Sublime Songs - Santeria Lyrics

Sublime - Santeria

Sublime - Santeria Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Sublime
Released: 1996

Santeria Lyrics

I don't practice Santeria I ain't got no crystal ball
I had a million dollars but I'd, I'd spend it all
I could find that Heina and that Sancho that she's found
I'd pop a cap in Sancho and I'd slap her down

All I really want to know
I already know
All I really want to say
I can't define
It's love that I need
But my soul will have to wait till I get back and find
Heina of my own
Daddy's gonna love one and all
I feel the break, feel the break, feel the break and I got to live it out, oh yeah

I swear that I, I really want to know,
I really, I really want to stay, I cant define
That love make it go, my soul will have to

What I really want to say, ah baby
What I really want to say, is I've got mine
And I'll make it, yes I'm going up
Tell Sanchito that if he knows what is good for him
He best go run and hide
Daddy's got a new .45
And I won't think twice to stick that barrel straight down Sancho's throat
Believe me when I say that I got somethin' for his punk ass

What I really want know, ah baby
What I really want to say is there's just one way back
And I'll make it, yeah, my soul will have to wait

Writer/s: NOWELL, BRADLEY JAMES / WILSON, ERIC JOHN / GAUGH IV, FLOYD I.
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Santeria

This song is about a guy contemplating the use of black magic, voodoo, or "santeria" - anything he can to get back his girl. The lyric was written by lead singer Brad Nowell, who died two months before the album was released. (thanks, Drew - Sydney, Australia)

Santeria means "Way of The Saints" in Spanish, and is a religion where the focus is on worship of saints. It is practiced in Cuba, Brazil, Panama, and a few other countries. There are some followers of Santeria in California, where the band is from.

An early version of this song appears as an instrumental called "Lincoln Highway Dub" on Sublime's second album, Robbin' The Hood, released in 1994.

"I wrote the music," Sublime bass player Eric Wilson said in his Songfacts interview . "It was the music from a four-track, I wrote it in my head, and we re-tracked it and put those lyrics on it."

The music video was made about a month after Brad Nowell died. The video contains ghostly images of Brad playing his guitar along with the band, which was created by using old concert footage of him.

The clip was directed by McG, who later became a big time movie-maker (Charlie's Angels, Terminator Salvation), and stars Tom Lister, Jr., who wrestled under the name Zeus and appeared in a number of movies and TV shows as a big, scary man.

Nowell's Dalmation, Lou Dog, has a starring role in the video, but in most of the scenes a trained lookalike dog was used, since Lou didn't take direction well and at one point bit Lister.

Sublime formed in 1988 and released two albums on their own label before getting deal with MCA, which issued their self-titled album in 1996 two months after lead singer Brad Nowell died of a heroin overdose at age 28. The band was little known at the time outside of their home base of Long Beach, California, and Nowell's death got little national coverage.

His bandmates later re-formed as the Long Beach Dub Allstars, but there was no Sublime to promote the album. When MCA sent promotional copies of "What I Got" to US radio stations, it got some heat and suddenly the defunct band was on the air and in demand. "Santeria" was the next single pushed to radio, and it was well-received, garnering most of its airplay in early 1997, almost a year after the album was released. "Wrong Way" was then sent to stations, followed by "Doin' Time," keeping Sublime on the airwaves well into 1998.

None of these songs were made available for sale as singles in America, which ramped up album sales. Sublime ended up selling over 5 million copies despite the death of their frontman.