Songfacts®:

• "Se acabo" is Spanish for "it's finished." That's the entire lyric in the song, repeated six times. The words are just a flourish - the song is mostly instrumental, driven by hand drums, organ, and Carlos Santana's guitar. It's one of several Santana songs with Spanish titles that are built around their Latin rhythms. Others include "Samba Pa Ti" and "Para Los Rumberos."
• The song title was incorrectly rendered "Se A Cabo" instead of "Se Acabo." "Cabo" means "cape," and shows up in the names of many places, most famously Cabo San Lucas. "Acabo" comes from the verb "Acabar," meaning "to finish." It appears that somewhere along the line the title was transcribed by someone who didn't know Spanish.
• Santana percussionist José Areas wrote this song along with the album's closing track, "El Nicoya."
• On the album, "Se A Cabo" runs a tidy 2:50, but live versions always went longer. The 30th anniversary re-release of Abraxas includes a performance from Royal Albert Hall in 1970; the live album Lotus has a performance from Osaka, Japan from 1973.
• Abraxas was the second Santana album, and by far their best seller until Supernatural landed 29 years later in 1999. The band blew up (in a good way) after their 1969 Woodstock performance, which was right around the time their debut album was released. They didn't have a lot of time to write songs for Abraxas so they included some covers, two of which were the big hits: "Black Magic Woman" (originally by Fleetwood Mac) and "Oye Como Va" (originally by Tito Puente).