Good things happen when friends get together, and can you dig, the suggestion of a collaboration used to mean more than merely a proposed single & cameo in the ensuing video---no, the supergroup musical alliances of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s were tours, perhaps more a consequence of who one happened to passing the metaphorical (and very literal) bowl to, as opposed to today’s manicured partnerships that taste about as real as a polyurethane milkshake. This track is a gigantic, encore-like monster of a jam, capping what must have been one hell of a chemically induced extravaganza during new years day 1972; part of a tour that members of Santana and the Buddy Miles Express teamed up for (a mélange of no less than 2 drummers, 3 percussionists, 2 guitarists, a bassist, an organist, 4-piece brass section, & one badass flautist), this show was recorded inside a fucking crater of the Diamond Head volcano in Hawaii, which surely lent a certain level of potency to the whole atmosphere (Pele bubbled deep under foot, ya heard?!). This nearly 25 minute-long marmalade of the earthiest, beasty funk one can imagine rolls through four different suites, each one a bit funkier than its former, climaxing around 17:52, when some very heady and streetwise (re: death of the ‘60s dream) vocals from Mr. Miles emerge rather organically, delivered with the appropriate degree of stank, “…have you ever tried the whole night, and all the morning too…the whole world’s in trouble, running right and left; you’d better hold onto what you got brother, and look out for yourself…” Not too mention, one of the all-time greatest song-titles in the pantheon of transparent wastedness!
