Songfacts®:

• Santana came in hot in 1969, with a 6-member lineup that wowed the crowd at Woodstock with a sound that blended Carlos Santana's searing guitar with entrancing keyboard and percussion. They were still in top form for "No One To Depend On," a track from their third album. By this time, they added an additional guitarist: 17-year-old Neal Schon, who went on to form Journey.
  
  In "No One To Depend On," the group's musicianship is on display for the 5:31 running time, with the lyrics added to punctuate the rhythm. The storyline is never developed (it's mostly the phrase "Ain't got nobody that I can depend on" repeated over and over), but more words would just get in the way.
• This was written by Santana keyboard player Gregg Rolie, percussionist Mike Carabello, and Coke Escovedo, an additional percussionist with the band around this time. Note that while the band is named after Carlos Santana, many of their songs were written by other members.
• Like many Santana songs, "No One To Depend On" is in Spanlish. The Spanish refrain, "No tengo a nadie," is a translation of the title, or more grammatically correct, "I have no one."
• This was the second single released from the Santana III album, following "Everybody's Everything." It went to #36 in America but was their last substantial hit for a few years. After the album, the lineup started shifting and the band went in different musical directions. They had a few modest hits in the late '70s but seemed left for dead in the '90s until their stunning comeback album, Supernatural, in 1999.
• On the album, this is track 2, flowing seamlessly from the instrumental "Batuka."