WCSX Classic Cuts : No One to Depend On
WCSX Classic Cuts
Santana: “No One to Depend On”
The Hook: They composed it during rehearsals for TV’s The Bell Telephone Hour and played it on the show.
Album: Santana III
Year: 1971
Writers: Michael Carabello, Gregg Rolie, Coke Escovedo
Stats: Peaked at number-36 on the Billboard Hot 100
Background: Carlos Santana tells us that “No One to Depend On” grew out of an appearance by the band on the TV show The Bell Telephone Hour. He explains that the band was actually given charts by conductor Zubin Mehta for an entirely different song.
Carlos Santana on how they composed “No One to Depend On” during rehearsals for a TV show for which they’d been given the charts for a different song. OC:…the ball. :28
“We tried to read it and it was funny, we just couldn’t get it, so we threw the paper away and we created something on the spot. We created ‘Batuka’ and ‘No One to Depend On’ at the same time, saying, ‘We can do this. We can just make our own.’ We didn’t know better. So we sit down and just out of sheer conviction of doing it, those songs came within probably two hours. Things just happened. One musician would start playing and he’d paint the picture and we’d follow and I’d paint something and they’d follow me. It’s like basketball or soccer, you gotta pass the ball.”
