Eric Clapton’s greatest guitar solo, according to Carlos Santana
Let me tell you, there aren’t many people who can pull off a bejewelled fedora the way Carlos Santana can. Then again, there aren’t many people who can rattle off solos with the vocal sustain that he can. One aids the other, I suppose.
There’s a cosmic serenity to both his character and his playing. The connection between the two is tangible. He plays with flow, like a one-man jazz band who picks the right note on feel, which is perhaps why Miles Davis once said, “You know how to do it right. A lot of people don’t know how to play it right”.
Further ratifying this is the fact that another footloose fret-master, Jimi Hendrix, also hailed Santana when he said, “I love your choice of notes”. The deciding factor for where those notes come from is emotion. Santana is always seeking out “spiritual ecstasy” in his playing, and in his view, one particular solo has always shown him the way.
He’s always been a fan of Eric Clapton, but he thinks that Cream’s classic ‘White Room’ showcases his playing at its best. The beauty of ‘White Room’ is that it is brimming with the sort of visceral drama that Santana refers to as tapping into something higher.
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 told Red Bull Music. “Music that is about discovering the unknown and unpredictable.”
Something about ‘White Room’ lingers in that rare mystic realm. And it is searingly unique, too. Perhaps that’s why even the band itself also hails it. Jack Bruce famously declared, “I’m really happy with that song.” He even went so far as to say that it was his “favourite Cream song”.
There is, of course, immense technicality on display in the song, showcasing similar sustain to that which Santana is known for, but that vital spiritual element that Santana was always seeking is also firmly on display. It’s the reason the likes of Mickey Hart from Grateful Dead declared them “the best band in the world”.
Wavering between a 5/4 time verse and a 4/4 time chorus, cleverly quirking the minor pentatonic scale, there is plenty of compositional class on display. But its beauty, conversely, lies in its simplicity. Simply put, it is a band in joyous flow, offering up a unique emotion that we all know through feeling, but no dictionary has ever dealt a worthy definition to.
