(Credits: Santana)
Sat 31 January 2026 9:30, UK
Being a bona fide pioneer in his own right, Carlos Santana knows when to call bullshit when he sees it.
That might sound like a blunt-ended way of describing the man, which it is, but it’s simply all in aid of saying that, having forged a whole new path for himself in the music business, he has earned the right to call a spade a spade. To this end, he is prepared to tell you that the British invasion, with all its princely image, is actually just a load of people creating bluster.
Hold on a minute, this seems unfair. The British invasion was one of the greatest global exports ever witnessed in music history, with every band from The Beatles to The Rolling Stones to The Kinks proudly waving the flag of one small nation and ramming its rock and roll righteousness into every corner of the world. Santana can’t just swan in and brand it as a sham, can he?
Well, as a matter of fact, he kind of can – but the only consolation in all of this is that he hasn’t got as harsh a reputation as what is possibly being made out. Yes, it is true that Santana thinks there is something, or more aptly someone, that was miles better than the sonic soldiers of the British invasion, but only because this was his hero, too.
Let it be known, Santana was genuinely coming in peace. He was friends with all the British invasion exports and valued them as great musicians just as much as the next man. But beneath that veneer, he knew there was an unsung hero whom they all collectively looked to as their guitar-slaying North Star, and he was American.
“Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck,“ Santana once mused, “they’re all great, but the guy my British brothers and me all learned from is Buddy Guy. That’s the guy. There wouldn’t be Jimi Hendrix without Buddy Guy, you know? He invented turbo blues. And you can hear it on this song. Nobody plays like him.”
And it’s true – Clapton also called Guy “by far and without a doubt the best guitar player alive… if you see him in person, the way he plays is beyond anyone. Total freedom of spirit.” There was no denying that the Chicago blues master has always been, and still remains, an absolute god of the craft, with his Midas touch influencing everyone from Clapton to Jimi Hendrix.
In this sense, Santana isn’t actually far wrong when he claims that the British invasion has an American to credit for making its guitar players some of the greatest and most prolific in the world, because the magic duty fell to a man like Guy to truly show them the ropes. The Chicago invasion doesn’t have quite as much of a ring to it, but it was every bit as important.
You could say that by virtue of the British and American flags sharing all the same colours, that was a greater symbol than anything about their shared goals and musical talents. That’s not an attempt to make things political, but a dose of the truth: the two countries have never been clear-cut, and have always needed the backup of their closest friend and foe.
Related Topics