Sandinista!

Categories: 1980 albums | The Clash albums | Epic Records albums | Triple albums

Sandinista!
Image:Sandinista album cover.jpeg
Triple LP by The Clash
Released December 12, 1980
Recorded 1980
Genre Various
Length 144:28
Label Epic
Producer(s) The Clash
Professional reviews
The Clash chronology
London Calling
(1979) 		Sandinista!
(1980) 		Combat Rock
(1982)

Sandinista! is the fourth album by the punk rock band The Clash, and their most experimental. Sandinista! was released in 1980 as a triple album containing 36 tracks, with 6 songs on each side. Some critics have argued that the album would have worked better as a smaller project, it being too ambitious, with many tracks put in as filler to reach the 36 song quota. Others think of the album as a breakthrough that deserves comparison to the Beatles' White Album. It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll.

The album was recorded over most of 1980, in London and New York. It was produced by the band (which, essentially, meant guitarist Mick Jones), and engineered by Bill Price and Jeremy Green. Dub versions for some of the songs and toasting was done by Mikey Dread, who had first hooked up with the band for their 1980 single Bankrobber. The album clearly displays the influence of reggae and in particular producer Lee Perry (who had worked with the band on their 1977 single Complete Control), with a dense, echoey sound on even the straightahead rock songs.

When recording began in New York bass guitarist Paul Simonon was busy making a film, and he was replaced briefly by Blockheads bassist Norman Watt-Roy; this later caused some bad feeling when Watt-Roy and keyboard player Mickey Gallagher, a fellow Blockhead, claimed they were responsible for co-composing the song The Magnificent Seven. Dread, too, was upset that he was not credited as the album's producer. Other guests on the album include singer Ellen Foley (Jones' partner at the time), Richard Hell's guitarist Ivan Julien, and Strummer's old busking buddy Tymon Dogg, who plays violin, sings on and is credited with writing the track Lose This Skin; he later joined Strummer's band The Mescaleros.

For the first time, the band's traditional songwriting credits of Strummer/Jones were replaced by a generic credit to "The Clash". This is also the only Clash album on which all four members have a lead vocal.

Three singles were released from the album in the UK: The Call Up, Hitsville UK and The Magnificent Seven. The latter deserves mention as possibly the first-ever British rap single.

The title comes from the left-wing guerilla organization of Nicaragua, the Sandinistas, who the previous year had overthrown the dictator Anastasio Somoza. It has been said that Margaret Thatcher, no fan of left-wing guerrillas, wanted to ban the word sandinista, instigating The Clash to choose it as the title of their next album.

In January, 2000 this album along with the rest of the Clash's catalog was remastered and re-released.

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Track listing

  1. "The Magnificent Seven" (The Clash)
  2. "Hitsville U.K." (The Clash)
  3. "Junco Partner" (The Clash)
  4. "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe" (The Clash)
  5. "The Leader" (The Clash)
  6. "Something About England" (The Clash)
  7. "Rebel Waltz" (The Clash)
  8. "Look Here" (M. Allison)
  9. "The Crooked Beat" (The Clash)
  10. "Somebody Got Murdered" (The Clash)
  11. "One More Time" (The Clash)
  12. "One More Dub" (The Clash)
  13. "Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)" (The Clash)
  14. "Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)" (The Clash)
  15. "Corner Soul" (The Clash)
  16. "Let's Go Crazy" (The Clash)
  17. "If Music Could Talk" (The Clash/Dread)
  18. "The Sound of Sinners" (The Clash)
  19. "Police on My Back" (E. Grant)
  20. "Midnight Log" (The Clash)
  21. "The Equaliser" (The Clash)
  22. "The Call Up" (The Clash)
  23. "Washington Bullets" (The Clash)
  24. "Broadway" (The Clash)
  25. "Lose This Skin" (T. Dogg)
  26. "Charlie Don't Surf" (The Clash)
  27. "Mensforth Hill" (The Clash)
  28. "Junkie Slip" (The Clash)
  29. "Kingston Advice" (The Clash)
  30. "The Street Parade" (The Clash)
  31. "Version City" (The Clash)
  32. "Living in Fame" (Dread/The Clash)
  33. "Silicone on Sapphire" (The Clash)
  34. "Version Pardner" (The Clash)
  35. "Career Opportunities" (The Clash)
  36. "Shepherds Delight" (Dread/The Clash)
The Clash
Band members: Joe Strummer | Mick Jones | Paul Simonon | Topper Headon | Terry Chimes

Albums: The Clash | Give 'Em Enough Rope | London Calling | Black Market Clash | Sandinista! | Combat Rock | Cut the Crap

Compilations and Lives: The Story of the Clash, Volume 1 | The Essential Clash | From Here to Eternity: Live | London Calling: 25th Anniversary Legacy Edition

Musical styles: Punk Rock | Roots rock | Reggae