Originally Posted by: SilimtaoFor your sake, I hope he's not stoned. When I saw him last, he barely played, and let the rhythm section just kinda take over.

I have on cassette a live concert by Santana from about 30 yrs ago- he went off on something like a 20 min solo that was simply amazing. Every note was spot-on with what was going on in the background, and he interwove melodies from things like something from the movie Mary Poppins...My Favorite Things, I think it was. He was just being playful. Sadly, I've never seen him do anything like that live.

Well I heard him in an interview recently commenting on his lack of soloing in live concert situations. Australian journalists don't beat around the bush, I know because I was one for 4 years :p. According to Santana, the reason he doesn't "go off" at concerts is because he wants to deliver a balanced performance to his entire audience, both male and female alike. He has the idea in his head that the guys in the audience want to hear him playing these long, sexy guitar solos but the girls in the audience just want to have something to dance along too. While I can see his point, I have to agree that his performances have tended to be very balanced and sit on the "female audience" side of the fence more. Anyway.. may be this comment will shed a little light on his reasoning behind what he is doing...