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ALBUMS: Santana self- titled debut (1969); Abraxas (1979); Love Devotion Surrender w/John McLaughlin (1973); Greatest Hits (1976); Marathon {1979); Havana Moon (1986).

MVC Rating: Santana 4.5 /$$$$ ; Abraxas 4.5/$$$; Love Devotion Surrender 3.5/$$$; Greatest Hits 4.5/$$$$; Marathon 3,5/$$; Havana Moon 4.0/$$$.

Carlos Santana, the Mexican born singer and guitarist, made his bones at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. The young Santana wowed the crowd with his laser sharp guitar runs backed by an ocean of congas. On Soul Sacrifice, Santana had the hippies dancing much faster than they were used to.

He went on to fame and fortune as his debut album came out almost simultaneously with Woodstock. If there’s been a criticism of Santana, keeping him from the very elite of rock guitarists in some people’s minds, is that there’s a sameness in his playing. Listen to his 90’s hit ‘Supernatural’ and then play Black Magic Woman off of Abraxas and you will see what the critics may be talking about. But in my mind that argument has little merit. He’s got a style like other elite guitarists and some go-to moves, but you don’t think Eric Clapton falls in that construct as well? Or, how about Mark Knopfler? When Knopfler plays, no matter the song, you can instantly recognize it.

Santana’s style is fluid and the tone is silky smooth. He enhances the songs and doesn’t overrun them.

If you’re looking to get into Santana I’d recommend the debut album and/or Santana’s Greatest Hits, although you can’t go wrong with ‘Abraxas as well.’

I’d skip the John McLaughlin project with guru Sri Chimnoy — too many roads going nowhere. One of the better Santana albums (although deemed too commercial by the snobbish types) is 1979’s Moonflower with a straight rock cover of the Zombie’s psychedelic ‘She’s not There.’

I saw Santana way back in the 1970s in concert in Atlanta, but it was marred by poor acoustics at the Civic Center. I saw him many years later, not in concert, but drivjng by in his convertible luxury car (believe it was a Jaguar) in Marin County, Calif., where my family lived while my wife was going to seminary.

Santa’s brother plays guitar in a band called ‘Malo, which I wrote about here.

He plays very much like his younger ‘bro.’

I’m running behind. Still going to get soon the stories about my new medicine but it’ll be a few days. Should have my audit/song count up tomorrow.

While I have you now seems as good a time as any to warn of typos. Big fat ugly how-did-he-miss that typos. Sometimes I fix them sometimes I don’t see them until a year later. Technically this is a sympom of my disease. So I apologize for all present past and future typos.

Some stories I have more typos than I do clean sentences. So in that case I will change the clean grammar to a typo. Just kidding.

Do not adjust your bifocals.

Health care reform aimed at eventually providing universal care is back under President Biden with some rare and unexpected support: groups: Doctors, lawyers and insurers.

What you say?.

ICYMI, in the New York Times National Edition for Thursday — which my wife purchased at the Clairmont Piggly Wiggly — there’s this headline on page A 20:

Health Care Industry Groups Joining in Rare Coalition, Urge Obamacare Buildup.

The Times says the coalition is made up of eight groups, including the America’s Health Insurance Plans, the American Medical Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

These groups historically have been opposed to legislation that would expand health care. It’s the money, they have maintained. We can’t afford it. It is socialized medicine, they said. Never mind that we already have universal care but in a most inefficient way.

The global flu pandemic brings these points into high relief .re front. The pandemic has created billions of patients in need of health/medical care. The industry groups’ constituents were overrun in nearly every way. The so-called best health care in the world — that found in the United States — came up short. We have to do better.

Expanding Medicaid or however you want to create universal health care means more paying customers. So, I salute the industry groups for coming to their senses, whatever the motivation.

In a footnote, it was reported last week more than 30 Blue Cross/ Blue Shield affiliates settled for $2.7 billion in a lawsuit alleging monopolistic practices. I’m sure that settlement was just one more ingredient in the recipe for this new- found cooperative look at reforming health care.

BTW, this national class action suit started in Alabama. Some may remember when AL.com published the salaries and bonuses of the top 10 Alabama BC/BS executives — all were more than $1 million. That didn’t go over top well. with the nonprofit insurer as they slipped in legislation which allowed Blue Cross in Alabama to keep those salary numbers secret.

ALBUMS: Diana Ross Greatest Hits (1976); The Supremes ‘Where Did Our Love Go.’ (1964)

MVC RATING: Ross, 3.5/$$; Supremes ‘Where Did Our Love Go.’ 4.5/$$$$

Doggone it. And gone is it. I was going to try and finish a Diana Ross and Diana Ross and the Supremes review yesterday — a few days after Supreme Mary Wilson died on April 8.

But soon as I hit send to post it, it disappeared. And then later it did the same thing. Computer error, operator error, probably a combo. So I’m just going to tell you what I wrote so I won’t have to write it again.

I have an old Supremes album (actually think I inherited this with/from my wife.) And (also likely, I have a solo Diana Ross album inherited).

I basically said if you are just getting started collecting the Supremes you can find all sorts of compilations and anthologies. Heck, they had 12 No. 1 singles.

Number 1!

They are easily the most popular all-female band in history. You can see I only have two albums but I also have an anthology of Motown that includes some more Supremes. Many of the Supremes songs came from the Dozier Holland Dozier songwriting team, part of the Motown hit-making machine.

I was going to write that the Ross solo album wasn’t as great as the Supremes stuff. I like — ‘Touch Me in the Morning; I like, ‘Last Time I Saw Him,’ ‘Love Hangover’ is too disco for me and the theme from the movie Mahogany is just too much everything.

So I was going to say yesterday to get the anthologies and get familiar with all of the old stuff: ‘Where did Our Love Go,’ ‘I Hear a Symphony,’ and ‘Stop in the Name of Love’ to name just a few. There now you know a little bit about what I was going to post yesterday.

I have been busy not ill, thank God. So, I haven’t been making progress on my post count. Will be coming as well as the ‘big reveal’ — the medication that has worked over my roguish Lewy body proteins like the young Cassius Clay worked over Sonny Liston.

ALBUM: ‘Especially for You’

MVC RATING: 4.5/$$$

What do you do when you cross Elvis Costello with a group of New Jersey rockers promising to blast everything to Smithereens Well that’s what you get: the Smithereens, who started with a bang with this album.

I’ll stipulate the entire debut is good music, good on the ears with British invasion la la choruses and wall of sound guitar chording. Sadly, they never again quite caught the wave that was 1986.

On this first album, ‘Blood and Roses’ and ‘Wall of Sleep are among the best examples of their style with guitarist and vocalist Pat DeNizio setting the tone literally with his voice.

I am going to do some counting over the next few days to see how close I am to my stated goal of 678, which was how many albums I had when I started MyVinylCountdown.com in 2016.

I was diagnosed in 2015, first with Parkinson’s Disease and then shortly thereafter: Lewy body dementia. A degenerative brain disease, Lewy is a killer. I vowed to stay alive long enough to review all of my records I have avidly been accumulating all my life. It’s been a while since I checked, and it was slowed down considerably during an especially difficult period in August, September and October.

So going in and out of reality kind of slowed me down. But now I amack urge folks new to this blog to check out the About Me button for more info.

So I will try to have a number soon. I will also have a piece on how I am holding my own against Lewy and will name one of the medications that has brought me back.

NOTE: I found a stash of ‘R’s” that I had overlooked, so I will intermittently mix R’s and the S’s together as I make my way to Z.

ALBUM: Can’t Buy a Thrill (1975); Gold (1982)

MVC RATING: 4.5/$$$$,$; 4.5/$$$$

NOTE: Turns out I did have another Steely Dan lurking in my growing: Gold, a very nice, concise best of compilation.

Could it be possible I only have one album of this band?

This is their debut album and certainly one of the best — but all of their albums are ‘one of the best.’ Amazing musicians and songwriters Steely Dan (namely Don Fagan and Walter Becker) incorporated jazz, rock and Latino sounds with engimatic lyrics into a fusion that maintained commercial appeal.

The songs ‘Reeling in the Years,’ Do it Again’ and ‘Dirty Work, were hits for the group off of this album. Add to that their later hits, ‘Rikki Don’t Lose that Number,’ ‘Hey Nineteen,’ ‘Bodhisattva,’ ‘Dr. Wu’ and ‘Kid Charlemagne,’ and so on, and so on. Pretty soon we have a pretty good soundtrack of the 1970s and 1980s. They enjoyed critical claim all the while selling 40 million albums.

I only can find this one album in my collection, I think I have more because I have a 90-minute mixtape of the group that my broken cassette machine will no longer allow me to play. One of my favorites off ‘Can’t Buy a Thrill.’

ALBUM: Water Under the Bridge

RATING: 3.5/$$

Dutch artist with high jazzy, lounge-y, Joni Michell sort of a thing here. The music is wispy and takes on the undercutting nature of ambient music. She sings beautifully. But I haven’t listened to the artist in more than 30 years so I can’t rate this too high or too low to be fair. Maybe if I got to know it better — but that is part of what I’m trying to do here. Get to know some hidden gems lurking in m y own collection. It appears Jane Fonda was moved by her:

Sometimes when the words are gone, all you have is music. Sometimes all you need is music. Me being me and into music waaay more than average non musician, I used to communicate through mixtapes.

This mixtape I gave to my wife, Catherine, many years ago.  It has helped me during this Lewy time. Many of the songs are of a spiritual nature which my wife, a pastor, would appreciate. (This is mostly music I have digitally, burned to CD from other CDs.)

Father and Son – Cat Stevens

Fields of Gold – Eva Cassidy

If You Want Me to Stay – Sly Stone

That Could’ve Been Me – Tonio K.

Day by Day – Godspell soundtrack

Pink Moon – Nick Drake

Raina – Peter Himmelman

What a Wonderful World – Eva Cassidy

Down South – A Brief View of the Hudson

The Lion Sleeps Tonight – NSYNC

Amazing Grace – the Five Blind Boys of Alabama

Hallelujah – Jeff Buckley

Mary Don’t you Weep – Bruce Springsteen

Psalm (He Turned the Rock} – Michelle Shocked

One Love – Bob Marley

Morning Star/For all the Right Reasons – Jayhawks

The Cross – Five Blind Boys of Alabama

Different Drummer – Hoff/Sweet

Like a Child  – Jars of Clay

Come on Home – Indigo Girls

ALBUM: Bombs away Dream Babies (Stewart 1979)

RATING 3.5/$$

ALBUM: Rock and Roll Enforcers (Silencers 1980)

RATING: 3.0/$$

A 2-for-1 as I race against time to review the 678 albums I have been collecting since childhood. No connection between Stewart out of California and the Silencers from Scotland. Only similarity, they both had minor hits, if not moderately successful careers.

Heck, the bass player for the Silencers is a cousin of Jim Kerr, frontman for Simple Minds. But Stewart, scores bigger with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks actually playing on his album. They are not relatives though.

Stewart’s album generated several hits including the cut, Gold. Album is solid LA soft or medium rock and roll. You can hear Buckingham whipping out guitar licks trying to make these songs come alive. Sometimes they do.

The Silencers haven’t aged as well. Their guitar and synth based 80s sound takes on too much sameness. They do have a killer version of the Peter Gunn Theme Song. But most of the time you are just waiting for them to be silenter.