Black Magic Woman

"Black Magic Woman" was written by Peter Green in 1968, with lyrics inspired by his former girlfriend, Sandra Elsdon, whom Green had nicknamed "Magic Mamma". an Otis Rush song that had been recorded two years earlier by Green's former band, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, with Eric Clapton, Green's predecessor, on lead guitar. "Black Magic Woman" is a minor blues with a Latin rhythm first explored in Green's "I Loved Another Woman" in Fleetwood Mac's 1968 self-titled debut album. Structure and recording "Black Magic Woman" has the same chord structure, guitar breaks, and even a similar melody to "I Loved Another Woman". Set in the key of D minor, the verse follows a twelve bar chord progression alternating between D minor7, A minor7, and G minor7, and the instrumentation consists of vocals, two guitars, bass guitar, and drums. It is homophonic, the voice and lead guitar taking the lead roles. The song is set in common time (4/4), with the rhythm "pushing" on the upbeat, then breaking into a shuffle beat jam after the final verse. Fleetwood Mac recorded the song at CBS Studios on 14 February 1968 with Mike Vernon serving as producer and Mike Ross serving as the audio engineer for the session. Take 7 was selected as the master from that session; additional work was also conducted on 22 February 1968 at the same recording facility. A slightly distorted solo is played in the middle of the song and an additional solo follows during the coda. ==Performances==

Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman" was released as a single on 29 March 1968 in the United Kingdom and 7 June 1968 in the United States. In his biography of Peter Green, Martin Celmins wrote that the band's performance of "Black Magic Woman" at the Filmore East lasted four hours. Peter Green played the song with Santana at the 1998 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony where the inductees included both Fleetwood Mac and Santana. Santana had tasked Fleetwood with recruiting Green to play guitar on "Black Magic Woman" for the induction ceremony. Green agreed to participate and joined Santana for a rehearsal to run through the song, where he played "one, maybe two sustained notes" according to Fleetwood. After the rehearsal, Green told Fleetwood that he was unwilling to recreate one of his guitar solos from his earlier live performances of "Black Magic Woman" based on his belief that doing so would be tantamount to retreading old territory. Green still agreed to play at the induction ceremony and turned his volume down on his guitar on a few occasions, which made the instrument largely inaudible within the venue. ==Personnel==

• Peter Green – lead and rhythm guitars, vocals • John McVie – bass guitar • Mick Fleetwood – drums ==Charts==

Background 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 spending 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaking at number four in January 1971, their highest-peaking Hot 100 hit until 1999's "Smooth". Santana's 1970 album, Abraxas, reached No. 1 on the charts and hit quadruple platinum in 1986, partially thanks to "Black Magic Woman". "Gypsy Queen" was omitted from the single version contained on 1974's ''Santana's Greatest Hits'' album, even though radio stations usually play "Black Magic Woman" and "Gypsy Queen" as one song. Structure 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 in D minor, and proceeds to two verses sung by keyboardist Gregg Rolie. Two 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. There is also a single edit, a slightly shorter version of the song that omits the opening piano solo and the "Gypsy Queen" portion, that runs for 3:15, while some radio versions play the full recording. Other longer versions have since been released, including one version which runs for 8:56. Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications ==References==