“She’s trying to make a devil out of me“: Abraxas (Santana)

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Year: 1970

Genre: Latin Rock, Jazz Rock

Preceded by: Santana (1969)

Followed by: Santana III (1971)

Related to: not available yet

 

 

The border between Mexico and the USA is an interesting phenomenon. It’s the border with the most legal passages in the world. Besides, it’s probably also the border with the most illegal passages worldwide. Whatever the exact numbers are, Mexico as well as the US are both benefited somehow by this flow of immigrants. Cheap manpower is needed in the US, while the money transfers in the other direction are needed to support the Mexican economy. Carlos Santana was one of those numerous Mexicans crossing this border when moving from Tijuana to San Francisco and although I have no clue about his support of the Mexican economy, I do know he enriched the US and the rest of the world with Abraxas.

In this hippie capital of America, young Carlos was a live witness of the arising flower power culture. This led him to discovering different kind of musical genres, thereby slowly creating his own musical melting pot. In a time and at a place where a dozen bands a day were founded (with another dozen breaking up again), it was no surprise that Carlos himself was discovered one day. However, each of these discoveries in those days came with a legend, so here we go: Carlos was discovered while substituting the guitar player of an improvised band (composed by members of different bands like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead), that was replacing an intoxicated Paul Butterfield.

Carlos quickly formed his own first band shortly afterwards: the Santana Blues Band (1967). He recruited David Brown from California on bass and Gregg Rolie (the original singer of Journey later on) from Seattle on keyboards and lead vocals. Some replacements and additions on drums and percussion were passed through before the band was shaped that would shine on the legendary Woodstock stage. It really stood out on this line up filled with psychedelic and folk rock bands, thanks to the Latin percussion setup consisting of congas, timbales and bongos. The eccentric combination of the rhythms that these instruments were able to produce together with Carlos’ traditional blues rock riffs made their performance a huge success; the Mexican immigrant was conquering America.

The band’s first and self-eponymous album (1969) was released as a logical outcome of this break-through and became a great success in Carlos’ new homeland. Does that mean that it was all good news for the band at that point? Certainly not, as the tensions within the group were following the success. The percussionists were dealing with personal issues and on top of that Rolie and Santana were having different views on which direction to continue with the band. Rolie wanted to emphasize the hard (blues) rock roots of the band, while Santana wanted to widen the jazzy sound. However, before the original Woodstock line-up would fall apart, it released two more parts of a legendary trilogy: Abraxas and Santana III.

Abraxas kicks off with ‘Singing Winds, Crying Beasts’ (written by conga player Mike Carabello). This track is in the end nothing more than the intro of what’s about to come, but an intro can hardly sound more perfect. With the album sleeve in my hands I’m slowly leaving the world I’m laying in while I’m sinking in this Fata Morgana of mystical sounds. Calmed at first by the wind chimes, but being startled suddenly by the crying beasts that are rising from Santana’s guitar. Aware of the danger but still a little uncomfortable because of this strange world I’m entering, I’m starting to hear some identifiable sounds. This is one of Fleetwood Mac’s early hits I’m listening to: ‘Black Magic Woman’, written by Peter Green. However, this version (sung by Rolie) has transformed the original blues rock song in an esoteric epos, thanks to the adding of versatile percussion, the mix with ‘Gypsy Queen’ and of course the enchanting guitar licks of the master himself.

I’m completely under the spell of this album now and another familiar composition has reached me when I recognize ‘Oye Como Va’ from the legendary Tito Puente. But instead of the flute and a brass section I’m overwhelmed by a striking combo of Greg Rolie’s pumping organ and Santana’s dancing guitar riff, interchanged by the Latin vocals. By adding these rock and blues elements to this song, Santana was laying the groundworks for Latin rock. But how about Santana’s own writing skills? Just when I’m reaching for the album sleeve to find about this, ‘Incident at Neshabur’ starts to play. Carlos wrote this song together with Alberto Gianquinto, which turned out to be a gem. Starting with a strong portion of jazz fusion, the song immediately grips you at your throat, strengthening this grip with a sequence of rhythm changes. The song keeps growing and growing with one solo after another, before releasing you with a relaxing outro. Time to take a breath now, before turning the record over.

The first song of side 2, ‘Se A Cabo’, immediately kicks us back into the album. It’s another fast song, but a lot shorter this time. Written by conga and timbales player Chepito Areas, it may be no surprise that the percussion is taking control of this song. But let’s not stray off too much, as the best song of the album is waiting for us: ‘Mother’s Daughter’. Maybe not that well-known as some songs on Side 1, as it doesn’t have that typical latin rock sound many people associate with Santana. But the real hard rock roots of the band are to be heard right here (clearly a song written by Rolie), with the vocals, guitar, bass, organ and  drums forming a great combo.

Variation is one of the secret powers of this album, tremendously illustrated by the way ‘Mother’s Daughter’ is followed by ‘Samba Pa Ti’, another song that was written by Santana and another latin rock classic. By far the slowest song of the album, completely instrumental and obviously dominated by the guitar playing of Sir Carlos. Over to another Rolie song then with ‘Hope You’re Feeling Better’, which was the third single of the album after ‘Black Magic Woman’ and ‘Oyo Como Va’. The song illustrates once more the great rock ‘n roll voice of Gregg Rolie, who opens the song himself with a great organ intro. The guitar playing is more raw than on the rest of the album, making this song a last highlight. Sure, there’s one more track left, ‘El Nicoya’, but this is in fact the most disappointing part of the album. After such a great intro, you might also expect some more inspiration in bringing it to a conclusion.

Abraxas knocked Cosmo’s Factory from #1 in the US, to be replaced at its turn (temporarily) by Led Zeppelin III. As pointed out already in this review, this success was mainly due to the fact that it contains so much variation without becoming an incoherent collection of musical genres. The smooth transitions between different genres give this album a very mature character, especially for a band that only just had its break-through and had to release its second album. Let’s finish with a quote from the album’s back cover, a line from Herman Hesse’s book Demian, that explains where the band got the name for the album from (the painting was used as album cover), and which is meanwhile also applicable to the album itself:

“We stood before it and began to freeze inside from the exertion. We questioned the painting, berated it, made love to it, prayed to it: We called it mother, called it whore and slut, called it our beloved, called it Abraxas….”

Top Tracks:

1. Mother’s Daughter
2. Black MagicWoman / Gypsy Queen
3. Hope You’re Feeling Better

“I need your pain killer, Doc, shot inside of me”: Vincebus Eruptum (Blue Cheer)

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Year: 1968

Genre: Blues Rock, Psychedelic Rock

Preceded by: –

Followed by: Outsideinside (1968)

Related to: Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin, The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced

 

Fortunately for the development of music in all its variation, especially the heavier genres, there were always bands out there that asked themselves if things couldn’t be played a little louder. Blue Cheer certainly was such a band.

It’s 1968 and a big part of the music scene was embracing the progress technology had made with regard to improving amplifiers and electric guitars. Especially the possibility to significantly amplify the sound of the bass guitar made it possible for bands to play as loud as possible without losing the sound of the bass. This was the deciding development that notorious blues rock artists like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix were waiting for to form their own power trios, consisting of guitar, bass and drums. Bands like Led Zeppelin and The Who in fact used the same concept, adding a seperate singer. 1967 subsequently brought us Hendrix’ Are You Experienced?, 1969 Led Zeppelin’s debut album and 1968 had Blue Cheer’s impressive debut: Vincebus Eruptum.

Just like those two acts, Blue Cheer reinterpreted old blues songs and took them to higher and louder levels using loads of amplifiers. Hendrix ofcourse added the psychedelic influences that were characteristic for those times. With Blue Cheer being located in San Francisco and being called after a kind of LSD (at its turn called after a washing product), it may not be surprising that those influences are also present on their debut. If you’re looking for extensive improvisation, hyperamplification and lots of distortion, this is the album that definitely should be in your record collection. No other band of that time in my opinion had the raw intensity and energy of Blue Cheer, making them blow up their complete equipment the first time they tried to record this album.

Blue Cheer was founded in 1966 with the original line up consisting of Dickie Peterson on bass (which he played since the age of 13) and vocals, Leigh Stephens on guitar (ranked 98 on Rolling Stones’ 100 greatest guitarists of all time) and Eric Albronda on drums. Albronda was subsequently replaced by Paul Whaley and the band recruited some extra members on guitar, keyboards and harmonica. But, according to the myth, they brought the band down to a power trio after witnessing Hendrix’ mind blowing performance with his Experience at Monterey. So Dickie Peterson, Leigh Stephens and Paul Whaley remained as the line-up for the first album, consisting of 6 songs with a total length of about half an hour. But don’t worry, just turn the record over again.

The LP starts with the bands only real hit, a cover of Eddie Cochran’s blues song ‘Summertime Blues’. This must be the ultimate example of transforming a classic blues song into blues rock, played that hard that it’s drawing the outlines of hard rock. The first part of the song combines an extremely pounding rhythm section with a crying guitar, immediately giving you the opportunity to test your own sound equipment. The riff in the middle of the song reminds of Hendrix’ ‘Foxy Lady’, after which the guitar becomes a rollercoaster, steadily taking off and at its peak crushing down at high speed. This version beats The Who’s interpretation of the song hands down if it comes down to muscular strength and roughness.

An even greater blues classic follows quickly, when B.B. King’s ‘Rock Me Baby’ sets in. Also covered amongst others by Otis Redding (a great idol of singer Peterson), this song sticks to the typical blues sound of the guitar with another pumping combo of bass and drums adding the rock here. If not already taken place, everthing goes mental on the third track, Dickie Peterson’s self-proclaimed drug anthem ‘Doctor Please’. Peterson experienced a lot of funny feelings in his head at the time and sings about them after a rough intro of Paul Whaley. The song is about 8 minutes long and offers you the best definition of the term ‘power trio’. The energy drips out of your speakers when guitar solos, kicking drums, the screaming voice of Peterson and heavy bass sounds keep interchanging before exploding together now and then. This also reminds of later stoner rock from bands like Kyuss.

The next song, ‘Out of Focus’, lasts four minutes but was written in ten minutes according to Peterson. This song also has some psychedelic lyrics about angels in mystic dreams, propelled by a haunting guitar riff from Stephens. The roughness of the instruments and Petersons howling voice on this track marks the difference between Blue Cheer and more polished power trios like Clapton’s Cream. It’s followed by another cover, ‘Parchment Farm’, from jazz and blues pianist Mose Allison. This song offers some space for some extensive jamming just when you think the song has ended, while Peterson sings sightly funny lyrics like “I’ve been sitting over here on Parchment Farm. Ain’t ever done nobody no wrong. All I did was shoot my wife. She was no good! “. ‘Second Time Around’ offers you one last chance to pick up your air guitar, as the riffs are very sweet again. Towards the middle of the song, Paul Whaley throws in a wild drum solo, after which all the remaining distortion and psychedelic effects out there are used to close the album, definitely a personal favorite.

After their debut album, the group was confronted with a lot of personnel changes, with their style developing towards a more commercial sound during the seventies and eighties. Periods of activity and temporary break-ups followed eachother, before breaking up for once and for all in 2009 after the death of Peterson, the only continuing member troughout the years. But Vincebus Eruptum remains an essential album to understand the concept of a power trio. Enjoy.

Top Tracks:
1. Doctor Please
2. Second Time Around
3. Summertime Blues

“Feed your head”: Surrealistic Pillow (Jefferson Airplane)

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Year: 1967

Genre: Psychedelic Rock

Preceded by: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (1966)

Followed by: After Bathing At Baxter’s (1967)

Related to: not available yet

 

 

It must have been like eight years ago or something that I heard the thrilling intro of ‘White Rabbit’ for the first time, on some New Year’s Eve. Some seconds later the enchanting voice of Grace Slick kicked in and I knew I had to get the album this was on. ‘White Rabbit’ remained one of my all time rock favorites year after year till now, and year by year my appreciation for the other songs on the album grew. Our next great album from the magical year 1967 is Jefferson Airplane’s  Surrealistic Pillow.

Jefferson Airplane was the only band that played on all three of the notorious hippie festivals in the late sixties. This was not only because of the good looks of Grace Slick on stage, but above all because the band was a true pioneer of psychedelic rock. This genre at his turn played a key role in the evolution of rock history. Before the emerging of psychedelic rock, most rock bands were folk and blues orientated. With it’s new techniques and effects it completely turned the rock scene upside down in the late sixties, paving the way for progressive and hard rock bands. Psychedelic rock derived from a psychedelic subculture, with people like Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary and Aldous Huxley preaching the expansion of consciousness and popularising the use of psychedelic drugs. It found its way into music first through The Byrds in the US and reached its peak in 1967, when it reigned the music scene all over the world. In the UK, The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, Pink Floyd had there album debut with Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and Cream showed the world Disraeli Gears. Meanwhile, Surrealistic Pillow was the defining album in the US.

The band had its roots in the flourishing San Francisco music scene of the mid sixties, where vocalist Marty Balin met fellow folk musicians and guitar players Paul Kantner and Jorma Kaukonen. Influenced by The Beatles and The Byrds, they transformed to a folk rock band with some other temporary band members. Performing in this music scene, they were often supported by fellow folk rock band The Great Society, which featured the female lead singer Grace Slick. Airplane, after releasing their folk rock debut album, was at that very moment transforming into a psychedelic rock band, and Grace Slick’s voice was just the ingredient they needed to make this transformation a big success. This big success was Surrealistic Pillow.

Talked enough, let’s see what’s on it. First of all those two monster hits, ‘White Rabbit’ and ‘Somebody To Love’, two songs Grace Slick brought with her. The first one was written by herself, the second by her brother in law and they are both absolute rock classics. ‘White Rabbit’ starts with an awesome bassline, closely followed by the marching drums. Then Grace slides in with the most psychedelic rock prayer ever, taking you to the fantasy world of Lewis Caroll. This is a landmark in its genre, but also one of those true classics that will NEVER bore me. ‘Somebody To Love’ is a much more catchier song, also supporting on the great voice of Slick, especially during the verses.

You can also still hear the roots of this band on several songs, which are a mixture of folk rock and British Invasion influences. A real folk rock gem for example is ‘Today’, a ballad with a very ‘foggy’ intro. But the beauty of the song is the combination of the vocal harmonies between Balin & Slick and the sweet guitar riff that was actually played by Jerry Garcia. The song basically fades into ‘Comin’ Back to Me’, which intro somehow reminds me of ‘Stairway to Heaven’. Another beauty is ‘D.C.B.A.-25’, with a typical Byrds sound (listen to that typical lead guitar and tambourines) and a fantastic canon between Balin and Slick. The British Invasion sounds can be heard on ‘My Best Friend’ (with some Westcoast breeze) and ‘How Do You Feel’, which could actually be The Moody Blues when you leave the tambourine out.

The real psychedelic rock sound is to be found for example on opening track ‘She Has Funny Cars’. It has a delicious jazzy drum intro, followed by a variation of vocal harmonies (verses) and dialogue (chorus), and that typical distorted guitar sound. Also in this categorie are ‘Plastic Fantastic Lover’ (sounding like their psychedelic colleagues of 13th Floor Elevators, nice solo in the end) and ‘3/5 of a Mile in 10 seconds’. This one has bouncing guitars from the start and the combination with the fast drums make this the loudest song on the album and a personal favorite. Talking about favorites, there’s one song that doesn’t fit in any of the previous categories: ‘Embryonic Journey’. Waking up never felt better since I set this song as my alarm clock tone, they should play this instrumental acoustic one in every elevator.

Airplane would release some more psychedelic rock albums in the years following, till the genre died in the early seventies. Pink Floyd’s Syd Barett had gone crazy, Brian Wilson got depressed, The Beatles and Cream broke up and Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix died. Luckily for us, the music is still there and this album is a perfect starting point for discovering psychedelic rock. It’s the variation between psychedelic shots like ‘3/5 of a Mile in 10 seconds’ and fascinating ballads like ‘Today’: this album launches you eight miles high before letting you land peacefully again, right on your surrealistic pillow.

Top Tracks:
1. White Rabbit
2. 3/5 of a mile in 10 seconds
3. D.C.B.A.-25