Bsbloom Customs – Update: 9/26/20 Soul Sacrifice
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For this week, also from the debut album,
Persuasion is another real classic, one of the many songs on this album that led Rolling Stone to call this album one of the best albums of all time. Indeed, they put this on their top 500 album list (where it landed at #149). Of course, that was in 2012. In 1969, they weren’t so enthusiastic. Their review called this album, “a masterpiece of hollow techniques … fast, pounding, frantic music with no real content” The reviewer found the music repetitive, unimaginative, backed by a poor rhythm section, and filled with meaningless nonsense for lyrics. I wonder what that reviewer thinks of #150 on that top album list!
Okay, here is my 2020 review: Santana I is one of the best albums of all time, and Persuasion is one of the best songs of that great album.
Download: http://customscreators.com/index.php?/page/index.html/_/persuasion-r27520
Finally, I close out Santana I with my personal favorite, Soul Sacrifice.
In this amazing jam piece, every member of the band lets loose. And, as a player, every instrument is set free. The song starts with percussion, drums and bongos. Then comes the classic theme, followed by a beautiful guitar solo. That solo leads into the major break in the song, where the percussion takes over. An amazing bongo solo, followed by an even better drum solo. A solo perfectly charted by AJFOne23 – thank you AJ!
After the break, Carlos gets another turn, a second guitar solo. Then the guitar and drums shift to the background and we hear a fantastic keyboard solo, finishing with a flourish, and a long build-up back to the Soul Sacrifice theme. Perfect song.
Here is a story that I have told before, but one worth repeating. In 1969, the producers of Woodstock decided that they needed to include one of the new San Francisco groups, but they had only one slot left open. The choice boiled down to one of two promising groups, and no one could choose one over the other. So, the decision was decided by a coin flip. Santana won that flip. Santana went on to an amazing career, while the losing group drifted apart, and faded into obscurity.
To become a superstar band, you need real talent, but you also need some luck. Of course, artists always have a hand in making their own luck – as a critic wrote
With absolutely no lyrics, Santana took to wow Woodstock in 1969 with (the) instrumental masterpiece “Soul Sacrifice.” We can only assume that Carlos sacrificed his soul to have gained the ability to play so beautifully, enough to silence the famously non-sober, impressionable Woodstock crowd.
Did they make their own luck through some sort of deal with the devil?
I’ve seen videos of that Woodstock performance. The audience, hundreds of thousands, were milling about, talking, playing, and barely listening to the stage. Then came Soul Sacrifice, and something clicked. The whole Woodstock world grew silent, and grew rapt. This band of unknowns had arrived, and would never leave.
Download: http://customscreators.com/index.php?/page/index.html/_/soul-sacrifice-r27562
Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F3Cjr32QyI
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