Evil Ways

The cover artist is so well known for it that one just assumes that he wrote it and originally recorded it, but nope.

Here is Willie Bobo with his original Evil Ways from 1967 on Verve Records.

You got to change your evil ways, baby, before I stop loving you.

You got to change, baby.

And every word that I say is true.

Baby.

Baby.

Evil Ways.

Bill Graham, we're talking about, was the man who put him at Woodstock, and there was no album anywhere to back it up.

Well, that didn't happen until 1969 when the world was introduced to Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman, and Oye Como Va.

The sound was so unique in its own right because the artist didn't play the guitar the traditional way.

He's been labeled the artist that created a brand-new language.

To this day, Carlos says he remembers little of that legendary performance.

Six days after Woodstock on August 22, 1969, Santana released its self-titled debut album featuring Jingo, Soul Sacrifice, and Evil Ways.

You've got

to change your evil ways

But the concert itself isn't what truly launched Santana.

A documentary about Woodstock arrived in March 1970, and movie audiences were stunned by Santana's performance of Soul Sacrifice.

Suddenly, millions could see the band's furious percussion driving the performance.

The film sent listeners back to Santana's debut album.

The band's early 1970s records had fused rock, blues, jazz, and Latin percussion in a way that nobody else quite sounded like.

Songs like Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman, Oy Como Va, and Everybody's Everything had made Santana a superstar.

But music was changing.

The 1970s were ending.

The band's appearance at Woodstock in 1969 had introduced millions of people to this incredible mixture of rock, blues, Latin, percussion, and improvisation.

Albums like Santana, Abraxas, and Santana III became classics, producing songs like Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman, Oya Como Va, and No One to Depend On.

Carlos also spent much of the 70s moving into jazz, fusion, and more experimental music.

By the 1980s and early 90s, Santana wasn't really part of the mainstream popular music anymore.

There are two Santana samples running through it.

Evil Ways is sampled alongside No One to Depend On, which is a lyrical sample-ation or an interpolation sample-ation.

A lyrical sample or interpolation.

You

Love

that.

evil ways came out in 1969 and went number nine on the hot 100 so it was a hit in its own right he spoke about clearing the sample in the dub cnn interview saying the sample clearance for menti rosa was not an issue as capital records had plenty of cash to pay the woman who controlled the body of work for evil ways and ain't got no body performed and written by the great rock legend carlos santana The sample was cleared for $45,000, and the rest is hip-hop history that is yet to be acknowledged by the MTVs or the BETs of the world mostly, so as Latinos, our struggle to be recognized by the mainstream continues on.

I feel like that's a bit harsh.