Week 8 Blog Post -- Oye Como Va (Santana)

    The song "Oye Como Va" was originally written by Tito Puente in 1962 and achieved global popularity in 1970 when it was covered by the band Santana.

    "Oye Como Va" is a quite simple song lyrically. Its lyrics, when translated into English, read "Flavor! / Listen how it goes, my rhythm / It's good to enjoy, mulata," with 'mulata' in this context referring to a blending of ethnic styles. Like its lyrics imply, "Oye Como Va" is a rhythmically driven song. The main guitar riff of the song has a catchy and enjoyable rhythm that gets stuck in the listener's head, and the song's percussion backing is like a showcase of really interesting Latin percussion instruments, such as the guiro, which is a ridged wooden instrument played by scraping it.

    I love the sound that Santana managed to pull off when they covered this song. It reminds me of partying with friends on a summer evening that's slightly too hot, but not enough to complain about. Really, I'm just a sucker for "summery"-sounding music in general.

    I enjoyed listening to this song again for this week's blog post. This is a song I have a personal connection to and have already spent a good amount of time examining critically, as I played it with an ensemble back in 2019 at Salt Lake Community College for their Popular Music Bands course, which was a ton of fun and is an experience that I sometimes miss.