PLEASE insist on getting Gregg a co-lyricist. He simply doesn't have the range to come up with lyrics that match the mood of songs like "Forgiveness" and "Blues Magic." I have no problem at all with his voice, but his words ruin those songs for me. It's like someone let their thirteen-year-old son come up with the lyrics and they just don't match the maturity and mood of the music at all.
Even "Shake It" and "Choo Choo" end up being variations on the "Anywhere You Want to Go" theme of a guy in his late sixties trying to remember back fifty years to his teenage aspirations of hooking up.
And that's beside the point that he frequently uses "filler" phrases (the equivalent of "um" in public speaking). I would guess he uses the word "whoa" around fifty times on Santana IV. It's actually part of the chorus on "Anywhere" and at one point he uses "Whoa... mmm-hmmmm... yeah" as an actual line in a song.
There's a reason that all of Santana's early hits were either covers or instrumentals. Even "No One to Depend On" is very light on lyrics. Gregg was never a great wordsmith and he hasn't really improved in the decades since he left the group.
I get that as the last member of the crucial trio to sign on, Gregg was probably in a position to insist on writing all of his own lyrics, but the project suffered for it. "Blues Magic" and "Forgiveness" both would have been better as instrumentals. They'd have also been better if someone else was allowed to write the lyrics, or at least work with Gregg on polishing whatever ideas he had.
Just me?
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