Carlos Santana: A Child of the ‘60s

I'm also kind of afraid of your answer, but I'm just going to ask you the question because I love you unconditionally.

How do you feel about like hippies?

Well, if it isn't my good friend the loaded ask a.

Question, I swear it's not loaded at all.

I mean, like when you were growing up, like what was your perception of hippies? And I asked that because like, as Latinos, that is a very like Americana word, especially growing up, like I didn't know, No, my deals weren't hippies.

My mom wasn't a hippie.

I was going to say the same thing, like.

Hustlers yes, hard workers yes, but like what we think of as like kind of like a nineteen seventies would stock attending, peace love, flower power, hippie.

Right, That's what I mean.

You know I had seen hippies, I guess when I was more in high school because things from the sixties and seventies, the hippies. I mean it was my family that were kind of dressed like solos.

Oh.

They were like like like my grandpa was like like a zoot shooter, so he was more like gangster looking more like a cholo with like the gray and black stripe cholo shirt than like hippie. So I mean I remember probably hippie as being maybe in middle school.

Yeah.

I think for me, the association with hippies came from my mom and my dad because my parents are on the younger side.

They had me super young.

They had me at like twenty and so my parents were like disco queens, right.

Like they they weren't hippies.

They were like living love de loca in like the discotheca.

Not like at Woods peace and love not peace.

I mean, yes, they're peaceful and they're loving, but they were not like peace love, flower power, like a lot of pot kind of people Like that's just not there. So my association with hippies was exactly that, right, It was that very much kind of like what you saw in like documentaries or in the movies, very like almost famous is like the definition of hippie for me, right, Like that's what she was. Okay, So now that we're kind of like in this era, do you catch where I'm going with this?

Mm hmm kind of okay. So now that you've brought me into the Volkswagen Van, where are you actually trying to take us here?

I am taking you on a road trip from southwestern Mexico up across the border to San Francisco and far far beyond to follow the life of none other than Carlos Santana.

Dang Leana.

That transition was smooth, just like the ocean under the moon.

Okay, okay, let's keep it moving.

Okay, I didn't do his lyrics justice at all. Delete that part please, all right. So here's the thing. Carlos Santana's life and career is the very definite of a sixties seventies rock star, from.

His chance performance at a certain generation defining music festival, to the blown up egos that quickly blew up.

His band, to the stints with guru's failed comebacks, and a later in life renaissance that introduced him to a new generation.

As a guitarist. Santana's iconic sound sent him soaring until the pressures of fame and the music industry sent him tumbling, but his spiritual yearning sent him on a constant search for me.

He's an artist who follows his heart, leading to some very unforgettable places.

And along the way, he fused Latin sounds in rhythms with rock music of his day the man opened doors, Hanny.

Yeah, he even opened doors to the spirit realm.

Sorry what I said?

What I said.

We'll get there, Patience, Joseph, patience.

This spirit grewstes looks a little too.

Good on you, I know, right, thank you?

All right, you guys, Let's get into the fantastic journey of Carlos Santana.

I'm your host Lilianavoscaz.

And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon.

A weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on how today's most famous LATINV stars have shaped pop culture.

And given the world some.

Extra level Sit back and get comfortable.

Because we are going in the only way we know how, with buenass.

Him, Buenasriesas, and a lot of opinions.

As we relive their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what makes them so iconic. Carlos Santana was born on July twentieth, nineteen forty seven.

Mm hmmm, hold on, let me see. As a cancering son, Santana is a sensitive person, easily influenced by his environment and protective of his feelings. As a Leo Moon, He's generous, warm, hearted and loyal to those he loves, a friends for life to those who win his trust.

His birthplace of Atlanta Nevado, in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, is a small city with under one hundred thousand citizens.

Humble, hot and dry.

Sounds like Alpaca.

It does.

It's the birthplace of Gasmito Castillo, a Mexican revolutionary from whom the nearby city of Gazmito gets its name, as well as revolutionary general Paulino Navaki.

It's also home to composer Ermo Hernandez, winner of the nineteen fifty three Premio Jalisco, and the poet Rogaciano Arias.

And that's about all there is to say about outline. Really, it's a small robote city and it's here where Carlo Santana grew up with six siblings.

As the middle child, Carlos says he often got away with things that other kids didn't. In a Rolling Stone interview conducted in two thousand, Carlos surmises that it may have been because his father knew his son would be a musician.

Carlos's father, Jose Santana, was a Mariacci violinist.

Carlos would say that his first memory of him was quote watching him play music and watching what it did to people. He was the darling of our town. I wanted that that charisma that.

He had, so would teach his son to play the violin, who would also tell him stories. Carlos's favorites were the stories about tigers. These stories, Carlos says, taught him how to create tension as a musician.

But Carlos would miss jose when he was away playing music, remembering his hugs on the way he smelled.

In his words, your dad becomes your first god.

He also recalls the rhythm of his mother, flos Fina scolding him, which inspired him of his early guitar solos.

Note to future teenage Sandi buddy, First of you shouldn't be listening to this podcast.

You're too little, but you're welcome.

While learning the violin gave carlos a strong set of musical fundamentals. He quote hated the way it smelled, the way it sounded, and the way it looked. Three strikes.

I feel like those are your three strikes on any guy.

No, Well, if Joseph does not like the way you smell or the way you sound, like you're out listen.

I was just quoting Santana.

Okay, okay, sorry, I thought those were just your dating deal breakers.

Okay, you know perfectly well that's my three strikes, okay.

All right.

Well, Luckily for Carlos Santana, he wouldn't stick with the violin for very long. He would discover the guitar as well as the music of Richie Vallins, best known for his nineteen fifty eight hit but.

La La La la Bamba?

Did you just ab li? Did you just go? Butta but alma?

My parents would be very, very sad.

I'm sad for them.

A Mexican American guitarist from California's San Fernando Valley, Valence had scored a hit on both sides of the border, taking a folk song from Vera Cruz, Mexico and injecting it with a rock and roll rhythm.

An approach that Carlo Centena himself would use to great success early in his recording career.

Richie Vallens was an early pioneer in Chicano rock music aka the term we used to describe Mexican and Mexican American rock artists in the fifties and sixties.

Chicano rocks roots run through border towns where cultures clashed and mixed.

Remember back in our Celia Cruz episode, we talked about radio's power as a star making vehicle. Well, radio also brought new sounds to new audiences, and in border towns, radio often turned Mexicans onto the sounds of American blues, R and B and of course rock and roll.

Well, wait, isn't Carlo Santana's hometown like far as Hell from the border?

Yes, I wouldn't call it a ordered down, But when Carlos was seven years old, his family packed up and moved to the Juana in Baja California, Mexico, which as far back as the fifties has been a hotspot for tourists from across the border aka San Diegans and especially military men stationed in any number of Southern California's military bases.

As a tourist town, Tijuana was where the money was for musicians like Carlos's father, and.

Apart from shining shoes and selling gum on the street, Carlos would play music along with his dad to earn money for his family.

This line of work would bring Jose and Carlos to the seedier corners of Tijuana.

Uh yeah, Dijuana was a completely different world from Autlan in Outland. Carlos had played the violin in church.

In Tijuana, his father brought him to play music in brothels. Carlos describes these spaces as having no floor, just dirked tables, black some cigarettes because there were no ash trays.

Damn.

Carlos was a exposed to a lot during his time in Tijuana, some of which he would spend his whole life recovering from.

Eventually it would all be too much for him.

At fourteen years old, Carlos was playing another ceed joined with his dad.

Sick to his stomach.

He took a stand and told his father he didn't want to play at places like this anymore.

It was the first time he had ever tuk back to his father his quote unquote first God. His father told him he was just like his mother and told him to leave.

And Carlos did.

Going his own way, he would find a nightly gig playing a local strip club from four in the afternoon till six in the morning. I mean it's an upgrade, but like not a big upgrade.

No really really, He worked there for two or three years and gave the money to his mother.

And, noting her son's passion for playing the guitar, Carlos's mom decided to take him to see a local band at a bar.

So many cool moms this season. Celia's mom support her night club ambitions. Selena's mom supports her. Looks now, here's Antenna's mom taking her kid to see a cool band.

I'm telling you it is the mom's.

You're going to be a cool mom. I'm sorry going you are present tense now. That band that he went to see was the one as a very first rock and roll group, Los Tiyas, led by the young man who would become Carlos's guitar teacher and musical mentor, Javier Battis.

But These would eventually come to be known as the father of Mexican rock music, not because he would blow up the charts or tour across the world, but because he would teach hundreds of aspiring roquatos to shred, including Carlos Nan.

But at this point in his career, But These was just a kid.

With a band that played locally and every so often would cross the border to San Diego for battle of the bands. Remember how he talked about the importance of radio well yours earlier, But these had stumbled across the station x E a h one when his mother had asked him to shut off the radio one night.

Just before his hand reached the volume nob he heard the opening licks of the station's blues block, and his life forever.

Changed that night at the bar, but these and Carlos Santana became fast friends. Carlos started taking lessons from Buthis, who taught him everything he knew and eventually invited Carlos to join the DIA's band as a bassist.

Decades later, Santana would say abouttis, he looked like little Richard and played guitar like BB King. There were a lot of guitar slingers from Tijuana with that sound. But when I heard him, I knew I would be a musician for the rest of my life.

Hearing this quote without being told who said it.

But these would laugh and exclaim, that's my little brother, that's Carlos.

Even though they are time together in the band was short lived. Carlos had found a lifelong friend and a new confident musical direction.

Javiet Bethi's would move to Mexico City and keep spreading the gospel of rock, while Carlos and his family would move again, this time to San Francisco.

And though Carlos was understandably upset at yet another upheople, it was in San Francisco that he would meet several more idols and mentors and discover his own sound. So basically, if it wasn't for Javier Abatis, we wouldn't have Carlos.

Santana exactly, which I think is why so many of our icons have mentors, and even just people that aren't icons, like mentors, I think are a really important part of how we develop professionally and personally.

Do you have a mentor or do you have a mentor from your past?

That is a great question, and the answer is yes for sure. I mean, I think I have many mentors, But the one that really comes to mind right off the top of my head is probably the person responsible for like getting me on the Today Show. And that was my old executive producer at a show called New

Wow.

Actually, it's funny. I never call her my mentor.

I always she always said that she was my rabbi because like she was my lead, you know what I mean. Like she was like, rabbis do so much more. And she was like, I'm so much more than a mentor. I'm like your rabbi.

I love that.

I know what about.

You I have. I have different mentors. I mean, one of you are a mentor to me because I mean I look up to you so much. You have reinvented yourself so many times. I mean you have worked the Oscars and have Emmy's and all of this really cool stuff. You have up and moved and have a kid, and I mean, honestly, you are a mentor. And I don't think ours is going to run its course because it's gonna last forever. But I do remember having to saving

A while the past, m Agrath, Yeah.

And I would do the backstage shows with her, And I remember working my last show and just being like this is it, Like I don't want to I don't want to go to Paris. I don't want to do this. And I remember her she had a feeling I was leaving, and I remember we gave each other a hug and she looked at me and she goes Joseph the biggest Stars go with me to Paris. And I never spoke to her again, not bad, not nothing. Yes, that was

And I think any good mentor mentee relationship eventually runs its course because you learn what you need to learn from them, right, And I always think it's interesting when like the mentee then is able to become a mentor

He would discover that sound during his early years in the city he would come to call home San Francisco.

Now today, many people think of San Francisco as like tech central, right, It's like where all of like the apps that you use every day on your phone were invented. You think of Silicon Valley. But for generations, it's reputation was more the.

Grateful Dead, Harvey Milk, anti war protests, civil rights protests, environmental protests, hippies, the summer of love.

Writing for sf Gate, David Koran called San Francisco in the nineteen sixties ground zero for those looking to tune in, turn on, drop out. In other words, it was the epicenter for the counterculture that we associate with the nineteen sixties.

And it was in the epicenter of the San Francisco Latino community, the Mission District, where Carlos and his family found themselves living.

Carlos reluctantly enrolled in the local middle school, where he would learn English and find it difficult to connect with kids around him.

Well. Carlos liked to talk to older folks about the Blues Master as he worshiped. He says, his teenage peers would talk about quote, playing hooky and stealing cars and doing some pimple beach boys stuff that didn't make any sense to him.

But he stayed focused on the musical dream he had nurtured in Tijuana. Upon graduating high school, he decided not to go to college, instead taking a job washing dishes for a restaurant to save up money for a Gibson.

Les Paul Junior think of the hours he spent at that scene, scrubbing dishes and imagining himself playing like all of his favorites on the radio.

I know right.

And after scrimping and saving and dreaming, and night after night of dry, pruney fingers over that dishwasher, he finally buys his dream guitar.

Yes, And then his brother's friend comes to his house. And sits on it.

No, I know, right, I mean enough, I hate that, like, oh, you.

Work so hard.

Understandably, Carlos and his brother fought for weeks, but ultimately his brother bought him a replacement and an amplifier.

I have a feeling Mom had something to do with that move.

You better teach Fante to be nice like that. Hi?

Is this the non parent giving the parent advice?

Anyway, Carlos continued washing dishes and bussing tables. Then one night a particular group of customers walked into the restaurant. But it wasn't just any group, it was The Grateful Dead.

There Carlos was in his dirty apron and his hapuni it definitely guitar callis fingers, bussing tables. He thought to himself, if they can be musicians, I can be a musician.

Cut to Carlo's quitting, pushing past the front door of the restaurant, bawling up his apron and tossing it in the trash.

With the Grateful Dead playing on the soundtrack.

Totally, I feel like I only know one Grateful Dead song, and I can't think of it right now.

Anyway, We're not doing a bit as he tells it, Carlos really did quit his job that night. From then on, he threw himself into San Francisco's music scene.

Carlos started busking in hate Ashbury, the neighborhood that would soon become associated with the Summer of Love. He would play covers of popular songs and collect money in a half.

His hall is modest enough for wine and pizza. Outside of busking, he would spend his time at a now historic music venue, the Fillmore. And it's here where he finds a musical community and meets his future band.

Meets at the Fillmore, he gets to see his heroes on stage, Baby King, A Grateful Dead, Miles Davis, Jimmy Hendricks, the Doors, Jesus Christ, even British bands like Pink Floyd and the Who.

Listen, it was a groovy scene. Man.

I think you're just reading the script.

I am just reading the script, okay, but I wanted to do it very seventies.

All right, well, it's really good. It was a great effort. I allawed you, but listen. It's true. The Filmore is a big deal. Andy Warhol put up an installation there.

Hunter S.

Thompson references it in fear and loathing in Las Vegas, and more than just seeing them on stage, Carlos was bumping elbows with heroes like BB King.

Then, through a stroke of luck, Carlos Santana's schoolboy dreams of going on stage at the film Wore finally became a reality.

Blues musician Paul Butterfield was scheduled to perform a de matinee with his band. But Butterfield, according to Santana's telling of the story, was too stoned to play.

Been there, Done that? But that is some sixties shit for a real If.

You told me this was taken from the screenplay of Almost Famous, I would one thousand percent believe it.

Right, Okay, So here's what happened.

The owner of the Filmore, Bill Graham, cobbles together this like ad hoc band. He contacts the Filmore's heavy hitting regulars like the Dead and Jefferson Airplane, desperate to fill the slot, and somebody just recommends Carlos. By the way, the power of someone mentioning your name when you are not in the.

Root totally true. And this is the moment Carlos has been waiting for. The crowd is stunned by his plane.

And so is Bill Graham, who would go on to become the manager for the band that would bear Santana's name.

Carlos formed the Santana Blues Band along with four fellow Street musicians, bassist David Brown, drummer Marcus Malone, and singer organist Greg Rawley.

Now, are you like Carlos in the sense that were you working a quote unquote day.

Job to make sure that you could still do your side hustle.

You know, I didn't know my day job was my side hustle because I didn't know until a light switch turned on that I could really be a makeup artist, see like I could really do it, or like I could really be a facialist and like not like feel like it's work. It's like where I am making a difference. Yeah.

What I love about our icons is they are so solid in their conviction that like they are going to be famous musicians. Like there wasn't a backup plan, There wasn't a plan B. They weren't like you know what I'm gonna you know, like I'm gonna be a dentist if this doesn't work, if this music thing doesn't work out for me. Carlos Santana will be doctor Santana, Like that wasn't happening.

He was like, I will be a musician.

And obviously it's a little bit of like right place, right time, because he was at the center of it all. And listen, we can't travel back in time to the Filmore in the nineteen sixties, as much as we all want to, but those early days of the Santana Blues Band were captured over four nights of live recordings in nineteen sixty eight.

In case you do want to travel back.

And I just might, I might take some advice from the Stoner of Top. But anyways, in Live at the Fillmore nineteen sixty eight, you can hear the blues rock sound that dominated the venue and which the Santana Blues Band cut its teeth on. But you can also hear the beginnings of the Santana sound.

The very first track, Jingo, would be the first single off the group's debut album. The song's heartbeat is its conga drum, over which Santana's guitar soars in an intro solo. Then later in the song there's a rhythm section breakdown. Everything goes silent, but the bass the Kunga and the Shaker.

Carlos Sentthana brought Latin rhythms to the hippies and rockers of the film Moore, and would soon do the same for young listeners all across the country, just like his childhood idol Richie Allens brought La Bomba to the masses in the fifties.

The Santana Blues Band quickly became simply Santana, and Carlos's name was.

About to become known to millions.

Next time on Becoming an Icon Santana and as Rockstar, Dreams, Nightmares and Realities. Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael Duda podcast network. Listen to Becoming an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.