Santana - Amigos. 1976 USA-California

Funny about these albums sitting in the collection forever, that go back to childhood, and yet I couldn't tell you squat about it. I only kept the LP all these years because of 'Europa'. More on that one in a minute. What of the other 6 tracks, are they really that bad? No, not all actually. Well, save one.

'Dance Sister Dance' is a hybrid classic Santana Latin number with some creeping funk influence. The latter half of this song jams quite well. Which then segues nicely into the album's hidden gem 'Take Me With You', which sounds like early Santana ripping and roaring, until it puts the brakes on for a nice journey on The Love Boat. C'mon now, the girls are pretty and this is the perfect soundtrack. 'Let Me' isn't so bad really. Yes, it's got that Herbie Hancock Clavinet thing going and I could probably go without the "soul sister" chorus' that were annoying even back then... and especially now. But Santana is there to lay down a killer lick or 2, so it's OK.

'Gitano' is Amigos' contribution to Latin music. There are times when it seems it's about to take off into another killer jam, but it stays within the rails too much. 'Tell Me Are You Tired'. (OK, if you insist). This one is a bit too much funk pop for me, with more soul sister chorus', but not egregious on the whole.

This leads to 'Europa', which is just simply one of the most beautiful - and powerful - instrumentals ever committed to tape. Been hearing it for over 40 years, and I still get goosebumps throughout the entire song. Had it only been 20 minutes.... In any case this leads to...

'Let it Shine', the track that does everything in its power to desecrate the previous - that what was once holy and sacred. I mean I can deal with a little boogie woogie now and then, but seriously this is just plain awful. OK, let's just forget it ever happened. Nothing to see here.

And so with that - an album that is far better than I ever recalled. Glad I kept it.

Ownership: LP: 198? Columbia. Single sleeve.

There was a time when my record collection was solely made up of albums like this (through about 1981 or so) - i.e. later US presses of classic 70s rock and prog albums. 95% of those are gone, either replaced by CDs, or upgraded to original LP pressings (and often times both). And of those 5% that are still here, almost all of those have a CD supplement. In that way, I appreciate this album for the nostalgia. Odd choice it is, but it survived all the purges somehow. Now I will keep it for good because of that situation...

1989; 11/30/07; 9/21/18 (review / new entry)