Europa (song)

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"Europa" is a song from the Santana album Amigos.

[edit] Genesis

The genesis of the song came from the late 1960s, when Carlos Santana was visiting friends. Upon seeing his friends he was suffering a bad experience whilst high on mescaline, Carlos composed a song titled "The Mushroom Lady's Coming to Town". This precursor contained the first lick to the song "Europa". It was put away and not touched for some time.

When Santana was touring with Earth, Wind & Fire in Manchester, England, he played this song again, this time with Coster who helped him with some of the chords and thus Europa was born. It was renamed to "Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile)".

[edit] How to Play "Europa"

According to Santana, the tone is achieved through a Paul Reed Smith guitar played through a Mesa Boogie Amplifier. The amplifier is played at full volume, upon which the artist finds a position in the room where a feedback loop occurs, enabling a long lasting sustain that is similar to that of a violin's bow.