Santana: just look up the word 'cool' in the dictionary

Before your time? Maybe. Irrelevant? I don't think so. Ask most famous lead guitarists in the world who they look up to and have been influenced by, and they'll mention Carlos Santana. If they don't, it's probably because that's taken as read. It's almost as if the questions was 'Who, apart from Santana, have you been influenced by?'

Born on July 20th 1947 Carlos Augusto Alves Santana made his name with the fusion of rock and Latin American music in the late 60s and early 70s. He played at Woodstock. You might have heard this before, one of my Desert Island discs for certain:

Some of the cleanest best defined guitar solos of all time in my opinion. He's also done a brilliant versions of Black Magic Woman and a great many other classics. Samba Pa Ti is one of his most famous and best. Really makes that Gibson SG sing I think.

The 1990s were something of a wilderness period but he staged a very strong return to prominence in 2000 when Supernatural won 9 Grammy awards including album and record of the year and Smooth became a major hit in the UK. I saw him that year at the NEC and it was amazing to see the combination of hardened rockers (like me) and kids who'd come to hear that 'pop' single. They were probably bored by the rest of the gig but the whole place came alive when they played this track! Kids eh? ;)

Anyway this is 'Put your lights on'. My suggestion would be; and the sound up - enjoy.