Released August 1969 Length 37:29 Release date August 1969 Awards Grammy Hall of Fame | Recorded May 1969 | |
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Similar Santana albums, Jazz fusion albums | ||
Santana abraxas full album
Santana is the debut studio album by Latin rock band Santana released in 1969. Over half of the album's length is composed of instrumental music, recorded by what was originally a purely free-form jam band. At the suggestion of manager Bill Graham, the band took to writing more conventional songs for more impact, but managed to retain the essence of improvisation in the music.
Contents
- Santana abraxas full album
- Santana waiting by earpjohn
- Critical reception
- Track listing
- 1998 reissue
- 2004 Legacy Edition
- Personnel
- Production
- Songs
- References
The album was destined to be a major release, given a headstart by the band's seminal performance at the Woodstock Festival earlier that August. Although "Jingo" was not very successful (only reaching #56), "Evil Ways", the second single taken from the album, was a U.S. Top 10 hit. The album peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 pop album chart and #26 on the UK Albums Chart. It has been mixed and released in both stereo and quadraphonic.
Santana waiting by earpjohn
Critical reception
In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Langdon Winner panned Santana as "a masterpiece of hollow techniques" and "a speed freak's delight - fast, pounding, frantic music with no real content". He compared the music's effect to methedrine, which "gives a high with no meaning", finding Rollie and Santana's playing repetitively unimaginative amidst a monotony of incompetent rhythms and inconsequential lyrics. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau shared Winner's sentiment in his "unreconstructed opposition to the methedrine school of American music. A lot of noise".
A retrospective Rolling Stone review was more enthusiastic, finding Santana "thrilling ... with ambition, soul and absolute conviction - every moment played straight from the heart". In 2003, the magazine ranked Santana number 150 on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Colin Larkin deemed it an excellent example of Latin rock in his Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2011).
Track listing
All tracks written by the members of Santana except where noted.
1998 reissue
Writing credits and songs' lengths are in accord with album's inner notes.
2004 Legacy Edition
Note: Tracks 10–12 are from the studio sessions for the album recorded in May 1969.
Note: Tracks 1–6 are from the original studio sessions for the album recorded January 27–29, 1969.
Personnel
Production
Songs
1Waiting4:06
2Evil Ways3:57
3Shades Of Time3:13