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 Sublime lead singer Brad Nowell, who died two months before the album was released.
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."
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.