Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of Our Time is the most recent album from Latin Rock band Santana. Formed around and led by guitar virtuoso Carlos Santana, the band first achieved success in the late 1960s — where they performed at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 — through the 1970s. Their best-selling album, 1999’s Supernatural, sold over 15 million copies in the U.S. and 27 million copies worldwide. While sometimes assuming a more classic American rock sound, Santana is distinctive for its base in Latin-influenced rock.
Guitar Heaven is a cover al- bum of 14 classic rock songs, such as Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” the Rolling Stones’ “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”, and Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love”, among others.
Santana is known for not hav- ing a lead singer and so employs the vocals of other popular musi- cians. But even after forty years of rock-godliness, Santana sounds as crisp and clean as ever. The way he glides over the guitar strings highly complements singer India. Arie’s smooth-as-silk vocals on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”; the song is particularly moving.
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma is also featured on the track. For a faster and more upbeat tune, “Whole Lotta Love,” featuring Soundgarden’s lead singerChris Cornell, is energetic and impassioned, but also miraculously restrained in parts: Santana never comes off like he’s trying to hit you over the head with his guitar playing, because the chords blend excellently with the rest of the band and Cornell’s vocals.
The signature guitar riffs of the Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love” are all there, with vocals supplied by Matchbox Twenty- lead singer Rob Thomas.
This collaboration is reminiscent of “Smooth,” an incredibly successful single from Supernatural, which also featured Thomas. Thomas’ somewhat raspy voice, combined with Santana’s raw guitar playing, as if he is about to burst through the track with vibrating energy, invokes all the grittiness of the Cream original.
An unexpected collaboration is on AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” with vocals supplied by rapper Nas.
Slightly cacophonous, the song sometimes sounds like Santana and Nas are fighting each other for the spotlight, and it is unclear exactly who should be listened to — Nas’ rapping or Santana’s guitar. An experimental blend of rock and hip hop, the song ultimately falls flat because of the disharmony of lead vocalist and lead guitarist.
The album ends with “Under the Bridge,” featuring Andy Vargas. The song was one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ biggest hits from their groundbreaking album BloodSugarSexMagik and propelled them into the mainstream. While the original has a soothing, undulating, almost hypnotic rhythm to it, Santana’s cover is more upbeat and happier-sounding.
With despondent lyrics writ- ten by Chili Peppers lead singer Anthony Kiedis concerning drugs and loneliness, Santana’s upbeat inflections seem a peculiar contrast.
It should be noted that each track — though every song is pure, unadulterated rock in its original form — has a clear Latin undertone, showing Santana’s (the guitarist as well as the band) ability to put a little bit of themselves and their style into established classics. Santana sounds as virtuosic as he ever has on the guitar, and A-list col- laborations make for an incredibly successful cover album.
