(1968 ‘fleetwood mac’ single)
(santana’s version, recorded in 1970, is a medley with gábor szabó’s 1966 instrumental “gypsy queen”, a mix of ‘jazz’, ‘hungarian folk’, and ‘latin’ rhythms)
(the song became one of santana’s staples and one of their biggest hits, with the single reaching #4 on the Billboard ‘Hot 100’ in ‘january 1971’)
(‘abraxas’ reached #1 on the charts and hit ‘quadruple platinum’ in 1986, partially thanks to “black magic woman”)
(“gypsy queen” was omitted from 1974’s Santana’s Greatest Hits album, even though radio stations usually play “Black Magic Woman” and “Gypsy Queen” as 1 song)
(while the song follows the same general structure of Peter Green’s version, also set in common time, in ‘D minor’ and using the same melody and lyrics, it is considerably different, with a slightly altered chord pattern (Dm7– Am7–Dm7–Gm7–Dm7–Am7–Dm7), occasionally mixing between the ‘dorian’ and ‘aeolian’ modes, especially in the song’s intro)
(a curious blend of ‘blues’, ‘rock’, ‘jazz’, ‘3/2 afro-Cuban son clave’, and “latin” polyrhythms, santana’s arrangement added ‘conga’, ‘timbales’ and other percussion, in addition to ‘organ’ and ‘piano’, to make complex polyrhythms that give the song a “voodoo” feel distinct from the original)
(the introduction of the song, which was adapted from szabó’s “Gypsy Queen”, consists of simple hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides on the guitar and bass, before moving into the introductory guitar solo of “black magic woman)
(after the introductory solo, which follows the same chord progression as the verse, the song moves into an eight-bar piano solo on D minor, and proceeds to 2 verses sung by keyboardist ‘gregg rolie’)
(2 verses of guitar solo follow the two sung verses, which are then succeeded by another verse, before moving into a modified version of the “Gypsy Queen” section from the beginning of the song to end the piece)
(‘rolie’ also performs a solo on the ‘Hammond B3 Organ’ in the middle of the song)
(there is also a single edit that runs for 3:15)
(on some radio versions the piano solo is omitted, and “gypsy queen” is sometimes omitted)
(other longer versions have since been released, including one which runs for 8:56)
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