Search - Santana :: Forever Gold Live

Sounds Older

Russell Diederich | Littleton, CO United States | 05/22/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"There seems to be as many different flavors of "Forever Gold" as there are of ice cream at Baskin Robbins. This is not the double live album, and this is not the ten song single live album, but is indeed the eight song live album. Clocking in at nearly 70 minutes of live music, there is a lot of good Santana here. Unfortunately, the liner notes is nothing more than a single card with Santana's picture on the front, and the name of the tunes, who penned them and the playing time. This concert doesn't sound like it was recent, but I cannot tell when it was. The album begins with "Santana Jam" a quarter of an hour of Santana playing beautifully. The song is slow and the phrasing is relaxed and eloquent, what you would expect from Santana. The piano in the beginning sounds like it has a short in its line cord making it sound full of static. The cover of the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends" is powerful, but very similar to the original. "Hot Tomales" rocks out with Santana on a wha, and plying very fast. Santana gets very bluesy with the sixties sounding "Just Ain't Good Enough," complete with muffled vocals. The album concludes with a very raw version of "Evil Ways" sounding almost like it was bootlegged. I don't think the material for this album came from any one concert, but a variety of shows over the years. The sound quality isn't the best, most of the cuts sound like poor recordings or bootlegs. On the plus side, these cuts are raw and full of power, and great guitar work. For the price I picked it up for it was definitely worth adding to my Santana collection."