Shadowing Practice: Santana's Acid Trip - Learn English Speaking with Video

Now, Carlos, I know you've told this story a million times, but I have to ask.

It's been reported that every time you look at your performance at Woodstock and the Woodstock documentary, you either flinch or avert your eyes.

Why?

What is it about that performance that makes you do that?

Well when we landed, we were in this helicopter and I never seen so many, it was like an ocean of hair and teeth and arms

and when we landed the first person that I saw was Jerry Garcia and he says, what time are you going to go on?

I said, apparently two bands after you and he goes, well they make yourself comfortable, it's like 12.30 in the afternoon,

we're not going to go on until like 1 in the morning.

And I go, oh, I guess we're going to go around 3 o'clock in the morning.

Yeah, in the meantime, you want some of this?

And I was like, sure.

You know, I just did the math between now.

Yeah, I'll be fine by then.

What was it?

It was acid.

It was LSD.

And so I went, and as soon as I took it,

it was like, everything became another dimension.

And then I see this phase coming and saying, if you don't play now, you're not going to play at all.

You need to go on right now.

And I'm like, oh my God.

okay, you know, I thought I had six, seven hours to recuperate from because, you know, it's kind of like a roller coaster.

You know, you go through this.

And so I said, okay, take a deep breath.

And I discovered a mantra back then without even knowing, God, please help me.

Help me to stay in tune and in time.

And I promise I'll never do this again.

Sure.

So I went up there and so when I started playing, of course, the guitar neck,

the neck and the guitar started wavering, you know, like a snake.

And I was like, oh, uh-oh.

So I just started making faces because I was trying to keep it tame, you know, I was trying to keep it from slithering all over the place.

When I first saw the movie, Jimi Hendrix lady took me to see it.

He had left that morning for Maui.

So she says, hey man, what are you doing?

I says, oh, you know, just got a day off.

Well, go unpack your stuff and come.

I want to take you to this movie.

What movie?

I says, what's that?

What's that?

They made a movie?

Yeah, wait till you see it.

We saw it last night with Jimmy and when you guys came on, you guys freaked him out.

I go, really?

He goes, he loves your energy, man.

He loves your performance and he's like,

so you know it's such a beautiful badge of honor that someone so imperial like Jimi Hendrix would dig our performance.

I feel really grateful because it takes a lot of courage to go in front of 550,000 people

at the peak of this mine expensive,

kind of like a shaman going through from, anyway.

Fortunately it was successful.

It was more than successful.

I mean, it was masterful.

I know you're a modest guy, but you stole the show.

I give the credit to God, man, because that's what I keep praying for.

Always, just like with diligence, please, please, please.

I trusted that my fingers knew where to go and what to do.

What I was calling up to make the connection was with my spirit and God, so that God would say,

okay, take a deep breath, take a deep breath, and I'm going to guide you, navigate through all this mind hallucination stuff.

Because, you know, it's, and then I began to really like it.

I used to do it here in New York a lot.

But I thought you promised God you wouldn't do it again.

You didn't keep your promise?

Well, I didn't do that specific acid.

You know, I took some other, like, a mezcal and any peyote and other kind of stuff.

Actually, nowadays, I don't think people are, maybe under supervision, I'm not endorsing it,

but I would say that even Cary Grant under supervision needed to, because when you take it, it's also like a snake shedding all beliefs.

You know, under supervision, it's actually very therapeutically healing for you.

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63 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Santana's Acid Trip”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: performance, movie, supervision, breath, deep. This video has 69 sentences and 748 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:43. The speaker talks at a natural 159 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 12 of its 69 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
supervision noun	/ˌs(j)uːpəˈvɪʒən/	The act or instance of supervising.
flinch verb	/ˈflɪnt͡ʃ/	To make a sudden, involuntary movement in response to a (usually negative) stimulus; to cringe; to blench.
hallucination noun	/həˌluːsɪˈneɪʃən/	A sensory perception of something that does not exist, often arising from disorder of the nervous system, as in delirium tremens.
masterful adjective		Of or pertaining to the manner of a master of an art, technique, profession, or craft; masterly.
mescal noun	/mɛˈskæl/	A Mexican alcoholic drink distilled from the fermented juice of the agave.
peyote noun	/peɪˈjoʊti/	A small, spineless cactus (Lophophora williamsii) found from southwest United States to central Mexico that produces buttonlike tubercles that can be chewed…
recuperate verb	/ɹɪˈk(j)uːpəˌɹeɪt/	To recover, especially from an illness; to get better from an illness or from exhaustion (or sometimes from a financial loss, etc).
shaman noun	/ˈʃɑːmən/	A traditional faith healer.
slither verb	/ˈslɪðɚ/	To move about smoothly and from side to side.
therapeutically adverb	/ˌθɛɹ.əˈpju.tɪk.li/	In a therapeutic manner.
unpack verb	/ʌnˈpæk/	To remove from a package or container, particularly with respect to items that had previously been arranged closely and securely in a pack.
mantra noun	/ˈmɑn.tɹə/	The hymn portions of the Vedas; any passage of these used as a prayer.
diligence noun	/ˈdɪlɪd͡ʒəns/	Steady application; industry; careful work involving long-term effort.
tame verb	/teɪm/	To make or become tame; to domesticate (an animal).
endorse verb	/ɪnˈdoɹs/	To express support or approval, especially officially or publicly; to give an endorsement.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
go around verb	To move or spread from person to person.
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
go up verb	To move upwards.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

What is it about that performance that makes you do that?
I says, what's that?
You didn't keep your promise?

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 15 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, didn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: slither /ˈslɪðɚ/, therapeutically /ˌθɛɹ.əˈpju.tɪk.li/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: supervision /ˌs(j)uːpəˈvɪʒən/, hallucination /həˌluːsɪˈneɪʃən/, shaman /ˈʃɑːmən/, dimension /daɪˈmɛn.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: supervision /ˌs(j)uːpəˈvɪʒən/, hallucination /həˌluːsɪˈneɪʃən/, recuperate /ɹɪˈk(j)uːpəˌɹeɪt/, therapeutically /ˌθɛɹ.əˈpju.tɪk.li/, fortunately /ˈfɔɹ.t͡ʃə.nɪt.li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like supervision, flinch, hallucination.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Santana's Acid Trip - Learn English Speaking with Video

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