Customer Reviews

Santana: The Woodstock Experience (2 CD)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of my favorite albums of all time by my favorite Santana line-up. The Legacy Edition of "Santana" is superior to this "Woodstock Experience" in every respect: notes, photos, bonus cuts, overall album package and most importantly, SOUND QUALITY!

The sound on the "Legacy Edition" is crisp, clean, vibrant and full of life. Disc 1 of this "Woodstock" package sounds thin, harsh and compressed, very much like the original CD edition of this album from the 1980s. Disc 2 consists of the complete Woodstock set, minus most of the announcements and stage chatter. Why? The set is only about 50 minutes long - wouldn't have maxed out the disc! You no longer feel like you are right there in the middle of this amazing set. The sound on Disc 2 is also bad, very harsh with drop-outs and other technical problems not found on "The Legacy Edition."

The mini-poster of the band only shows about half the members. They couldn't even get THAT right.

Reasons to buy this CD:

The live version of "Evil Ways" from the Woodstock set.

Suggestion: go with "Santana: The Legacy Edition," buy the live mp3 of "Evil Ways" from this set and load all of that into your mp3 player for hours of listening enjoyment!

In 2004, Sony Legacy Recordings released a 2-CD mini box set of Santanta (1969). The second disc contained the complete Woodstock performance (sans "Evil Ways")in perfect stereo sound, with all the stage banter as well as Chip Monck's announcements.

The producers of the Woodstock Experience version really messed with the recording. Not only did they create an inferior sounding mix, they also removed much of the stage banter. For example, Gregg Rolie famously announced "we have one more tune for you...it's called "Soul Sacrifice." This has been edited out of the Woodstock experience version. I think that's really criminal. There was no need to do this. Since the set was less than 80 minutes, why couldn't the producers just leave everything the way it was? Couldn't they just let it be? It would have been so much better that way.

If you can, try to find the 2004 Santana remaster box set. It has informative liner notes and preserves the Woodstock set in all its glory.

The two CD set of SANTANA: THE WOODSTOCK EXPERIENCE is truly evidence of a super group being launched into stardom. It includes the live Woodstock CD that runs almost 46-minutes and a replica CD of their debut album Santana--minus the bonus tracks which are on the live CD.

Although Santana was relatively unknown when they took the stage in the daytime at Woodstock, they soon won the crowd over with their blistering instrumentals like "Waiting," "Savor," "Jingo," "Fried Neck Bones And Some Home Fries," and the astronomical "Soul Sacrifice" (seen on Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director's Cut (40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition with Amazon Exclusive Bonus Disc), which blew me away and that's why I bought this set).

Unless you have no pulse (or no rhythm), you can't help but move your feet and/or bob your head to Santana's incredible live set at Woodstock. The songs "Evil Ways," "You Just Don't Care," and "Persuasion" feature vocals, and I like those songs a lot, but they don't compare to the music itself. Infectious beats that are driving and full of life; a perfect blend of Latin, Rhythm & Blues, Rock, Soul and even a little Gospel that's what Santana's music sounds like to me.

You can hear the audience go from polite applause to raucous, absolute cheering screams of appreciation and acknowledgment as the group continues on with their songs. By the end of their set, Santana blew the audience away and this CD is a testament to it.

Like the other CD sets of in the Woodstock Experience (Sly & The Family Stone: The Woodstock Experience (2CD) and Janis Joplin:The Woodstock Experience (2 CD))--I own and recommend both--Santana's comes with two CDs--live Woodstock set and Santana--which come in cardboard jackets and sleeves with liner notes, and housed inside a larger cardboard package. It also comes with a mini-fold out poster featuring the band onstage on one-side and the audience on the other.

Get this CD set and you'll see why Santana's Woodstock performance is legendary. I love it and I'm not even a Santana fan.

Clearly Santana was at his prime live here and to me there is no reason not to compare this to any live performance of Miles' from the "On the Corner" era until 1975. However, just like Miles this is not a series of unfocused jams but has a clearly controlled quality but to me is closer to fusion than rock (although yes this album clearly was listening material for the Mars Volta). Woodstock itself for those that can remember it (that would include audience members) when one listens to the full sets has some that have lessened over the years as Jefferson Airplane were past their prime as sadly was Jimi Hendrix (and he himself noted that the Woodstock performance was lacking, a far better official starting concert is "Live at Monterey"). Carlos Santana had however, clearly entered his musical prime (which he would remain at for a while) and live the experience is even better, taking the direction the Grateful Dead never really acheived (enjoy their music or not, there is not a stray moment here, this is focused realized material and with a similar rhythm section to Miles mid 70's bands, clearly the two were co-inspiring each other). Although not one of the more historically noted moments at Woodstock this was one its most inspired performances and for a band that wasn't performing a closing act but just becoming noted musically.

Carlos knew how to jam back at Woodstock and he still jams this day. This is as close to a live Woodstock experience that you can get

THE WOODSTOCK EXPERIENCE is a great recorded memento of the first important concert by Carlos Santana and his original band, even if the version of his debut album here isn't quite as exemplary as the Legacy 30th Anniversary Edition and the CD recorded at Woodstock is missing some of the on-stage banter that took place at the show. At least every song the band played at Woodstock is included, including "Evil Ways", which was missing from a similar CD included as a bonus disc in a 2004 Limited Edition. Rumor has it that this is a limited-edition CD, so get it while you can.

Well CBS/Sony finally got all the Santana Woodstock performance together on a single CD. Every song but Evil Ways had been previously been released. So to us true fans we are in effect paying for 1 song. The Best part of the performance is still Soul Sacrifice but granted that over the years having heard that the rest of the performance wasn't that good, I have to disagree. It is very much like other Santana performances from the same period that can be heard on live tapes and bootleg CDs.

Nice packaging with a fold out poster but why did they make the outer box bigger that a standard CD case? It doesn't fit on my shelf next to all the other prized Santana CDs

Its been said that the Woodstock performance broke Santana to the public at large. The performance is stunning, and given the circumstances, this recording is excellent. Only misses 5 stars because of what the band went on to do (and this is probably unfair).

Don't bother with this,get the better legacy 2 cd set,which has bonus
tracks on the second cd ,missing from this set,Well maybe if they didn't
screw up the mini sleeve(which they did) Why is it the Japanese seem
to be the only ones who can produce these the right way,with the correct
size,spine art ect