Black Magic Woman

Peter Green was born in 1946, influential blues rock guitarist who co-founded Fleetwood Mac back in 1967.

He wrote the instrumentals and tracks like Albatross and Black Magic Woman.

David Payton was born in 1947.

He is the lead singer and bassist for the group Pilot.

Your question from the last episode was this.

Everyone knows that Carlos Santana released a very famous version of Black Magic Woman, but which British band originally wrote and recorded the song? Was it A, Fleetwood Mac, B, The Yardbirds, C, Cream, or D, John Mayall's Blues Breakers? Well, John Mayall's Blues Breakers is particularly tempting because the man who wrote this song, Peter Green, played guitar in that band before forming his own.

And the guitarist he replaced in the Blues Breakers? That would be Eric Clapton, who went on to form another one of our options, Cream.

So there are a few crossed wires here to untangle, but we can also rule out the Yardbirds, because your answer is...

Now, if your mind immediately goes to Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham when you hear that name, we need to wind the clock back a little.

Before the enormous success of that lineup, Fleetwood Mac were a British blues band led by the amazing Peter Green.

Green wrote Black Magic Woman and the band released it as a single in 1968, two years before Santana recorded the version that appeared on Abraxas.

And if you've only ever heard Santana's take, go back and give the original a listen.

All right.

Speaking of black magic, Blinky writes, third party vote for black magic woman, either the original Fleetwood Mac or the Superior Santana version.

Who knows? Maybe we'll do a black magic woman versus evil woman next time.

Have we done evil woman yet? I feel like we haven't.

I don't think so.

Born October 29, 1946, in London, he replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayles' Blues Breakers before founding Fleetwood Mac.

He wrote classics including Black Magic Woman and Albatross.

His tasteful playing influenced curations of guitarists.

Green entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and died in 2020 at the age of 73.

Carlos Santana had been developing a fusion of blues, rock and Afro-Cuban rhythms since his breakthrough at Woodstock in 1969.

And his lead playing, such as on Black Magic Woman, sustained, vocal, warmly distorted, was a distinctive thread in the tapestry.

His tone has been called the most immediately recognizable guitar sound in rock after Hendrix.

There is truth to that.