(SOUNDBITE OF SANTANA'S "WAITING")
FELIX CONTRERAS, HOST:
1969 was a pivotal year for music here in the United States. This year marked the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, and there were also a ton of albums released in 1969 that eventually became iconic for their influence on all music that came after them. And this week, we're going to take a closer look at another one of those influential albums - the very first Santana album, called simply "Santana." It's a record that had a profound impact musically and socially, a mash-up of cultural influences that made a statement about Latin music that still reverberates to this day.
And who better to tell the story of the creation of the album than some of the original members of Santana that recorded it? This week, we're going to hear an oral history about that first Santana album from guitarist Carlos Santana, drummer Michael Shrieve, conguero Michael Caraballo, as well as keyboardist and vocalist Gregg Rolie. But before we hear from them, let's hear more of the track "Waiting," the first cut on side one. And yes, there will be vinyl references on the show this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF SANTANA'S "WAITING")
CONTRERAS: The first Santana album was released on August 30, 1969, and one of the most interesting facts about the album is that it is a portrait of a band in transition. Here's Carlos Santana.
CARLOS SANTANA: We recorded in CBS Los Angeles with Mr. David Rubinson. But we didn't like the way it sounded, that - we didn't like the way it feel. It took the rawness away from it or whatever it was. So we felt that we have enough clout to say, we don't care. That one's not going out. We're going to do it again, and we're going to find our own producer. So we find some guy at Haight-Ashbury. I don't even know if he was a producer. We just convinced him that he was. (Laughter) So that's why the album sounds so raw, you know, because he didn't know what he was doing, I don't think, and neither were we. But we know that - if it had energy or not.
CONTRERAS: This is drummer Michael Shrieve.
MICHAEL SHRIEVE: They were already signed. Clive Davis already signed them. They had gone to LA to record, but they didn't like the way the record sounded. I guess they were looking for another drummer, as well. So it was, like, the second shot at making a record.
CONTRERAS: Conguero Michael Carabello.
MICHAEL CARABELLO: So we went to this - the recording studio, and the drummer still wasn't getting it, was - still wasn't making it. We had taken about four, if not - three or four takes on songs. And I pulled Carlos aside, and I said, man, this drummer is just not making it; it's having a hard time.
CONTRERAS: And keyboardist and lead vocalist Gregg Rolie.
GREGG ROLIE: Rubinson pulled Carlos and I aside and said, you guys are the guys of this band, and you need to change some personnel. And so we did.
CARABELLO: By the time the drummer was walking out, he had just been - not laid off, he had just been fired - Michael Shrieve just walked through the door.
SHRIEVE: One night I walked into this recording studio, and as I walked in, the drummer of Santana walked - was walking out. We literally passed each other in the doorway.
ROLIE: Doc was on his way out while Mike Shrieve came in. It was (laughter) strange. But that's what happened, and that became the band.
CONTRERAS: The band that recorded that album all lived together in the same house - six young men in their 20s who apparently had more ambition than actual musical know-how, which was kind of a good thing according to Carlos Santana.
SANTANA: We didn't know what we were doing. I mean - and thank God we didn't, you know, because it sounds so raw and innocent.
CARABELLO: I don't think any of us really, really knew what we were doing. We kind of were just adding stuff, and it was, like, a buffet of learning.
ROLIE: The way the music came together was, like - we just experimented with everything and anything, and it was - we were making our own way. I heard a story that Clive Davis came to see the band before signing us up and said something to the effect, well, I don't get this, but all these people do.
SHRIEVE: Let me say this - when I first heard some of that record on the radio, when that record came out, it blew me away. I think the first thing I heard was "Jingo" on the radio - and even hearing myself on the record but being able to sit back and enjoy it like an outsider and say, wow, that sounds really great, and it sounds really different than anything you hear on the radio.
ROLIE: The first time I heard "Jingo," I was driving home from the airport and had the radio on, and it came on and I (laughter) didn't even recognize it. I was like, wow, this is really cool. Who is this?
CONTRERAS: (Laughter).
ROLIE: Oh, it's me.
(LAUGHTER)
ROLIE: And it was "Jingo." And the first time I ever heard any of my music, anything that I was associated with, was that time. And it blew my mind. It sounded wonderful, you know? It could have sounded like garbage, and I still would have been like, oh, my God, I'm on the radio (laughter).
CONTRERAS: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JINGO")
CONTRERAS: You're listening to ALT.LATINO. I'm Felix Contreras, and this week, we're talking to some of the original members of Santana about the story behind their groundbreaking first album, released 50 years ago this month. Bassist David Brown and percussionist José "Chepito" Areas were the other bandmates. And as Michael Carabello describes it, they each brought their own musical inspirations and a shared passion for a sound they had not heard yet.
CARABELLO: I was listening to Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Gábor Szabó, Willie Bobo. Chepito was listening to The - Los Muñequitos. Carlos was coming from a blues bag of B.B. King, Albert King, you know, the King dynasty. And Gregg was coming from the Jimmy Smith plane of that sort. And Michael Shrieve was into Chico Hamilton and, you know, other drummers and stuff. So it was a blending of everyone's different styles that made the sound.
ROLIE: And when I first met Carlos, he was doing exactly what I wanted to do, and that's why I hooked up with him. I wanted to play my own music. I - you know, I'm not good at copying other people's music. It just didn't interest me. And so we would take songs and make them our own. And everything became the gel of this band. And it didn't matter if somebody brought in 10% of the information for - to play on or 80% or whatever, it all counted. And it was a real group, and every little piece came together, in my opinion, is why it worked. We did everything from rock to Latin to jazz.
CARABELLO: So we kind of just had our own sound all of a sudden. And the gel of it is, is that this percussion section was - all of a sudden - it was an outstanding thing - that let Carlos play over - play all his blues stuff and Gregg play his Jimmy Smith stuff.
ROLIE: I was trying to back rhythm and guitar work and be the bed for all of this stuff, and that's how it developed. And then solos, of course, have to slam and be loud. And we based all our music off of that kind of feel. It was really rhythmic is - was it. I wanted to watch girls' hips move (laughter).
SANTANA: Our music started going everywhere. And I started noticing that, you know, everyone from Miles Davis to Jimi Hendrix to Sly Stone to the Rolling Stones, all of a sudden they had congas. So I said, mm, something's working.
ROLIE: We just kind of opened the doors to everything, and whatever stuck, stuck. And we just created a new kind of music. And as far as, what was I thinking? I hope I'm right.
SANTANA: Right. I call it shaking hands with the jungle because that's what we were doing. I mean, we had these different instruments. We played them different. Again, you know, we had no idea that we were even - or did we care about making it, being something? We just liked to play. We liked to play, and we liked to blow people's mind and what we do. And all of us had it no other way. It was kind of like, you know, going into a team that's like, we got this, you know? And you sure do not want to come on after us. And one of the things that we were known for is not stopping from - going from, OK, that was that song and then stop and then tune up and go into another song. We would play song after song that bled into something else.
ROLIE: Bill Graham is the one who'd say, you need songs. And Carlos and I looked at each other - we got songs. What are you talking about?
SANTANA: He goes, you freaking hippies don't - just play long-ass jams and there's never a song in there. You just play for a long time and it's just a jam. And I want you to learn what a verse - a chorus and - verse? Chorus? What's that, you know? And he says this.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EVIL WAYS")
SANTANA: He played "Evil Ways" for us. And he goes, I told Willie Bobo that you was going to kick his ass with his own song. I was like, what?
(LAUGHTER)
ROLIE: And so we played it for Bill, basically, and it ended up being the first single.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EVIL WAYS")
ROLIE: (Singing) You've got to change your evil ways, baby, before I stop loving you. You've got to change, baby. And every word that I say is true. You got me running and hiding all over town. You got me sneakin' and a-peepin' and running you down. This can't go on. Lord knows you got to change, baby. Baby. When I come home, baby, my house is dark, and my pots are cold. You're hangin' 'round, baby, with Jean and Joan and-a who knows who. I'm gettin' tired of waiting and fooling around. I'll find somebody who won't make me feel like a clown. This can't go on - Lord knows you got to change. When I come home, baby, my house is dark, and my pots are cold. You hangin' 'round, baby, with Jean and Joan and-a who knows who. I'm gettin' tired of waiting and fooling around. I'll find somebody who won't make me feel like a clown. This can't go on - yeah, yeah, yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF SANTANA SONG, "TREAT")
CONTRERAS: In an attempt to shake loose some long-forgotten memories of the album from the guys in the band, I tried a little word association. I mentioned the name of a song and asked for the first thing that came to mind. And I used the second cut on side two, "Treat." Here's Carlos Santana.
SANTANA: Oh, Les McCann, Eddie Harris, Ramsey Lewis - you know, that kind of thing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SANTANA'S "TREAT")
CONTRERAS: Conguero Michael Carabello.
CARABELLO: "Treat" was a beautiful song written - Carlos and Gregg wrote that song before I was in the band, but very, very, very beautiful. Me being in the band and Chepito being in the band and Michael Shrieve being in the band, when we went to record that, we had a double-time to ride out of the song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SANTANA'S "TREAT")
CONTRERAS: And what does Gregg Rolie remember?
ROLIE: (Laughter) Marijuana.
(LAUGHTER)
ROLIE: And I'll tell you why (laughter) - because it was the only time I ever took a hit. I didn't like it. And I took a hit of marijuana and played that song, and it was, like, a totally different experience, I'll put it that way. And - had to shorten the solos. I had to think, and I couldn't think (laughter). So that's what strikes me. I never did that again.
(SOUNDBITE OF SANTANA'S "TREAT")
UNIDENTIFIED PERFORMER: We got one more tune for you. It's called "Soul Sacrifice."
CONTRERAS: And finally, the other significant event of 1969 - the band's legendary performance at Woodstock, which put the band on the musical map. Michael Carabello explains.
CARABELLO: You know, we got discovered there because of Bill Graham. Michael Lang needed a favor, and Bill Graham said, unless you let my band play, I can't help you out. So we didn't even have a record out. You know, the "Waiting" and "Evil Ways" and all that didn't come out until three weeks later.
(SOUNDBITE OF SANTANA'S "SOUL SACRIFICE")
CARABELLO: The other thing about that gig is, you know, you might look at the footage on TV or in the movie, and none of us are playing to the crowd (laughter). We're all playing to one another. We had no idea that we were going to be the hit of the event. But again, Woodstock was about the people, and everybody that was there saw us and went, what is that? You know, we were just on fire.
(SOUNDBITE OF SANTANA'S "SOUL SACRIFICE")
CONTRERAS: This is drummer Michael Shrieve.
SHRIEVE: The only thing that comes to my mind, Felix, is that we were really together. We were together as friends, as a band, unit, like a little - like a street gang and the weapon was music. So, you know, if we were a street gang and we got our solace from each other, our strengths from each other in the face of being in front of 400 - 500,000 people - we just played to each other and kept it together that way. And it was a lot of fun, as you can see in the film. To me, I had a great time.
(SOUNDBITE OF SANTANA'S "SOUL SACRIFICE")
CONTRERAS: On that day, Carlos Santana had something else on his mind.
SANTANA: Surrender, defer. I deferred and surrendered to God. I said, God, please, help me to stay in time and in tune. And he heard me. I was totally at the peak of hallucinogenic mind expansion, all the way into that place where you're not supposed to play or even talk or function. You're just supposed to sit down and allow it because it's almost like a divine storm that comes to you and you cannot articulate. Although I did. So I think they were hoping that I would not create a disaster by being not in shape to play.
(SOUNDBITE OF SANTANA'S "SOUL SACRIFICE")
CONTRERAS: Santana performed at Woodstock at 2 p.m. on August 16, 1969. And during my interview with Michael Shrieve on August 16, 2019, this happened.
SHRIEVE: It's like, Felix, 50 years ago to the minute that this occurred.
CONTRERAS: Right now?
SHRIEVE: Right now.
CONTRERAS: Oh, my God.
(LAUGHTER)
SHRIEVE: It's 2 o'clock in Washington.
CONTRERAS: Yes, it is. Oh, and you guys hit the stage at 2 o'clock.
SHRIEVE: Yeah.
CONTRERAS: Oh, wow. What an honor. Michael, man.
(LAUGHTER)
CONTRERAS: I didn't plan that.
SHRIEVE: Yeah, no, here it is, brother.
CONTRERAS: Well, hey, man, let's just let the universe reverberate then. We'll leave it at that.
SHRIEVE: Yeah. OK.
CONTRERAS: I think we're cool for right now, man.
(SOUNDBITE OF SANTANA'S "SOUL SACRIFICE")
CONTRERAS: My thanks to Carlos Santana, Michael Shrieve, Michael Carabello and Greg Rolie for their time and their memories. What are your memories of hearing this album for the first time? Drop us a line on Facebook and Twitter. We are NPR Music's ALT.LATINO. I'm Felix Contreras. As always, thank you so much for listening.
(SOUNDBITE OF SANTANA'S "SOUL SACRIFICE")
UNIDENTIFIED EMCEE: Ladies and gentlemen, Santana.
(CHEERING)
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