The following is the fourth in a four-part series examining Carlos Santana’s album Supernatural. Part three focused exclusively on the Rob Thomas and Carlos Santana track “Smooth.” This is the final installment.
Let’s suppose that Jesus Christ is your older brother. Everything else about your life is the same—your triumphs and shortcomings, your embarrassments and greatest prides… everything is the same. You aren’t afforded any extraordinary luxuries because of your famous sibling, nor are you subject to any heightened level of danger. You’re just you, and somewhere else out there in the world, your older brother Jesus Christ is walking around, beloved by billions.
Would anything you do in life even matter? Could you even be judged fairly? Even if you excelled in your life, you would always be the child born after Jesus Christ. Forget Jesus; Dwight Eisenhower’s brothers included a lawyer, an Illinois State Congressman, and the president of Johns Hopkins University, respectively, and you don’t give a fuck about any of those men and neither does history.
The shade can get cold. If your older brother was Jesus Christ, would your life even matter? Can you put yourself in that state of mind? If so, you can comprehend what it’s like to be every song on Supernatural that comes after “Smooth.” There are a lot of them, too. After “Smooth” there are somehow nine more songs on the album. Supernatural peaks towards the middle, and is therefore more of a Mt. Olympus than a ladder to heaven.