The guitarist Carlos Santana compared to Albert Einstein: “Pure magic”
Music fans often fantasise about the opportunity of having a time machine and going back to relive a specific moment in cultural history. With that in mind, I would be willing to predict that all die-hard guitar fans would pick the exact same place in history, where they could go and celebrate the iconic instrument.
Because while it was culturally goddamn iconic in many other ways, there was no doubting that Woodstock, 1969, was the festival of the guitar. I can almost hear a distorted guitar line ringing in my ear just reading the lineup, including Carlos Santana and, of course, Jimi Hendrix.
While every single name on that bill has a song built around the guitar, it’s those two that took it to new heights. Virtuosos of the instrument, they almost allowed it to shepherd them into unknown sonic territories. Almost like willing participants in a transcendental journey of the guitar, they moved with it voluntarily with each song.
A musical attitude that was showcased best at Woodstock 1969, where both Santana and Hendrix delivered famous sets. The former famously performed a legendary, breakthrough set that was fueled by LSD, while the latter closed the ceremony on Monday morning with a crunching rendition of the American national anthem.
But before that, Hendrix cemented his legacy as perhaps the greatest guitarist of all time. A figurehead of the late 1960s free-love movement, as he stood with a Stratocaster in hand and a bandana around his head, he provided the sort of performance that gave music permission to move into a more psychedelic space thereafter.
In that set, Hendrix played all of his big hits. The likes of ‘Message to Love’, ‘Red House’, ‘Foxy Lady’, ‘Voodoo Child (Slight Return)’ and ‘Purple Haze’ all made it onto the setlist and cemented what remains an iconic set. But it was that last song that Santana would have enjoyed the most, for it played host to a solo that he believes has never really been matched.
“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.”
Santana and Hendrix were certainly kindred spirits. The pair shared aesthetic similarities, with their bohemian, psychedelic, and glam rock influences taking centre stage. But more crucially, their stylistic similarities bled into their guitar playing, and so Santana was of course best placed to comment on just how good Hendrix was.
Prince indeed labelled Santana as a smoother guitar player than Hendrix, but the pair both emphasised ‘singing notes’ within their guitar playing, the sort where a sustained stab jumps out of the mix. And on ‘Purple Haze’, Hendrix displayed that very best.
