Abraxas (album)
Abraxas is the second studio album by Latin rock band Santana. It was released on September 23, 1970 by Columbia Records and became the band's first album to reach number one in the United States. Title. The title of the album originates from a line in Hermann Hesse's book "Demian", quoted on the album's back cover: "We stood before it and began to freeze inside from the exertion. We questioned the painting, berated it, made love to it, prayed to it: We called it mother, called it whore and slut, called it our beloved, called  it Abraxas..." Songs. Carlos Santana had been interested in Fleetwood Mac's leader and songwriter Peter Green, having seen him perform at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, and decided to cover the band's song "Black Magic Woman". Both were influenced as guitarists by B.B. King. The band added a cover of Gabor Szabo's instrumental "Gypsy Queen" to the end. "Oye Como Va" was a hit by Tito Puente in the early 1960s and the group played it live regularly, as they realized it was good for audiences to dance to. "Incident at Neshabur" was co-written by  Santana and his friend Alberto Gianquinto, who played piano on the track. Gregg Rolie played the other keyboards, contrasting with Gianquinto's jazz-influenced style. It ran through various time and key signatures. The instrumental, "Samba Pa Ti" ("Samba for You"), was written by Santana after he saw a jazz saxophonist performing in the street outside his apartment. It was later covered by José Feliciano, who added lyrics, and also by Angélique Kidjo, who put lyrics in Yoruba, on her album "Oyo". It is also one of the tracks featured in Nick Hornby's book "31 Songs". Cover art. The  album cover features the 1961 painting "Annunciation" by German-French painter Mati Klarwein. According to the artist, it was one of the first paintings he did after relocating to New York City. Carlos Santana reportedly noticed it in a magazine and asked that it be on the cover of the band's upcoming album. On the back of the record sleeve the cover art is just credited to 'MATI'. It is now considered a classic of rock album covers. Klarwein went on to design album artwork for many notable artists, including Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Gregg  Allman. Critical reception. In both 2003 and 2012, the album was ranked number 207 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and then at number 334 in a 2020 edition of the list. In 2000 it was voted number 202 in Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums". The album was also included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". In 2015, the album was listed among "Billboard"s 50 Essential Latin Albums of the 50 Past Years. Rock critic Robert Christgau, in one of his capsule reviews in  The Village Voice, at the time of the album's release, gave it a rating of only C+, which denotes "a not disreputable performance, most likely a failed experiment or a pleasant piece of hackwork." Legacy. "Abraxas" was deemed "culturally, historically, or artistically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in their National Recording Registry in 2015. The album is briefly mentioned in the 2009 film "A Serious Man", though the film is set three years before the album was released. References. Citations Sources