Sorry about that awkward sentence structure! No. I LOVE Santana! After they played, I lost all interest in ear-blasting terrible rock bands. Their opening number at the Straight was "Oye, Como Va". I was a goner from that moment. I turned my back on all the schreechers bands. I just quit paying attention. I just figured out this week, watching a PBS special with Jon Sebastian that Crosby, Stills and Nash were former Byrds too (besides The omnipresent Roger McGuinn.) So, I can date my conversion to before the formation of Crosby, Stills and Nash because I do know who the Byrds were. I helped my sister (Megan Montiel), and Maureen Titcomb do some tie-dyed library curtains for Graham Nash, but couldn't name a song he did. His name and affiliation just kept slipping my mind, because I wasn't interested.
I am a Tucson girl and if it doesn't have some salsa, I don't like it half as much, so I fell in love with Santana as did everyone else, one song into their set. Back then, they passed as a blues band, believe it or not, but they already had most of the songs in their first album, maybe all of them. I was a huge fan of the original group, each member was something else. Greg Rolley. My sister was very good friends with Ross Valery, so I heard of Journey, and knew Greg was playing with them, but couldn't tell you one song they did. Supernatural is one of my favorite albums, too, but someone had to tell me about it because I still only listen to Jazz on the radio. for me, Coltrane is still the god of music from the 60's. I think I heard all the guitarists in person, many times, back then, and Carlos Santana is still my favorite.
Reggie is writing about it. He is a trained historian and a pretty good writer. Now that he is retired, I hope to see a new focus. No one knew as many people as Regggie back then. He was interested with all the other venues and worked with them all. I think he is just waiting for a few more people to die, so he doesn't have to fudge around as much.
