Santana - Abraxas

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Music reviews of Abraxas

Music Review: Santana plus Gregg Rolie equals magic!
Rating: 4 Stars

As far as Santana's instrumental songs, They're an awful lot like Jeff Beck's: They can either be incredibly beautiful or incredibly boring. On this album, I found "Samba Pa Ti" to be one of his most beautiful to date--a romantic guitar instrumental that proves that love songs don't have to say anything at all (reminds me a lot of Jeff Beck's, "I Can't Give Back the Love I Feel For You".) On the boring side, there is "Incident At Neshabur", which starts out sounding exciting and dramatic, but it drags on and falls apart towards the end.
Of course, you have the FM hits "Blackmagic Woman" and "Oye Como Va" and some minute-or-two long, pointless "conga" filler music: "Se A Cabo" and "El Nicoya", and that's pretty much the album. But again, the bright spots for me are all the songs Gregg Rolie either sang or wrote: "Hope Your Feeling Better", "Blackmagic Woman", and "Mother's Daughter". It was he, in my opinion, that made the early Santana "tick", and made the group the multi-dimensional group it was. His talents are surely lacking in the new Santana. I would love to see Rolie and Carlos work together again somehow, but its been over 30 years. There was as much chemistry between them as Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, and I could really hear it on this album. Something really bad must have happened to keep them apart all this time. I wouldn't even mind seeing Gregg Rolie back in Journey, but he was never appreciated in that group once Steve Perry took over the lead vocals and songwriting duties--once Journey decided they needed an attracive, sexy "front man" to bring them the popularity and the female fans they so desired. I understand Gregg Rolie has a new solo CD out, and is struggling to make it on his own. But it's just a shame that someone with as much singing, songwriting, and playing talent as he has, was never meant for much commercial success with two very popular San Francisco groups. Santana did continue to make great pop songs in the mid-to-late 70s and early-80's and they're still my favorite San Francisco band. I just think they sounded better, as they did here, with Gregg Rolie as their main singer and songwriter.

Description of Abraxas

Sundazed's exact vinyl replica of this calienté classic is sourced directly from the original Columbia masters.

Classic Rock CDs

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