Songfacts®:

• In this song, the singer is longing for the girl of his dreams, but he is afraid to make the first move for fear of losing her. Early on, Santana was a blues band, and that sound comes through hear. It has a similar feel to their version of "Black Magic Woman," which appears on their previous album, Abraxas.
• "Taboo" was pieced together from three different takes. The intro and ending were done at the same time, and the middle section was done last. There is a very rough edit at the end of Santana's final guitar solo, and drummer Mike Shrieve botches his drum part in the intro.
• This was written by Santana keyboard player Gregg Rolie and percussionist José "Chepito" Areas. Rolie sang lead.
• The album was recorded during a tumultuous period for the band. After stealing the show at Woodstock in 1969, they had an instant audience for their first album, released two weeks later. They followed in 1970 with Abraxas, which sold 5 million copies and went to #1 in America. For Santana III, they added guitarist Neal Schon to the lineup and delivered another #1 album, but the band was starting to fracture. The stopped playing live soon after the album was released and didn't return for about a year. Schon and Rolie left for Journey in 1973 as Santana's lineup and sound shifted. The group ebbed and flowed in popularity throughout the '70s and '80s, but the '90s were bleak, at least until 1999 when they released their Supernatural album, which was mostly Carlos Santana and a host of top-draw guest performers.
• Like many Santana songs of this era, the title is never sung in the lyrics. "Taboo" means forbidden, indicating something mysterious about the girl in the song. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Jim - Oxnard, CA