Sandinista [Remastered] - Clash (The)

...to be on the Nicaraguan Sandinista rebels who overthrew their leader without help from American forces.


7.Lose this skin - this isn't even a Clash song. It's a song written and performed by a guy called Terry Doggs, and isn't very good and has no place on this album.


8.Charlie Don't Surf - a dreamy start gives way to a cool bass and lyrics about the Vietnam war and the USA. Personally one of my favourites ...
...sound of the music.

9.Mensforth Hill - the only track on the album I would actually class as worthless. This is the music of Something about England played backwards. Clearly whoever decided to put this on the record's brain was playing backwards.


10.Junkie Slip - another reggae song that isn't memorable due to the music, nor the lyrics, but more Joe's spaced out delivery of them.


11.Kingston ... more

Out of all of their records, none of the Clash's albums split the fans down the middle more than 1981's Sandinista!. The story of how the album came about is often told along the lines that the band had recorded so much material spontaneously that they had to make a triple album, but the truth was more a case that they wanted to try and top London Calling, and they felt the only way to top a double album would be a triple one. But after Joe Strummer's "there will be no six quid Clash album.Ever" rant in the NME, and already under heavy criticism for 'selling out' the band couldn't price this over £6 for fear of losing face, but with them already owing CBS records a whole lot of money, convincing them to let them release it for under £6 was going to be tough.

But they finally came to an agreement that it would retail for £5.99, but then the band had a bit of a dilemma. They didn't actually have three Vinyl's worth of music to put on the album, so had to get to work right away.
The 36 songs of Sandinista! Are presented on 2 CD's, 18 tracks in length each. I believe the reason the majority of this album's haters dislike the record is because it is just too diverse for them. The album features music in a quite frankly daunting amount of styles and types, and to quote Mick Jones, the man often 'blamed' for Sandinista1! "I always pictured it as a record for people in arctic research stations or on oil rigs, you know, people who couldn't buy records much". While this is a totally valid defence of the album , that was taken from the Westway to the World DVD documentary, which wasn't exactly totally truthful. Another of his quotes, from closer to the time "It wasn't meant to be listened to all in one go, people can just listen to parts of it at a time"

This is the quote that sums up why I love the album. I greatly doubt that anyone out there could claim to love this record from start to finish. But out of everyone I know, there is at least 10 tracks that they like. This is because the album covers near on every type of music invented short of classical. Reggae. Funk. Punk. Rock. Hip-hop-rock. Gospel. God knows what else.

The album was recorded as the Clash were slowly becoming more and more American, and recorded in New York, and the influence shows. But while on LC only American influences were blatantly clear, music from all over the world makes at least a cameo role of influence on at least one track on this record.

It would be futile to even attempt to go through this record track by track, so I will just focus on my favourite parts, and possibly the few songs that I do feel are actually poor.

1.The Magnificent Seven - rock guitars and a funky bassline meet hip-hop style lyrics in a song about that old favourite Clash lyrical subject of working life being rubbish. Lyrically brilliant, if only for its lovely little satirical lines, if I was going to give an example of standout lyrics from this song, I would have to write up all of the lyrics. This would make the Clash probably the first white band, and almost surely the first UK band to dabble with Hip Hop, and is one of the few cases in which Hip-Hop-Rock has been done right.

On a bit of a sidenote, this song was adopted by the fans of Glasgow's Celtic FC to play when the player who was squad number 7 scored. They are obviously oblivious to sarcasm, seeing as the Seven of the song title is anything but magnificent.

2.Hitsville UK - Mick Jones duets with his at the time girlfriend Ellen Foley for this touching little song which tells a slightly romanticised reworking of the general story of punk, and a nice little homage to the band's past.

3.Junco Partner - an absolutely lovely little reggae track, that while not being all that strong lyrically in comparison to the Clash's other reggae work, it has a tune that is simply magnificently laid back.
4.Ivan Meets GI Joe - If there is one thing that Sandinista! Indisputably does better than the album before it is lyrics having an actual political content. This track, a very strange dance-esque number has lyrics that reduce the Cold War to a simple disco dancing competition but in a rather amusing fashion that makes it incredibly listenable-to.

5.The Leader - a nice upbeat rock track with lyrics about the newspapers being 'the leader' of the publics views, with the chorus of "you gotta give the people something good to read/on a Sunday"

6.Something About England - probably the band's best song since their debut album, this is a rather downbeat track that takes in a number of topics, but its main focus is on Joe Strummer playing the role of a homeless war vet in London telling Mick Jones an apparently accurate tale of the wars and how the soldiers came back to be ignored as the nation was busy trying to get life back together. The usual rich/poor element comes into it, but its something about the delivery of the song that sets it apart from everything else the band have ever done that makes it noteworthy. While I hate to steal a quote from another reviewer, the review on here of this album that says the track sends shivers down the author's spine gets it absolutely spot on.

9.The Crooked Beat - a Paul Simonon sung track which could be seen as the sequel to 'The Guns of Brixton' due not only to Simonon's vocals, but also the heavy bassline and lyrical content. Simonon's appalling singing still holds a great charm and aura of 'realism' to it that helps out songs like this about the less than well off life in London.

10.Somebody Got Murdered - Brilliant. This is classic Clash, with not only the stirring tune, but the lyrics about the hard up life from Jones makes for one of the best songs the band ever wrote. It has lyrics of a similar content to the band's early work, but the strange rock style that they had started using in 80s for music in a lovely combination.

11.One more Time - an excellent menacing reggae track about that old chestnut of a lyrical subject of the poor life, only this time given the twist of being set in America's ghetto's.

12.One more Dub - the backing track of One more Time. Waste of space. While it may be cool to some, I would much rather the band had put out a tape of dubs and remixes than clutter up album space with them.

13.Lightning Strikes (Not Once but twice)- and absolutely funk-tastic track about New York, that has one of the funkiest basslines I have ever heard. The fact that Strummer delivers the smart lyrics brilliantly and Jones and Headon deliver their musical input well is also nice, but it's the awesome bass that makes me love this track.

14.Up in Heaven (Not Only Here) - like Somebody Got Murdered, a track that's lyrical content is classic clash, with the rock style of 80s Clash to go with it. Another great track with a cool guitar riff from Mick that sticks in the mind for a while.

18.The Sound of Sinners - the Clash do Gospel. Strange as that may sound, this witty track is actually listenable to for the sheer humour and sarcasm of the whole thing, topped off by the lyrics, on the subject of believing in Jesus "I took so many drugs (judgement Day) I thought I was him)

Disc 2

1.Police on My Back - a cover of the Equals reggae track turned into a straightforward rock masterpiece my Mick Jones and his ripper of a guitar riff. The lyrics follow breaking the law, but really fall second place to the guitar riff, although Jones lyrical delivery is brilliant.

3.The Equaliser - a laidback in music, if aggressive in lyrics, track that falls into that strange sort of dreamy musical category that a lot of the Sandinista! tracks I haven't spoken about do, I only prefer this one to the others due to its great lyrics.

4.The Call-Up - a track with lyrics slamming the way patriotism is used to trick young men into signing up for the army and drafting, the music itself is a bit on the weak side, with a sort of reggae-ish feel to it. This is a track I feel compelled to listen to because of the well written lyrics, but I cant help but feel the tune lets it down a bit.

5.Washington bullets - one of the best tracks on the album. With a Caribbean like sound provided by the steel drum sounding (it isn't steel drums but I cannot remember exactly what it is) percussion, with exceptionally good lyrics about the wars and those in charge of them. Its main focus seems to be on the Nicaraguan Sandinista rebels who overthrew their leader without help from American forces.

7.Lose this skin - this isn't even a Clash song. It's a song written and performed by a guy called Terry Doggs, and isn't very good and has no place on this album.

8.Charlie Don't Surf - a dreamy start gives way to a cool bass and lyrics about the Vietnam war and the USA. Personally one of my favourites due to the classic Clash lyrics with the experimental, floaty sound of the music.

9.Mensforth Hill - the only track on the album I would actually class as worthless. This is the music of Something about England played backwards. Clearly whoever decided to put this on the record's brain was playing backwards.

10.Junkie Slip - another reggae song that isn't memorable due to the music, nor the lyrics, but more Joe's spaced out delivery of them.

11.Kingston Advice - another solid reggae track that doesn't really stand out for much, other than a great tune that is listenable to every time.

12.The Street Parade - probably the last great song on the record, with the Steel-Drum like percussion back for a track about just disappearing from the public eye. It once again has a bit of a dreamy sound at the start, but kicks into a great little rock song.

17.Career Opportunities - the hit from the band's debut, but sung by the children of the man who played the keyboards for them while playing live. The first time you listen to it, you realise it's a smart song showing that the kids of then would still face the same problems as the ones of 77. but upon repeated listening, it becomes quite annoying.

That's roughly 20 songs that I like on this record. If you were to ask my friend, he could name you a bunch of songs that he loves, and it would probably differ from mine greatly. You see, what a lot of people seem to miss about the record, is that it has something that appeals to almost everyone. As far as I am aware, no other record short of a compilation covers so many musical styles. While Im not a fan of the dub tracks, my friend is. He loves them. The only tracks I don't believe have any place on the record are lose this skin and Mensforth Hill. The record contains what is some of the bands best ever work, and this is their best record since their debut. The CD is exactly the type of musical medium this album was meant to be heard on. I don't believe the band expected everyone to love every song on the record, instead they wanted a record that everyone could love, and on CD, you can skip to the tracks that you like. This is possibly exactly the medium of music that Jones wanted the album to be on, even before the advent of CD.

Sandinista! is a marvellous album. Its almost like the Beatles' White Album, only more exciting and with better lyrics. Everyone should give it a chance, if only because it can almost be guaranteed that there will be a song on it you like, and it may even encourage you to listen to more types of music.

While people often prattle on about how LC was experimental, compared to this majestic monster, its straightforward. A lot of people seem scared by serious experimental records, and the Clash deserve credit for actually trying something different, if nothing else.
Its funny, because the slamming this took from the media was at the time one of the things that possibly fuelled the Jones-Strummer fire, seeing as the majority of the stick was levelled at Mick, who in all fairness to him has stood up for the record from day one, but even in the Westway to the World, even Joe had taken to defending the record.
It isn't a perfect album, Mensforth Hill could almost single handedly assure that, but for the amount of brilliant material on it, and the fact the band had the sheer balls to release it, I feel it deserves the full marks.

At the end of the day, if the daunting tracklist and prospect of highly experimental tunes don't put you off, within Sandista!, you will find a mine of awesome songs, a few poor ones and some that are ok, and the funny thing is, they will probably differ greatly to the ones I feel those titles apply to.

Those willing to take a chance, and Clash fans, NEED to give this a try.Experimental?yep,Drugged up?Yep,Brilliant?Yep 

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