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time, may be marking the end of one of those cycles, one it appears he may have used up as the latest vehicle to success.
Santana's first album was released the same month the band appeared at Woodstock. It certainly didn't hurt that the Woodstock movie appeared between it and the band's second release, which, along with the band's third album, went to number one. Undoubtedly, the quality of the Latin-infused rock and Carlos Santana's signature guitar style were the true driving force behind the band's popularity. While four Santana LPs hit the top 10 between then and 1981, in the 1980s and 1990s he and the band gradually disappeared from the charts with an accompanying decline in sales.
That changed dramatically in 1999, when Santana hooked up again with Clive Davis, who originally signed the band to Columbia Records, and released Supernatural. The album featured contemporary vocalists performing with Santana on a variety of songs written by him and the artists. The album not only reached number one, it was the first of his albums to win a Grammy. In fact, not only did Supernatural win Record of the Year, it received a record-tying eight Grammy Awards. Santana also invited many contemporary vocalists as guest artists on his ensuing two releases.
He and Davis invoke that formula again with Guitar Heaven but while the vocalists are largely contemporary, the songs are not. These are classics to many older listeners. Eight of the 12 cuts come from the period in which Santana had great popular success, 1967 to 1972. The oldest is Willie Dixon's 1961 "I Ain't Superstitious" (with Jonny Lang on lead vocals but, interestingly, apparently not playing guitar on the track). The other songs come from 1979 (Van Halen's "Dance The Night Away"), 1980 (AC/DC's "Back In Black") and 1983 (Def Leppard's "Photograph").
Article comments
1 - Carl Mancuso
Tim: Don't you think this cd would have been a lot better as an instrumental album? Carlos could have spent time imposing more of his style on the songs instead of having to worry about how the singers would mesh with the material. Also, Clive Davis picked the singers, so that would have lessened his influence. Davis just picks contemporary singers to sell cds, not necessarily always with the full intention of letting Santana pursue his own artistic vision.
2 - Tim
I agree, Carl. It's the guitar solos that you end up listening to, not the vocalists.
3 - Phil
This album is great. You all just dont get it at all
4 - Gerry
On the surface this seemed like a great idea so I bought it. What disappoints me most is the amount of compression on this disk and the resulting lack of dynamics. Also, the "wall of sound" mixing which masked the guitar work that was expected in the forfront for these selections.
5 - colyn townsend
Carlos is not the guitarist he used to be back in the day when he mentored Neal Schon who ironically outplayed Carlos on the 3rd and 4th Santana and the live album with Buddy Miles. Except for a few instances Carlos has not got better as a guitarist with age. His solos are boring and predictable, they dont hold your attention and you dont want to keep playing them over and over. I hope he quits before he gets like Peter Green. I have every album he has played on. Yup including when he played with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield. Im still a fan but a dissapointed one. Guitar Heaven is a small move in a better direction as far as his playing goes but its a long way off the real stuff.
6 - Ben
Never mind the haters, this album is first and foremost FUN. Despite the mixing leaving a bit to be desired (gotta agree, movie sountrack-ish), I keep finding myself cranking it up in the car and envisioning myself onstage with the band. Had they have recorded this as a live gig, the album probably would be going down in history as a must-have.
Regardless, the first three tracks rock pretty damn hard, especially "sunshine" - wow, this has become my favourite version of the Cream classic. "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" is nice enough but a bit tepid after the between-the-eyes style of the first three tracks. The outro solo is expertly performed but you find yourself wishing for it to get dirtier - a bit more into Eddie Hazel territory and it would be a legend cut.
"Photograph" is pure 80's FM fodder. Didn't do anything for me I don't get from the original - even the reverb on the lead vocals is identical. Not sure why they bothered with this one.....
"Back In Black" works well, though it's difficult for any serious AC/DC fan to accept any cover, no matter how much you want it to work. The solos are awesome, the rest falls into the soundtrack-ish trap.
"Riders" vocals just dont work for me - pity, becaus the band works it well.
"Smoke on the water" rocks, but once again the production lets it down. I started getting excited when I heard the raw background buzzing of the overdriven tube amps in the background, but Shaddix's triple-tracked vocals shot it back down into the soundtrack-y basket.
"Dance the Night Away" - as with Photograph, why? Not much new here. Carlos could have added much more of his signature style to so many other VH classics - "Mean Streets" would have been my personal pick for him. Even "Hot for Teacher" would have been fun with a latin edge, but "Dance The Night?"
Of the remaining cuts, "I ain't superstitious" works the best, with the band being temporarily possessed by the ghosts of Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble from the "Soul to Soul" era.
Look, you could cut it to bits for whatever reasons you want, but at the end of the day it remains very listenable and loads of fun. Keep it on the iPod for long drives & you'll be greatful.