This summer marks the 40th Anniversary of 1969's historic Woodstock Music And Arts Festival. As part of the celebration, Sony/Legacy Recordings is releasing a limited edition series of deluxe, double disc recordings by five of the artists whose performances at Woodstock changed the world.
Dubbed The Woodstock Experience, each double-CD set pairs a classic 1969 album from the featured artist, along with their full festival performance. All of the concert recordings — by Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, Sly And The Family Stone, and Santana — appear on these CDs in their entirety for the first time ever. All are packaged in eco-friendly sleeves, that include a mini-version of the original album cover and a 16 X 20 inch double-sided fold-out poster. With this series, which we are also calling The Woodstock Experience, Blogcritics will be reviewing each of these commemorative sets.
Although it may seem hard to believe now, Santana was virtually unknown outside of the San Francisco area when they performed at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.
With only a single album to their credit at the time, Santana was one of a handful of promising, but lesser-known acts chosen by promoters to perform at the three-day rock bash alongside such megabands as The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and Jefferson Airplane.
Santana's unknown status, of course, changed overnight with the band's historic performance. Along with bands like Sly And The Family Stone and Ten Years After, Santana in fact proved to be one of the true breakout acts of the festival.
Their roughly fifty-minute set proved to be a career changer, particularly once the Woodstock film captured their electrifying version of "Soul Sacrifice" a year later. By the time they got to Woodstock, Carlos and company were pretty much set for life. The followup album Abraxas and its hit version of Peter Green's "Black Magic Woman" merely sealed the deal.
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1 - El Bicho
"Shrieve's drum solo on "Soul Sacrifice," however, remains the real show stopper."
Quoted for Truth.