“Soul Sacrifice” by Santana

"Soul Sacrifice" closes Santana's 1969 debut album, an instrumental from the band's earliest days that Carlos Santana remembered them writing when bassist David Brown came aboard. The album credits the whole group, while BMI's records name Brown, Gregg Rolie, Carlos Santana and Marcus Malone, who was gone before the sessions.

It's a Latin rock rave-up that feels like a street party boiling over: Michael Carabello and José "Chepito" Áreas pounding congas and timbales, Brown's bass locked in, Rolie's organ circling Santana's stinging guitar until the two start finishing each other's sentences. Then it went to Woodstock, where the long guitar flights and Michael Shrieve's drum solo became one of the festival's highlights, in the documentary too. The 35th anniversary edition of the album gathers the studio cut, the Woodstock version and an alternate take.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.