I think you guys are being too critical of Santana. I've got a few santana LPs and I really enjoy listening to them. Particularly 'moonflower'. This LP is a brilliant listen and really has a cool aura surrounding it, songs like 'shes not there' are so involving, its just a load of people getting together and playing music that they love, which is in this case latin.

I dont listen to santana and say to myself 'is this a solo or a lick? whatever it is, its bad' I listen to it as a whole thing and get the latin feel, if you see the older sets of his, he has so many bongo players on set, and its like one big free-for-all, its absolutely stunning to watch.

Sure, he's hardly the best player out there, and I can fully admit that, but I find the music he writes always has a lasting effect, and his playing isn't as bad as you guys are making it out to be.

Just be a bit more open-minded to listen to it as a whole, because it definately isn't all about guitar solos.