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Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas on the oral history of "Smooth"

5K views 34 replies 19 participants last post by  Drew 
#1 ·
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#3 ·
Clicked on this thread wondering how there could possibly be enough of an oral history to this song to warrant discussing. Was not disappointed. :lol:
 
#4 ·
The guys a fucking whack job. You know those "Masterclass" ads? Have you seen his? Like the unmitigated gibberish of a gutter-dwelling meth addict. If I wanted guitar lessons from Cheech and Chong I'd just get high and throw myself down a flight of stairs.
 
#6 ·
Clearly none of you have ever been pregnant with a masterpiece that comes from a place of immortality outside of time and gravity.

There's a lot going on in this article, like the part where they subtley imply everyone with this song foresaw the future of latin immigration to America because everyone involved just happened to have their finger on the pulse of history, or the part where they congratulate themselves for taking the song to another level with the megaphone/telephone vocal effect, which was not just a vocal effect but was actually a genius commentary on race relations and the role of the transistor radio in minority culture in America.

But I think this part explains it best.



Putting aside the enigmatic and mysterious nature of the lyric, "Man, it's a hot one" that has enraptured audiences for close to two decades, the secret of the song is its multiple hooks.

The pre-chorus could be a chorus, fuck, the verse could be a chorus, the intro could also be a chorus.

Even the chorus could be a chorus.

Truly a next level masterpiece.
 
#11 ·
Honestly, I love this song so much that I don't even care.

It is a Masterpiece. :lol:

I love that album. "Supernatural."
 
#16 ·
I remember the Supernatural interview with Guitar World where Santana was going off the rails praising Metatron. I knew all the hippie talk but this was a tad too out there. :ugh:

I was listening to Santana a hell of a lot back in the day, especially the instrumentals. I felt he started losing steam around Freedom onward, but every album has at least a few gems. I still love Europa, Love Is You, Samba Pa Ti, Moonflower etc.

When Smooth came out, I was willing to bear the fact that I can introduce my friends to Santana even when sharing the spotlight with the dude from the band I hated at the time, now I just dislike. But then he did that song with Michelle Branch, that's when I opted right out.
 
#21 ·
I remember the Supernatural interview with Guitar World where Santana was going off the rails praising Metatron. I knew all the hippie talk but this was a tad too out there. :ugh:
Which Metatron are we talking here? "Sacred Geomtery Metatron", "Conspiracy Theorist New Age Vegan Metatron", "Voice of God Metatron", Biblical Metaron described in scripture as ""flesh was turned to flame, his veins to fire. . . his eyeballs to flaming torches", "Hasbro Transformers Megatron whos name is clearly based on Metatron and may even be an alternative viable spelling of Metatron according to some questionably believable 'biblical scholars' who may or may not just be regular Transformers fans inaccurately portraying themselves as 'biblical scholars' "?



There is no shame in using an interview to praise the leader of the Decepticons.
 
#17 ·
I enjoy Europa and some of Santana's early work. I'm not enamored of his later efforts with guest singers - including "Smooth."

I did like the beginning of "Put Your Lights On" - for one reason or another (doesn't hurt that Everlast's vocals are in my key) - but about halfway through the song, he pulls this WTF moment for what could be considered a solo and it loses me.

 
#19 ·
I enjoy Europa and some of Santana's early work. I'm not enamored of his later efforts with guest singers - including "Smooth."

I did like the beginning of "Put Your Lights On" - for one reason or another (doesn't hurt that Everlast's vocals are in my key) - but about halfway through the song, he pulls this WTF moment for what could be considered a solo and it loses me.
Do you mean that bit at 2:20? That's "Saturday afternoon at Guitar Center" level shredding for sure.
 
#20 ·
I dug "Put Your Lights On" and feel like it still held up pretty well, and there are a few ok moments here and there elsewhere on that album... But, overall, for me that sounds like an album where somewhere along the way someone told Santana he had a reputation for "really memorable phrasing," so he started intentionally playing lines that sounded really "phrased."
 
#25 ·
Carlos must have conveniently forgotten that his two albums for Polydor didn't sell jack shit. That was after Columbia also dropped him for not selling jack shit. I don't think Polydor was begging him to stay.

The fact is that Carlos basically had to become a guest artist on his own fucking albums full of famous pop singers in order to sell enough records to stay afloat.

Carlos: You know that mode I play in every song I've ever written? I wrote a new song where I just play it over and over again.
:lol:



That quote immediately brought to mind my favorite "song about the music industry":



I was listening to Santana a hell of a lot back in the day, especially the instrumentals. I felt he started losing steam around Freedom onward, but every album has at least a few gems. I still love Europa, Love Is You, Samba Pa Ti, Moonflower etc.
Santana was a huge influence on me, and I enjoy almost all of his work up through Shango.

That said, he stopped giving a shit about getting better on guitar sometime around 1976. When he was working with all the fusion guys in the early '70s, he started absorbing some of that stuff and became pretty decent for awhile. He was always more lyrical than shreddy, but he and McLaughlin had a nice Miles/Coltrane contrast going on whenever they worked together. Ultimately, he just decided to start playing the same five licks over and over.

No amount of Rob Thomas fuckwittery can ever undo this, though:



or this (with John McLaughlin):



or this (with Stanley Clarke):

 
#28 ·
:agreed:

Santana was a huge influence on me, and I enjoy almost all of his work up through Shango.

That said, he stopped giving a shit about getting better on guitar sometime around 1976. When he was working with all the fusion guys in the early '70s, he started absorbing some of that stuff and became pretty decent for awhile. He was always more lyrical than shreddy, but he and McLaughlin had a nice Miles/Coltrane contrast going on whenever they worked together. Ultimately, he just decided to start playing the same five licks over and over.
Also :agreed: Which is a shame as getting McLaughlin, the Chester Thompsons, and all the fusion guys was exactly the fire Santana needed to keep burning. Shango onwards there was at least some semblance of it, right up until the Sacred Fire concert. But you knew he'd gotten complacent by then.
 
#29 ·
Eh, you know, after 30-something years, Santana probably deserves his payday. I just wish he'd be open and call it what it is, you know? If you trade John McLaughlin for Rob Thomas, it's not about chasing a creative vision.
 
#30 ·
#35 ·
"Europa" was pretty great, too.

I mean, I don't even want to knock "Smooth" as a tune. It's a fun track. I just wouldn't have expected it to deserve an oral history. Maybe an oral footnote or something.
 
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