The Grateful Dead had already been playing a fiery set at the Aztec Bowl on the UCSD campus back on May 11, 1969 (check out the video of the opening Morning Dew), when Michael Carabello and Chepito Areas joined the band on congas for Alligator and Lovelight. Santana, along with Canned Heat, Lee Michaels, and the local band Tarantula, had shared the bill with the Dead, which explained two of Santana’s drummers mixing it up with Billy, Mickey, and the rest of the boys. The music that ensued is raw and fiery. And unlike most visits from drummers – save Hamza El Din – the guests have a significant effect on the sound, Carabello and Areas adding an elemental and bacchanal drum circle quality to the tunes.
Pigpen quickly enters into the vocals on Alligator, and it takes a bit before Carabello and Areas really make their presence felt. But three minutes in, a jam ensues with the congas front and center. This only heightens the primordial feel of Alligator and seems to spur Jerry on as he winds his way through the mucky waters and darkened thickets alongside the thrilling, cacophonous beat. But after a few more minutes, Jerry cedes the stage to the drummers, who, barreling onwards, eventually ascend out of Alligator. And as they soar above the canopy, suddenly, Phil’s thumping bass sounds, leading everyone, pied-piper style, into Lovelight.
At times in Lovelight, Pig – who was likely on congas himself – has to battle the drummers and feedback just to deliver the vocals. But for most of the song, the entire band and their guests are enmeshed in a headlong rush, brilliantly blasting away on the Lovelight theme as Pig bellows the lyrics with his characteristic bawdy and feverish ferocity. And while Pig is around for the entire song, in the latter part of the tune someone – perhaps Carabello or Areas, but just as likely another guest from the undercard – repeatedly screams out “turn on your lovelight” in an un-melodic, frantic sort of release. And finally, after sixteen minutes plus of full throttle raging, the Dead and their guests close out the song and the set with a crescendo culminating with a last soulful scream from Pig.
Born to Puerto Rican parents in San Francisco, Carabello got into drumming on the streets and docks of the city and met Carlos Santana in high school. In fact, Carabello claims it was he who first got Carlos to form his first band, which would evolve into Santana by 1967. It was during this formative period that the band developed, in gigs around the Bay Area, their powerful, high energy mix of guitar and drums with Afro-Caribbean and Latin influences.
Opening for the Dead and Canned Heat at the Aztec Bowl in 1969 was actually the first time Santana had played outside northern California. But it was just a few months before Santana exploded onto the national stage after flooring the 400,000-strong Woodstock crowd with their amazing set. With the newfound success, Santana toured steadily while charting singles off their 1969 first album, Santana, and Abraxas, released the following year.
However, as drummer Michael Shrieve explained, “We were young and misguided. We didn’t have the abilities or the maturity to know how to deal with that kind of success and everything that goes with it at such a young age.” Namely, the problem was drugs. And by the time Santana went into the studio to record their third album, bassist David Brown had already been fired when his heroin habit started impacting his playing.
While recording the third album, Santana practically self-destructed in the face of rampant coke use. As Carlos said about those sessions, “You either show up late, or you’re too over-the-top with drugs to play.” They did manage to record the eponymous album, which was released in September 1971. However, Carlos had reached his limit.
On the eve of the tour in support of the new album, Carlos delivered an ultimatum to his bandmates: “I’m not going unless we get rid of [manager] Stan Marcum and Michael Carabello, because they’re supplying the band with the heavy stuff and we sound like shit…Either those guys are out or I’m out.” The band promptly left, choosing to tour with Carabello and the drugs rather than their star guitarist and namesake.
A month into the tour, as the drugs got out of control, the music suffered, and crowds shied away from a Carlos Santana-less Santana, the rest of the members of the band finally realized they had to act. They voted to deep six Carabello in order to woo Carlos back.
Carabello went on to play with numerous other musicians, including Elvin Bishop, Boz Scaggs, Buddy Miles, the Steve Miller Band, and the Rolling Stones (contributing on their 1981 Tattoo You album). He also started teaching and making art.
Inducted into the Rock and Hall of Fame with the rest of Santana in 1998, Carabello rejoined the band for the 2016 reunion album, Santana IV. He has also put out two albums of his own – Carlos sitting in on one track – in recent years.
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