The Clash - Sandinista!
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Free Music Notes for Sandinista!
Free Music Review: Power To The People
Hit: 5 Stars
Sandinista! was The Clash's response to the two-album set - The River - released by Bruce Springsteen. In what was a growing row with the record company after the smashing success of London Calling, The Clash wanted the financial backing to issue three records for the cost of a single lp and to promote it in the U.S. with only a few gigs.
Yes, The Clash wanted to outdo The Boss be being it's own boss. And was it meeting the new boss who was the same as the old boss? Forget it.
In 36 tracks The Clash delivers music from the city streets. Through biting lyrics like those in Somebody Got Murdered & Police On My Back, repression and desolation is depicted in living color.
There aren't too many releases that packed the power in four consecutive songs like Washington Bullets, Broadway, Lose This Skin and Charlie Don't Surf. Replace the arcade sounds with a soundtrack from a video game & toss in the "bad guy" of the moment and Ivan Meets G.I. Joe becomes a timely classic from the new resource wars. And my favorites remain The Magnificent Seven and Hitsville U.K.
I am sure The Clash was under pressure to deliver London Calling II and it can be argued that pairing Sandinista! down to about 12 tracks would have made for an absolutely brilliant album. But by taking the record company for a ride, The Clash showed for a brief period of time how music can reach out to the fans and speak through them, not to them.
Free Music Review: A Great and Worthwhile Musical Journey
Hit: 4 Stars
When I first listened to Sandinista!, I told my wife that it sounded like what happens when a talented band smokes a lot of marijuana, goes into the studio and leaves the tape running for us to hear everything, warts and all. There are all sorts of quirky moments, odd sounds, a deliberate lack of focus, and an overuse of dub echo production that leaves one bewildered as to whether this is one of those bad experimental albums that all bands feel compelled to make.
After several listens on long commutes across L.A., I find myself asking the question, "Is this the boldest, most sublime record ever made in western music?"
That is Sandinista! in a nutshell. It is amazing, confounding, delightful, challenging, maddening, forward-looking, retrospective, ambitious, uncompromising, sincere, hopeful, despairing, pretentious, and above all, compelling.
Sandinista! feels like the soundtrack to a film or musical that was never made. That film/musical is the world of 1980 as seen by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones.
Sandinista! is defined by its diversity of musical styles. The record embraces nearly every form of music that comprised western music during its day (1980): rap (`The Magnificent Seven'), motown (`Hitsville U.K.'), punk rock (`Police on My Back', `Somebody Got Murdered'), smooth slow jazz (`Broadway'), big band music (`Look Here'), waltz (`Rebel Waltz'), 60's psychedelic pop (`The Street Parade'), Beatlesque arrangements (`Something About England'), Afro-Caribbean music (`Let's Go Crazy', `Washington Bullets'), ska-jazz (`If Music Could Talk'), 80's new wave (`The Call Up'), Bluegrass country rock (`The Leader', `Midnight Log'), and of course, dub reggae (`Junco Partner', `One More Time').
There are 36 songs on this sprawling journey, so taking little bites at a time is the best way to approach it. A good way to get a handle on the record is to divide the tracks into A Lists and B Lists. This list is likely to change, but here is where I stand at the current time:
The `A' List Tracks: These are the no-brainer classics, quirks and all.
`The Magnificent Seven';
`Hitsville U.K.';
`Ivan Meets G.I. Joe'
`Somebody Got Murdered'
`Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)'
`Police on my Back'
`The Call Up'
`Washington Bullets'
The `A-` List: (not quite A list, but solid tracks that grow on you so much you look forward to hearing them as much as the A list standards):
`The Leader' (The Clash meet Johnny Cash);
`The Street Parade' (which could've been a top 40 hit if not for the overuse of dub production);
`One More Time' (probably the best of the reggae influenced tracks);
`Lose This Skin' (sounds like a cross between a Mississippi riverboat fiddle band and a broadway musical with impassioned singing);
`Let's Go Crazy'
The `B+' List: Songs which have many endearing qualities, but are just a notch below the others:
`If Music Could Talk' (Joe Strummer's favorite)
`The Sound of Sinners' (fantastic lyrics and a very catchy gospel chorus)
`Rebel Waltz'
`Version City'
`Charlie Don't Surf'
`Junkie Slip'
`Kingston Advice'
The B List: Songs which aren't bad, but haven't really clicked with me, though I know that others like them:
`Lightning Strikes'
`Junco Partner'
`Something About England'
`Midnight Log'
`Corner Soul'
The C list: Everything else. This includes novelty items, throw aways, dub, and stuff that probably should've been left on the cutting room floor. Good examples would include `Version Pardner'; `One More Dub'; `The Crooked Beat' and the horrible (though humorous) remake of `Career Opportunities'.
That's 20 great songs, 5 additional pretty good ones and some novelty tracks that might click with some but not with others. That is better than most CDs released in any era. Get Sandinista! It is a very fulfilling musical journey. Just don't expect something straightforward like `Give `Em Enough Rope', anything off the first Clash album or even `London Calling'. This record has more in common with The Beatles `White Album' than most any other Clash record.
Free Music Review: HALF CLASSHED
Hit: 3 Stars
I miss Joe Strummer like you would not believe. The Clash were a vitally important band. Sandinista was their everything and the kitchen sink album. It's half a masterpiece. It's half a disaster. You know that function on your CD player that you never use, that allows you to sequence the songs you want to hear. You're gonna need that. Although I'm betting that no two people would choose the same songs. Mine would go something like this:
1) The Sound Of Sinners
2) Police On My Back
3) Somebody Got Murdered
4) Washington Bullets
5) The Leader
6) Corner Soul
7) Midnight Log
8) Junco Partner
9) Hitsville UK
10) Up In Heaven (Not Only Here)
Then you really have something. They should've left the dub experiments in the vault for release on the deluxe anniversary edition. Still the aforementioned songs are among the most searing they ever wrote. So get it and program your own masterpiece. It's half the fun.
Free Music Review: Must be a clash, there's no alternative!
Hit: 5 Stars
Why the heck this terrific album isn't mentioned as a Clash masterwork in the same breath as LONDON CALLING is a mystery to me. Coming out when it did at the tail-end of 1980, SANDINISTA! was so unlike anything else on the landscape of Punk and New Wave that I, for one, got drawn in right away. It's an album that dared to break the "Year Zero" mentality that ultimately made Punk and New Wave a cul-de-sac, and grab onto rockabilly, gospel, sound collages ala "Revolution #9," rap and lots and lots and lots of dub, all the while sounding like nobody else but The Clash. And you want classic toons? Try "The Magnificent Seven," "The Call Up," "Police On My Back" (which was penned by Eddy Grant), "Charlie Don't Surf" (probably the best track here) and a load of others.
So it wasn't under two minutes, super-loud, super-fast and snarling all the way through. Get over it. SANDINISTA! is a great album.
Free Music Review: The Clash's Experimentation: A few decent tracks out of 36
Hit: 3 Stars
I didn't seem to appreciate this CD as much as the other reviewers. Yes, it was more of an "experimentation album," even so it was just overall goofy. Of course, there were some awesome songs like "Police on my back" which sounds more like the Clash's older albums and "The equaliser," a trippy relaxing dubby sounding song that is similar to songs on their album "Combat Rock." However, there were few songs I liked out of 36 tracks. Most of the songs sounded like something off of Barney or Sesame Street soundtrack, like "Hitsville UK". It's not the innovative masterpiece that everyone says it is. But hey, if you want to take a chance, there are a few keepers on this two disk set.