The four greatest guitar solos of all time, according to Carlos Santana
Jimi Hendrix once told him, “I love your choice of notes”. Eric Clapton said, “He kept me on my toes”. And in a rare positive proclamation, Miles Davis declared, “You know how to pay it right”. But for the most part, Carlos Santana himself has been consumed not with seeking the praise of his peers, but rather finding a frequency that he thinks will heal the world.
The shredding, soulful guitarist is an alloyist of all sorts: psychedelia and traditional South American folk styles, heavy metal and hyperpop, Christianity, Hinduism, and a disembodied entity he calls Metatron. For Santana, by and large, spiritually and musically, if it feels good, then it works.
This philosophy took him from Woodstock to number one, comfortably straddling the rarified border between cult figure and commercial star. “My job in this life,” he says, “is to give people spiritual ecstasy through music. In my concerts, people cry, laugh, and dance. If they climaxed spiritually, I did my job. I did it decently and honestly.”
While that certainly heaps plenty of pressure on his next life, for now, he’s content being one part of rock ‘n’ roll’s spiritual machine, and he draws inspiration from all of his peers. In fact, he even humbly rattled off a list of the four greatest guitar solos of all time, and why he admires these mighty works. As someone who honours his inspirations in everything he plays, you can hear these remarkable riffs writ large across his wavering discography.
The four greatest guitar solos of all time, according to Carlos Santana:
‘Purple Haze’ – Jimi Hendrix
While the similarities between Jimi Hendrix and Santana, beyond their wardrobes, might have actually been overstated over the years, there were certainly a few shared tenets in their playing. While Prince would accurately point out that Santana’s style had a smoother flow, the pair definitely emphasised ‘singing notes’, where a sustained stab jumps out of the mix. That’s a style that exemplifies the magic of ‘Purple Haze’, and Santana felt deeply inspired.
“Hendrix is one of the greatest guitar players of all time, and this is his signature tune,“ he told Red Bull Music. Of course, there’s ‘Foxy Lady’ and his version of [Bob Dylan’s] ‘All Along the Watchtower,’ but this is where his skills shine the most. Honestly, you have to be Albert Einstein, musically, to play like that. It’s unbelievable. Pure feel, pure magic.”
‘White Room’ – Cream
Sticking with the classics, Santana also loved the blues and picked out Eric Clapton as one of the genre’s premier players. The beauty of ‘White Room’ is that it is brimming with the sort of visceral drama that Santana refers to as a “spiritual ecstasy“. Back in 1968, that was enough to seal the supergroup a rare top ten hit in the US, but Santana thinks it is worthy of more.
“Eric is incredible, and this is one of his finest moments, right up there with ‘Layla.’ Him, [American blues guitarist] Derek Trucks and me plan to make an album called Eric, Derek and the Mexican – sort of our own cosmic version of the soundtrack of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,“ Santana said. “Music that is about discovering the unknown and unpredictable.”
‘Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues’ – Buddy Guy
At one point in the 1980s, the aforementioned Mr Clapton told The Musician that Buddy Guy was “by far and without a doubt the best guitar player alive… if you see him in person, the way he plays is beyond anyone. Total freedom of spirit.” That fluidity is always something the flowing Santana has looked to mimic, and with ‘Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues’, he found his first blueprint.
“Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck,“ the ‘Black Magic Woman’ musician began, “they’re all great, but the guy my British brothers and me all learned from is Buddy Guy. That’s the guy. There wouldn’t be Jimi Hendrix without Buddy Guy, you know? He invented turbo blues. And you can hear it on this song. Nobody plays like him.”
‘Nothing Else Matters’ – Metallica
While Santana often has a flighty softness to his playing, he also adores the punchy nature of heavier styles, too. “I would love to do an album that’s just heavy metal. Because I love AC/DC, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Jimi Hendrix,” he once said. And that fact is typified by his appraisal of the 1991 classic, ‘Nothing Else Matters’.
Speaking about the song, Santana drooled, “When I was living in San Francisco, these guys were my next-door neighbours; we bumped into each other a lot. I love [front man James Hetfield’s] guitar work on this song – it’s so melodic, passionate and powerful. I’ve always wanted to do a heavy metal album – I love the energy of that stuff.”
