Carlos Santana?

[Gainzilla]

A classic!!!! I loved the Marathon album as well, from 81

 

[ACShreds]

i still think his new cover album is pretty awesome.

 

[axemeaquestion]

i still think his new cover album is pretty awesome.

You mean the album cover is awesome, bro, doncha?

 

[The Hoff]

I don't care if he comes out with lame stuff these days....his other stuff is so original, so tasteful, and emotional

I'll always have full respect for the guy!

Always thought he looked funny though.

 

[overthemountain]

Love the old stuff... even like some of his stuff as recent as Supernatural- some very cool tunes on there, although the leads get repetitive. After that, just can't get into him. Looking over his entire catalog & history though, much respect.

He's also a very nice cat given his level of fame- met him on a trip to Hawaii a few years back. He walked by me at the gate and said he thought my girls were cute- when we were getting on the plane he could see I was having trouble hauling 2 child seats & all the other shit for our family back to coach, so he got up & helped me carry our stuff back. Cool dude! Maybe I should try to contact him and see if I can get on the next record-

 

[Fenderoid]

Never been a great fan though i saw him live last year and his feel and sound were unbelievable.Very unique and authentique when he is not playing thse pop songs.

 

[thiswaythatway]

The album with Smooth was actually pretty good. All the songs were decent from a pop perspective. It's silly to trash him for for a lack of chops since that was never his thing and he's really old so i wouldn't expect him to pickup a metronome anytime soon.

I think he's overestimated by non-musicians and underestimated by musicians/guitar player.

 

[Ventura]

Haven't read all the posts - just had to put my 2 cents forward.

I like the guy, I think he's been a terrific guitarist, I think he still can be a terrific guitarist, I think his mentality and spiritual appproach to music is pretty awesome, and hey, he's been around a long long time and seen a lot more than most of us here

Peace,
V.

 

[AmpliFIRE]

This is the only Santana that I dig

 

[jlbaxe]

I luv his old stuff and can listen to most of his stuff after the 90s to now. When he plays you know its him. Falls more into easy listening on the lite radio station in a doctors office. haha

 

[Doubleneck]

Moonflower album is sick..

That's my favorite!!!

 

[grooveHT]

I love a lot of Santana's stuff, particularly some of his more obscure work...Blues for Salvador, Aqua Marine, Hong Kong Boogie. I think he was really playing his ass off! That said, for whatever reason I do sort of resent everything being about a beautiful transcendent soul arcing across the galaxy and bending time, how every interview turns into how much mescaline and LSD he did while he was writing a song, and to top it off, he wears a Che shirt on the Grammys. Dunno how much you guys know about Che', but that guy was one brutal, evil son of a bitch, and dude wears it as a fashion statement on the Grammys. Doing things like that makes me question just how spiritual that guy really is, and how much is just image. I think his return to the spotlight has been largely manufactured, I think three albums of guest singers is more than enough, and this latest album is guest singers AND covers to capitalize on all their popularity. I agree with the assessment that as of late, its been noodling over some hit singer's ditty, whereas his older stuff was him really trying to say something. Oh well, this could all be sour grapes, I still love the crap out of his older stuff, and hope that one day he goes back to just shutting up about souls with wings, cans all the guest vocalists, and goes back to playing some music.

 

[bigdaddyd]

I was just having this same conversation with a friend of mine this weekend Kage. I am going to have to disagree here. I used to love Santana, but at least to me he is nothing more than a has been and is heading towards becoming a joke at this point. I am rather sad to say that but the last good thing he did was Supernatural and that was him resting on the talents of what was the day's current talent. It was successful, so he is trying it again and this time with covers. He isn't even trying for original material. The sad part is these covers are so bad I can't even make it through 30seconds of some of them. I was at the filming of the Supernatural Hard Rock Live. It was fantastic. It wasn't Everbody's Everything, or anything like that, but it was good. This is just sad, and I wish he would hang it up or at least get inspired. As for the spirituality....I don't mind it since I have tuned it out since the beginning. I just pay attention to the music.

 

[rupe]

I love a lot of his older material but this latest cover song/guitar karaoke album is a complete abortion...awful beyond description.

His intonation also blows which bugs me more these days than it ever did in the past.

 

[Gainzilla]

I was just having this same conversation with a friend of mine this weekend Kage. I am going to have to disagree here. I used to love Santana, but at least to me he is nothing more than a has been and is heading towards becoming a joke at this point. I am rather sad to say that but the last good thing he did was Supernatural and that was him resting on the talents of what was the day's current talent. It was successful, so he is trying it again and this time with covers. He isn't even trying for original material. The sad part is these covers are so bad I can't even make it through 30seconds of some of them. I was at the filming of the Supernatural Hard Rock Live. It was fantastic. It wasn't Everbody's Everything, or anything like that, but it was good. This is just sad, and I wish he would hang it up or at least get inspired. As for the spirituality....I don't mind it since I have tuned it out since the beginning. I just pay attention to the music.

To be clear bro, Im not in love with what hes been doing for a long time For me, the version of Carlos that I love hasnt really been around since the mid 80's. He can still show alot of soul and emotion , regardless of all of his collabs and what not... Yeah Id rather have the old Carlos back without a doubt, the point of the thread was love for Carlos in general, not what weve seen as of late...( I do like some tracks oof of the new album though)

 

[Badronald]

I'm in no way defending Carlos Santana. He doesn't need me too, but after and interview I was with him and Clive Davis I'm under the impression that Clive has directed his career for a long time now with the "guest artist" thing. I think Carlos just said "cool" I'll try that and he ended up selling 20 million copies of Supernatural. I don't think Carlos set out to do this, he just tried it and he made truckloads of money.

Good for him. He seems like a cool guy.

 

[Gainzilla]

I'm in no way defending Carlos Santana. He doesn't need me too, but after and interview I was with him and Clive Davis I'm under the impression that Clive has directed his career for a long time now with the "guest artist" thing. I think Carlos just said "cool" I'll try that and he ended up selling 20 million copies of Supernatural. I don't think Carlos set out to do this, he just tried it and he made truckloads of money.

Good for him. He seems like a cool guy.

Yeah, thats my take. Im guessing you watched that TV bit that they had about the new album?

Hows it going Ron???

Kage

 

[Badronald]

I'm in no way defending Carlos Santana. He doesn't need me too, but after and interview I was with him and Clive Davis I'm under the impression that Clive has directed his career for a long time now with the "guest artist" thing. I think Carlos just said "cool" I'll try that and he ended up selling 20 million copies of Supernatural. I don't think Carlos set out to do this, he just tried it and he made truckloads of money.

Good for him. He seems like a cool guy.

Yeah, thats my take. Im guessing you watched that TV bit that they had about the new album?

Hows it going Ron???

Kage

Things are going well Kage. Very busy. Getting ready for Christmas. You?

Yeah, I saw an interview on TV recently with Clive and Carlos. Clive was going on about how Carlos is a genius. I think that term needs to go to Clive for making all that happen! In retrospect there were a couple catchy tunes on the Supernatural album.

I'd rather see a guy like Carlos have huge success in that arena than a Brittany Spears or Kesha.

 

[kasperjensen]

He has moments of brilliance... And moments of pure shite.

I really liked Smooth that he did with Rob Thomas... It's such a good song all the way through. Tasteful and all the rest of it.

But then there are moments like this:

Punch in at 5:20 if you wanna skip the awesomeness of Tower and skip to... Well you decide for yourselves.

Like a fish out of water!!!

Now I am not saying that I could hold my own against Tower of Power, but then I am not a world famous guitar player.

 

[Gainzilla]

I'm in no way defending Carlos Santana. He doesn't need me too, but after and interview I was with him and Clive Davis I'm under the impression that Clive has directed his career for a long time now with the "guest artist" thing. I think Carlos just said "cool" I'll try that and he ended up selling 20 million copies of Supernatural. I don't think Carlos set out to do this, he just tried it and he made truckloads of money.

Good for him. He seems like a cool guy.

Yeah, thats my take. Im guessing you watched that TV bit that they had about the new album?

Hows it going Ron???

Kage

Things are going well Kage. Very busy. Getting ready for Christmas. You?

Yeah, I saw an interview on TV recently with Clive and Carlos. Clive was going on about how Carlos is a genius. I think that term needs to go to Clive for making all that happen! In retrospect there were a couple catchy tunes on the Supernatural album.

I'd rather see a guy like Carlos have huge success in that arena than a Brittany Spears or Kesha.

Agreed, I dig the catchy stuff but its not my preference, ya know? Id much rather listen to Abraxas,Marathon,Moonflower and a whole host of the earlier stuff over the catchy stuff any day. I liked him best when he was in a more Rock frame of mind and he left that a long time ago.

Yeah, Clive is definitely in the drivers seat...