Fucking Long Innit? The Sandinista Poll

"Street Parade"

Nice pick. That was my 2nd choice but I went with Somebody Got Murdered.

That was MY 2nd choice!

This was a very special album to me at the time. It didn't leave my turntable for at least a couple of weeks after John Lennon was murdered, and it was not only my introduction to The Clash, but to punk, new wave, reggae, rap, calypso, jazz and God knows what else...

Have you heard the tribute record? It's actually really good...best song being Street Parade done by the Waco Brother who is not Jon Langford.

http://sandinista.guterman.com/

Yeah, I downloaded a couple of tracks from iTunes and I'll probably end up buying the whole thing.
Mark Cutler, who does "Junkie Slip," is a great singer/songwriter from Providence, RI, who played in the Schemers and then the Raindogs in the 80s/90s.

ha, just a few weeks ago i was sitting in a bar with a friend, trying to identify the record being played (rather low volume in a semi-noisy place). i said to her, damn, this sounds like something off of 'sandinista,' but it's definitely not the clash ... three songs or so in, i heard jon langford's voice, and guessed that it was the waco bros. finally asking the bartender, he showed me the cover of 'cowboy in flames.'

Too many...

I voted "Lt's go crazy" for the hell ovit.

not on the album but i've been loving 'The Cool Out' lately

"Charlie Don't Surf," but it could be "Somebody Got Murdered," "Up In Here," "Washington Bullets," or, of course, "The Magnificent Seven."

POMB for the win

Absolutely nothing competes with "Police On My Back." Sure, they didn't write it -- BFD. It's theirs. It's brilliant. Everything else pales beside it.

my answer is identical to alfred's in all particulars.

"Police on My Back" for me as well, mainly because it's the best stand-alone cut (also the Clashiest song here). But I like a dozen others a lot, just more in the context of the album.

Tymon Dogg, y'all.

The Call Up!

"Police On My Back" here. I'm not usually one to react to hearing favorite songs in commercials, pro or con, but the first time I heard TNT using "POMB" to promote its <I>Law & Order</I> reruns, it freaked me the fuck out.

my favorite clash album, which, i realize, makes me something of a mutant. either the magnificent seven, hitsville u.k., ivan meets g.i. joe, lightning strikes (not once but twice), washington bullets, lose this skin or version city for me. i think.

"The Magnificent Seven", easily.

"Police on my Back." It's just...fuckin' good.

I own the CD but, for some reason I usually go back to my vinyl copy, something I like about all that up and down for 3 LP's.

"Street Parade".

When I told Joe my favorite Clash song was "Street Parade" he just laughed. The live version of one of the Bonds bootlegs is great as well.

One More Time!

Where can I get me some Bonds Bootlegs?

There used to be a great "Clash Archive" where you could get *any* clash bootleg d/l.

My being made redundant at one place coincided with accidentally getting full web access (no restrictions), so I spent my last day but one getting tons of stuff off it. A month later, it was taken offline.

http://www.cla5h.com/

Ugh, he stopped taking orders for the complete Bonds bootlegs a few months ago. Was going to give this to myself for my birthday!

But the one show I have is great, and it's at your finer bootleg-oriented stores, forget the title though... Some of it made it on the official live album.

Rebel Waltz, which is also the name of a great Wisconsin band from the 80s/90s.

Thanks anyway Pete. This seems like something Columbia would do officially. Hell, they've released (and re-released) everything else. That set would look nice on my shelves.

"The Magnificent Seven", easily.

-- Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 23:16 (2 days ago) Link

!

All of Side 2. But forced to pick, "Crooked Beat." Dubtastic.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I'm somewhat surprised by the lack of love for "Up In Heaven."

Somebody Got Murdered and Police On My Back probably took its votes, if people were going to pick a Mick Jones song.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Last week while I was thinking about my Kinks ballot, I started hearing "Washington Bullets" in my head set to the music of "Come Dancing." Can't get it out...need a new earworm.

Still can't believe Geir picked an un-melodic rap song.

geir wtf

It's a pop song, so not that surprised that Geir likes it.

Impressive that the the votes are spread so far across the album (admittedly with half receiving no votes).

Boo! @ zero votes for "The Sound of Sinners."

really digging "Midnight Log" atm

"Sound Of The Sinners" is great too, love this album.

I missed this poll, but am touched and happy that "Somebody Got Murdered" won, what a great tune

actually I might have voted Street Parade

I'm probably going to get clowned but I never listened to this album until about two weeks ago. I know most of their other stuff, but I read somewhere (maybe here!) that this album was considered a dud and just never got around to checking for myself.

It's so fucking long it's really hard to digest, but there is great stuff on here that's as good as any of their other albums and if you paired it down to a single or double it would be amazing. But what to cut?!

Love the first six or so songs, Somebody Got Murdered (damn), Police on My Back, Sound of Sinners, Charlie Don't Surf. Lol @ the end of Broadway.

The more you listen, the less you’ll want to cut.

Yeah, the album's awesome and full of surprises. One of my favorite Xgau reviews, especially the first line, which sums up a smart way to approach this album.

At $9.99 discounted, figure sides five and six as a near-freebie sweetened by great cuts from Timon Dogg and a grade-school duo. Compare "Apple Jam" (you know, on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass triple, now there was a prophetic title) invidiously to the run of their dub ramble. Listen to Sandinista Now!, the promo-only one-disc digest Epic has thoughtfully provided busy radio personnel, and note that you miss (in my case) "Rebel Waltz" and "Let's Go Crazy" and "Something About England" (and who knows what in yours). Note that you also miss the filler and assorted weirdnesses which provide that heady pace and/or texture. Then note as well that the many good songs aren't as consistently compelling as on previous Clash albums, though God knows "The Sound of Sinners" is a long-overdue Christer spoof and words about reading are always apt and the romanticization of revolution is an inevitable theme. And conclude that if this is their worst--which it is, I think--they must be, er, the world's greatest rock and roll band. A-

lol at this from wikipedia, on the decision to release a triple-LP

Mick Jones said, "I always saw it as a record for people who were, like, on oil rigs. Or Arctic stations. People that weren't able to get to the record shops regularly."

it's all so good, you really need everything but I guess you could cut a few things from sides 5 & 6 combined if you really wanted to

like, even "The Equalizer" is an all time favorite of mine

Iirc they had to fight to keep the price down. Maybe took a smaller cut in return? Anyway, it's very White Album/Exile in Main Street, in that iirc some of the songs don't feature all four members, or at least all four were rarely in the same room at the same time. I think they were in and out of the studio at all times, a habit they kept up til the end, which is how Topper managed to write and record so much of "Rock the Casbah" himself.

they had to forgo any royalties on the first 200,000 copies sold in the UK and a 50% cut in royalties elsewhere.

for reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandinista!

I think this is my favorite album of theirs tbh

"Lose This Skin" makes a great case for bands to fill out long albums by letting their friends come in with something and be their backing band.

Don't remember this thread at all, but lots of otm comments. Also glad to see mentions of The Sandinsta! Project, which I briefly reviewed for the Voice:

The Sandinista! Project , commissioned and assembled by long-game rock journalist Jimmy Guterman (The Self-Portrait Project may someday follow) is a two-CD, four-year, complete urban renewal of the Clash's 36-track, three-LP sonic cosmopolis. Released in late 1980 (when punk could seem as old and established as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, though rather less successful politically), the original Sandinista!
implicitly addressed and sometimes sounded stressed by the clash of identity and adaptability. Most of the many various artists on TSP tap into the achievement and potential of this driving, driven undercurrent. The Mekons' Jon Langford and Sally Timms (with Ship And Pilot) get New Orleans street song "Junco Partner" higher, lighter, and tighter than the Clash can; blue notes are bluer too.
More clearly than ever, these songs embody the risks and payoffs of conflict. On "One More Time/One More Dub," ex-Voidoid Ivan Julian tilts galaxies of guitar through rippling immersions of Iranian-American chanteuse Haale, as his bass pushes notes almost deeper than feeling, with constant harassment from ex-Lounge Lizard Dougie Bowne's drums. Julian also plays guitar on "The Call Up," one of the original set's strongest tracks. Here, re-tuned voices still keen warnings to "young people down through the ages," while The Lothars' ancient Space Age theramins swoop like patrols of lost souls pressed into service over grinding post–Oil Age reggae beats. Project only stumbles when it stays too close to original versions—unlike Wreckless Eric, rattling and wailing, "Stepping out a rhythm that can take the tension on/Stepping in and out of that crooked, crooked beat." Now I get it!

Dug the rabbit hole with it in that year's Nashville Scene ballot comments, but what an awesome album:

I've just gone a little further afield than usual. For instance, The
Sandinista! Project: produced by Jimmy Guterman: covers of the
entire 3-LP set on 2 CDs, by Jon Langford & Sally Timms, Katrina of
Katrina And The Waves, Wreckless Eric, Camper Van Beethoven, Amy
Rigby, Jason Ringenberg & Kristi Rose, Steve Wynn, Willie Nile, Mikey
Dread, Sid Griffith's Coal Porters, Ruby On The Vine (featuring
Myrna Marcarian of Human Switchboard), and a lot of people I never
heard of, many of whom also do some startlingly good stuff, so it's
not just Indie Big/Heard Of Name Placebo Effect, I don't think
(Although some of the no-name people are a little too reverent to the
wordiness of the texts or slowness of The Clash's own performances,
so it's not just lower case no name placebo effect either.) Feeling stuck in the spotlight and the perfectly sealed over image of rebellion,The
Clash tried to break on through to the para-punk world, much of it in living color, but they did so with the limited skill sets of themselves and their tiny coterie, for whole teeming subcontinents of soundmasses, dub etc. The Project's bands wisely delve into one song each. But such rich material, and it's not just,. maybe not mainly the writing, but the groove too, implied and/or realized, to whatever degree: The Clash's version of post-punk goes past the bounds of the recent trend,
yet loops through the experiments of Wilco and The Mekons, back
through the studio-as-instrument stuff to the country and punk phases,
back to Englishmen who were kids in the 60s, and their take on
skiffle, ska, various New Orleans (incl urban cajun), and rural parade
beats, and yeah nascent hip-hop, dub; but where The Clash's vocals and
production could blur into an atmosphere too thin and thick at the
same time, and too tenuous, technically(at least on the original vinyl
and cheap speakers), other artists have picked up where they left off,
without surpassing the basic strengths of these songs, which are
mostly rejuvenated here, and fairly often in a countryoid way. Not
just in terms of energy, or different drugs, but the Clashian
combination of stylistic elements, with transitions in and between
tracks, and the way the album loops back to pick up an earlier
approach, and develop it further (true in the original, but this trib
makes it clearer to me), and their characteristic combination of
seriousness and humor, linear development and dubwise ricochet,
kinetic mass and leaves of grass, as honored here in spirit and
appropriate adaptation, makes them sound at least as right and ripe
for the Double 0s as for the 80s. (Maybe not if this album had come
out in the 90s, which seemed like Austin Powers' preferred memory of
the 60s, at least for lucky millions; sucked to be other billions, but
there you go-go.) Example of how one track builds on another: was
thinking I'd like to hear more of that bluesy fiddle bouncing along
under Jon Langford and Sally Timms's "Junco Partner." Which is a much
better track, all the way through, than the perky-on-cue rhythm, I
mean "riddim" mocking Strummer's dry, take-it-or-leave-it emphasis got
to be (too conceptual, after more than a few minutes, it seems; we get
it already). But in a much quicker already, I'm wanting more from
Langford and Timms, cos this new version is so good, that they've
shown me could be even better.(After writing this, I realized that
the point is in the degree of restraint: the sly old partner knows
he'll never get out of his street beat alive). But then the very next
track does bring out the fiddle's blues and fun more, as Jason
Ringenberg and Kristi Rose get a lot more subtle than they usually do,
by winding with the fiddle, through the long lines of "When Ivan Meets
G.I. Joe," way after the pinball machines have been shut down, no
attempt to improveon 80s sound EFX here, just ease us through the
shadows, til we reach the international tough guy stuff , on passing
posters and screens, and start another turn. (This really seems like
the centerpiece of the whole Project, speaking of those time/style
loops, even though it's only Track 4.) Wreckless Eric's "Crooked
Beat" combines modern technology and 25 years of practice for inspired
woodshed electronics (which sound Orwellian in Bee Maidens' "Mensforth
Hill", like what's probing Winston and Julia's love nest, back in
1984, but also turns out to be the old man's story from "Something
About England," just recognizable as it [life and history] disappear
backwards over said hill, sucked in like spaghetti, or like gristle
between teeth, all of which is country enough for me.) The Lothars'
name might come from 60s' group Lothar And The Hand People, in which
Lothar was a theramin, because a whole patrol of are we not theramin
keep patrolling "The Call Up, " which is a bit like Devo's version of
"Workin' In A Coal Mine" and Neil Young's Trans, but eerier (and more
foregone, far-gone rural-industrial) than either. Speaking of
versions, Tim Krekel's "Version City" is the post-alt.country
mainstream-accessible triumph, pop train song with doppler shift
horns, like Mr. Krekel, an expert Kentucky-to-Music Row commuter,
probably is familiar with (being, for inst, leader of the Octaves octet,
sensibility neighbors of the nascent NRBQ, back when they all started
in Louisville), and fans of Tim McGraw's rusty-vocodered
"Fly Away" really really should hear it too. Sally Timms & Jon
Langford return with "Version Pardner," which seems like mostly
acoustic dub, until tape Sallys sally back again, and one of her has
one hand waving free ("He-e-ey," even if she's still falling forward
and around with that ol' Partner man again).And that's just one more
upside down moment folded into a bouquet of dub, which is still just
trying to take country's ID crisis on a seismic cruise, oowee baby.

nice, thanks, never heard of that tribute comp and I've always got time for Jon & Sally

Yeah, definitely not advocating for cutting anything, just saying that it's so sprawling it is overwhelming. As someone pointed out, it's similar to the White Album in some regards in that the sprawl is part of the journey.

that iirc some of the songs don't feature all four members, or at least all four were rarely in the same room at the same time.

The lineup on much of the album is Joe, Mick and Topper, with Blockheads Micky Gallagher on organ/piano and Norman Watt-Roy on bass. But Mick Jones played the bass on earlier records as often as not, even when Simonon wasn't off starring in Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains.

(Mick put coloured stickers on Paul's frets and taught him the basslines by colour to play live, and even by the time he was writing songs, Joe would have to play bass onstage because Paul couldn't sing and play at the same time.)

Gallagher was already m/l in the band at this point, so it made sense to bring in someone he already played well with (and was great). Those are Gallagher's kids singing the reprises of Career Opportunities and Guns Of Brixton, too. A third Blockhead, Davey Payne did saxophone in addition to regular Clash sax session bloke Gary Barnacle (who brought his dad for trumpet parts! A real family affair).

Tymon Dogg was hanging around the sessions generally iirc - Joe had played in his backing band and they'd squatted together in the mid-70s, and I think a random bump-into in the street led to Joe inviting him to come along.

The bump-into/come-hang-out could act like a sacred message for Strummer. Tymon joined the Mescalaroes full-time after an unplanned meeting two decades later, and Joe and Mick made up when Don Letts bumped into Strummer on the way to the studio during B.A.D.'s second album sessions and said to come with. Joe was anxious that Mick wouldn't want to see him (having told him the first album was shit and he should bin it and rejoin the Clash), but ended up co-writing most of the album, co-producing, and moving into the studio to sleep under the mixing desk for the duration.

My copy doesnt have the insert with any credits so all the players have always been mysterious to me, which seems as it should be for this weird record. Whenever I think of it I always remember Joe's delivery of a line in the Westway to the World doc where hes talking about making Sandinista and he says something like "it was outrageous - it was DOUBLY outrageous... it was TRIPLY outrageous!"

For me the fun game to play with this wasnt trying to edit it down to a double or single LP, but trying to get a perfect triple album out of this and London Calling.

"Lose This Skin" makes a great case for bands to fill out long albums by letting their friends come in with something and be their backing band.

Took me a long time to find out that Den Hegarty (from out of The Darts) is the voice that does the "key to big Ben" bits

An impossible task that broke my brain, but I ranked these tunes in April.

I wonder how Combat Rock would have been received if it had been released as another double album, as planned. The information overload might have been too much for even the biggest fans.
I can only think of Chicago as a pre-CD act that released 3 multi-disc studio recordings in a row, also on CBS.

Umm, Eric Burdon/Animals?

Alfred, you break my heart calling Hitsville UK "meh". It might be partly a novelty, but sign me up for The Clash do Motown any day.

Combat Rock is already a pretty weird record. I have a couple of outtake boots and iirc the unreleased stuff leans pretty hard on more atmospheric experiments.

I only see Love Is by Eric Burdon and the Animals as a double. Then a single album by Burdon and War, then another double by them, so almost. Same with Todd Rundgren.

The Sandinista thread is obviously the best place to discuss Eric Burdon-related releases.

The Sandinista thread is obviously the best place to discuss Eric Burdon-related releases.

new board description.

There was an interview (in Creem, I think) where Jones said one reason for the triple was that the label considered London Calling a single album, contract fulfillment-wise, so they were like, "Fuck it, let's put everything we got out at once." And they hoped it would be considered at least a double.

It might be partly a novelty, but sign me up for The Clash do Motown any day.

Ditto. Headon nailed that groove like few (if any) of his UK "punk" contemporaries could have. Rick Buckler took a decent stab at it on "Town Called Malice," but you could tell it just wasn't in his wheelhouse.

Combat Rock is already a pretty weird record. I have a couple of outtake boots and iirc the unreleased stuff leans pretty hard on more atmospheric experiments.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, January 1, 2021 11:24 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

A bunch of stuff came out as b-sides, and on Super Black Market Clash (CD-era comp). It does lean towards the atmospheric, but there's still nothing in the b-sides/unreleased stuff as weirdly un-Clash-like as "Death Is A Star."

Sometime in the mid-'00s, Jones was approached about overseeing a 2CD Combat Rock deluxe edition, with the idea of recreating the Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg mix and track listing. He turned it down, saying it didn't feel right to release the original mix -- which was all Jones' doing, and which he and Joe fought about -- without Joe around to approve it.

I forget where they ended up, but stuff like "Cool Confusion," "Kill Time"/""Idle In Kangaroo Court" and the instrumental "Walk Evil Time" would have been pretty solid additions to Combat Rock. Was it on ILX that I learned there were versions of some Combat Rock stuff with Ranking Roger on vocals? Like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nSrKBFWviU

And this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UEQu6wkS28

Which is to say, if they wanted to get as goofy as Sandinista! they probably could have padded it out with some leftover great tracks, weird experiments and other odds and ends to at least get it to a double.

There are comments on the "Rock The Casbah" youtube clip from Ranking Roger (who I'd forgotten had died in 2019):

Well we used a studio i think in notting hill.
Mick Jones was with me and a couple of engineers.
We took the original 24 track and took the lead vox out.
Anyway,it was not allowed to be let out to anyone,althouh i gave the late John Peel a copy of it (R.I.P.)
but......yes,I guess you could say it was a demo waiting approval i guess.
Thanks for letting people hear what could have been a remix,if it was finished.
Better some than none!
Respect!
RR :)

Nice to see this cut up here.
I recorded this for the Clash in London around 82-3 when the clash and the beat toured quite a bit in the U.S.A together.
I also did a toast/rap over red angel dragnet which i have
not heard since.
I did it as a one take in the studio.The Clash split up shortly afterwards so it was never released.
What you guys are hearing here was just a rough mix for us to go away and listen too.
it was never finished.

Hello again,I do not have a digital copy of a 24 track master no. Those backing tracks were and still are,very well protected,i was invited as a guest just to freestyle and see what happened. A lot of it came from the top of my head and I think you can sort of hear it in the track. It was just a guide vocal so I could get more ideas. Then The Clash broke up but we still kept in touch. For the people who saw The Clash and The Beat or The English beat in America on the same bill,would have seen a

Jealous that there are people who saw the Beat and the Clash on the same bill.

I listened to that Clash podcast narrated by Chuck D., and my favorite episode was about the making of Sandinista! — just the whole sense of this kind of non-stop party in the studio in Manhattan, with people dropping in at all hours and somebody always messing around putting something on tape. It made sense of the album for me and made me appreciate it even more.

That sounds awesome. I'm finishing up Life and Death on the New York Dancefloor and the references to "The Magnificent Dance" led met to that track, then to Sandinista! I am just fascinated by this whole period in NY.

those Ranking demos are lovely to hear, ta Josh

Alfred, you break my heart calling Hitsville UK "meh". It might be partly a novelty, but sign me up for The Clash do Motown any day.

― Jimi Buffett (PBKR),

Too compressed, which doesn't help Ellen Foley's non-singing.

yeah hitsville's weird muddy mix has always made it hard for me to love. 'the card cheat' does a better job with that sound imo

u ppl have no heart, "Hitsville UK" is fab and unique

("The Card Cheat", which I love, has a way louder and more triumphant sound imo)

Hitsville is all about that stiff drumbeat

also extra love for

"when lightning hits small wonder
it's fast rough factory trade"

so good to listen to on a long drive. see also Songs In the Key Of Life and just about every double, triple, etc album.

"The Card Cheat" is an homage to Phil Spector, not Motown, right down to the "Be My Baby" drums, multiple pianos and the wall of saxes playing the same lines.

listened to this on my walk today. "up in heaven" is my favorite clash song of all time

I always thought The Card Cheat was a nod to Springsteen (in his Spectorian mode).

yeah i hear card cheat as spector-via-springsteen, but idk i guess i compare them bc they both have a ton going on in the mix, and i think card cheat pulls off sounding grand and urgent without being too busy, while hitsville has always just sounded like a plodding soupy mess to my ears, with the xylophone and doubled monotone vocals and everything else all taking up space in the middle. when i think of motown, before i even think of specific beats i think of really great mixes with every instrument in just the right place, which i dont get from hitsville

btw those ranking roger demos are fucking great! his rock the casbah remix should have been the b side, crazy that never saw the light of day. (although the bside that happened, "long time jerk", is also one of my fav combat rock outtakes)

listened to this on my walk today. "up in heaven" is my favorite clash song of all time

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson)

Rob Sheffield's too

the general vibe of sandinista is white album as hell but that song specifically is like a post-punk fleetwood mac "the ledge" to me

more like "Think About Me" but yeah

more like "I Know I'm Not Wrong".

I had no idea Tymon Dogg wrote and sang another song with the Clash c. "Combat Rock:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=famxzR7Gyxs

Played and wrote the piano part for "Death is a Star," too, though didn't get writer credit.

Weird, I've never heard or heard of this, either:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_St._Louis_(album)

Also search for "Janie Jones and the lash" then.

Extra weird, that one I know of.

I am more obsessed with this album than I have been with a "classic" album in a long time. I've had rotating songs bouncing in my head for weeks now, currently Rebel Waltz and Something About England. I just got a supposedly near-minty copy of it at the local record store. My preamp is being serviced and probably will be for another month so I have intentionally stopped streaming it so I can listen to the vinyl afresh when I get the preamp back.

It's so fucking long it's really hard to digest, but there is great stuff on here that's as good as any of their other albums and if you paired it down to a single or double it would be amazing. But what to cut?!

Jones is kind of right about his "Arctic stations" joke - if you've got a lot of time to fill, like a long-ass car ride or day-long chore, it's pretty fucking great having this play in the background. I never tire of it in that context. But for active listening, it gets to be a chore in spots, especially towards the end. Adapted from what I have on iTunes/my phone, I'd prefer this double LP:

DISC ONE

Side A:
The Magnificent Seven 5:25
Hitsville U.K. 4:17
Junco Partner 4:49
Ivan Meets G.I. Joe 3:12
The Leader 1:32
Something About England 3:40

Side B:
Rebel Waltz 3:22
Kingston Advice 2:34
Charlie Don't Surf 4:52
Somebody Got Murdered 3:27
One More Time 3:30
The Street Parade 3:25

DISC TWO

Side C:
Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice) 4:48
Up In Heaven (Not Only Here) 4:25
Corner Soul 2:40
Lets Go Crazy 4:20
If Music Could Talk 4:33
The Sound Of Sinners 3:57

Side D:
Police On My Back 3:14
Midnight Log 2:07
The Equaliser 5:45
The Call Up 5:15
Washington Bullets 3:48
Broadway 5:47

and then a bonus 45 of "Lose This Skin"/"Career Opportunities" (the kids remake)

With the rest (mostly dubs), I'd like to hear them together as a separate album - I imagine it being a fine LP for someone to toast over.

I think the full on flow and sprawl (dubs and versions included) is essential to appreciation of the record as intended, that being said the sequencing there is very nice

It's long, but it's only maybe 10 minutes longer than "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below."

It's long, but it's only maybe 10 minutes longer than "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below."

In similar fashion (if I listen to Speakerboxxx then The Love Below), it gets to be a chore for me in the back half. I LOVE that album (or those albums?) but Big Boi's half is pretty tight, maybe the best work he's ever done, while The Love Below is REALLY uneven to me. I want to say if they cut it down to one CD, it would've been a tremendous, stone-cold masterpiece, but it would probably make Big Boi's work less cohesive if you drop in the handful of gems from The Love Below.

I can attest - it really is fucking long.

Best track: Police on My Back
Worst track: Career Opportunities

It's not fucking long enough.

the dubby production ends up flattening out all the stylistic variety, it doesn't really do the album many favours

dubby production ends up making everything dubby and awesome

Yeah, the production sucks. Back in the day, I had the cassette version. It sounded so muddy.

oh i love the way this record sounds

cf. "up in heaven" the greatest song ever made

it's muddy and echoey and weird but in a way that gives it character

The Black Star liner sank at the docks

*White

yeah its weird how the production does flatten everything out into this limited sonic palate, which hurts a lot of the songs but makes it cohere better as an album. i kinda feel like if the individual songs were all better produced it would ironically end up feeling like a weaker and more haphazard collection, in a way.

I have no idea what critics of the sound are talking about, but I have the remaster from the recent (2013) 5 Studio Albums CD box set, which sounds great. (It should be noted that the music is split up the way it would be on LPs, so Sandinista! is a 3CD set and London Calling is a 2CD set.)

I just looked on eBay and the box is now pretty expensive, which is too bad.

The streaming version on Apple sounds clearer than the cassette did. Of course, it could have been my shitty speakers. But, as someone else said, there is a certain remoteness or flatness to the sound. It's kind of like the cover photo: you can tell it's them, but the details are kind of hard to make out.

What's really remarkable about this album is that it was made by the same band that made The Clash three years earlier. It's a transformation on par with that of the Beatles.

Does anyone else feel a bit like this transformation is willed, somewhat forced, when listening to this record? Like they decided they wanted to be the type of band that puts out a triple LP, rather than having 36 songs worth of things to say?

I believe it is true that Strummer wanted to put out a triple album to piss off Columbia.

yeah its weird how the production does flatten everything out into this limited sonic palate, which hurts a lot of the songs but makes it cohere better as an album.

― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Friday, January 21, 2022 2:21 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i agree with this

I do think the Clash did it because they could, but that sort of oneupmanship seemed common in the '80s. "The River" was a double inspired by "London Calling." "Double Nickels on the Dime" was a double because of "Zen Arcade" ("Take that, Huskers!"). Were there more like this? The Clash I know also made a point of pricing it cheap, too, which was also a thing; they charged $14.98, which was about the price of a double (and coincidentally or not I guess a dollar cheaper than "The River"). This was also the era when Tom Petty, who refused to release "Hard Promises" at MCA's requested price, which I think was a dollar per LP increase.

The record doesn't sound like they made it that long for the money, but as a quixotic gesture (and almost to confuse the audience, giving them so much information it challenges interpretation).

The best quote about its length:

Mick Jones said, "I always saw it as a record for people who were, like, on oil rigs. Or Arctic stations. People that weren't able to get to the record shops regularly."

They definitely didn't do it for the money; iirc, they agreed to be paid royalties as if it were a single in order to get the record company to agree to the triple.

yes, exactly

I love the sound on this record fwiw

I think I voted for "Charlie Don't Surf" in this poll (uh, 15 years ago, wow). Would probably pick "Magnificent 7" now. Besides the groove it has some of Joe's best one-liners.

Why a triple album? “I don’t care about all the artistic reasons,” Joe Strummer told Rolling Stone in 1982. “That’s all bullshit. We were having a joke because everyone said we were mad to release London Calling as a double and then Springsteen put out The River as a double. So we thought, ‘Right, Bruce. Suck on this!’”

The only sane response would have been for Bruce to put out Nebraska as a 4 LP box.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlS298gEQaE

It's incredible to me how well they clean up for the studio.

Sounds great to me.

their "Police on My Back" >> Eddy Grant's. It sounds like the world's collapsing and I'm glad Jones sings it cuz he sounds terrified

i love all the weird noises that weave through the background in it, like alarms and hissing steam or something(?)

yeah its weird how the production does flatten everything out into this limited sonic palate, which hurts a lot of the songs but makes it cohere better as an album.

i think its kinda the opposite of this idk, the production is fine on a lot of the tracks individually (especially the strongest material) but it flattens out the eclecticism across the whole album which does it as a whole no favours

I've never had a problem with the production, but I've not had a problem with the production of "Exile on Main Street," either, and people have always held that one up as rough or erratic or sonically dubious. Not coincidentally, "Sandinista!" has a sort of similar backstory, iirc, with the studio reportedly running 24-7 and rarely more than a couple of the guys in there working together at once. Same thing went down with "Combat Rock."

their "Police on My Back" >> Eddy Grant's

I need to listen to this album again. My favourite songs on it are mostly the more "punky" songs like Somebody Got Murdered, and I suppose that's one of the songs on it that I would like to hear a 1977 Clash do. But it's years, probably over a decade since I actually listened to this thing, other than sticking random songs off it on mixes

only about 1/4 of it is really very compelling at all, the rest is just curiosities

possibly. I have a high tolerance for the Clash though, I even like some of Cut The Crap

I've grown to love Sandinista! immensely, but then again, I've only listened to the edited version I posted above, which is still about 90 minutes long.

Reportedly Paul and Topper wanted a double LP but were overruled by Joe and Mick...I wonder what that would have been like? It's possible my sequence would have been close since I didn't shake up the order much and I mostly dropped the dubs (the main thing they recorded/added to make the triple LP possible), but I also dropped "The Crooked Beat" and I imagine they would have kept it just so that all four members get at least one lead vocal.

xxp hard disagree, 3/4 is compelling to me

Cut the Crap is a cautionary tale.

In the sense that they should have had the balls to go all-out and hire Trevor Horn to produce it, yes.

Worst track: Career Opportunities

Fuck that. It's the definitive version.

Yeah, I enjoy that track, but I guess more as a novelty. Still I love the concept - if you can forget the familial relationship, how awesome would it be to see some random school kids singing Clash songs like that?

They didn't really move in the weird/creepy direction too often. Triple-LP time seemed right for it.

It's a brilliant concept and realization.

It shows how capitalism has seeped down to the "Another Brick in the Wall" level.

Kid: "Ah-ah, The guns of Brixton, ah-ah! The guns of Brixton." Still gets me.

"Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone." Word to Prof Lord S.

"That's enough now! I'm tired of singing."

a lot of the little interlude parts of this record are so great, I sure used them on a lot of mixtapes back in the 80s and 90s (the kid singing 'Guns Of Brixton', "who holds the key that winds up Big Ben", etc)

"I'd just like to say, let's have some music now, eh?"

"who holds the key that winds up Big Ben" - Den Hegarty, ex The Darts
"I'd just like to say, let's have some music now, eh?" - Strummer, obv.

At some point yesterday I was listening to this and after what felt like forever I looked & saw there was still ten more songs

love every minute of this album

oh i love the way this record sounds

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, January 21, 2022 3:05 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

cf. "up in heaven" the greatest song ever made

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, January 21, 2022 3:06 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

me otm

Read the 33 1/3 book about this a few months ago and it really reminded me how terrific it all is.

The Call Up maybe my fave clash song ever

Their best album by a zillion country miles and Something About England should have gotten at least one vote given that Police on My Back got seven.

almost tossed the 33 1/3 book across the room when the author had zero to say about the best song on the album, "Lose This Skin"

Yeah, it's not my favorite book I've read in the series, but I will always appreciate things that give this album more love.

Oh for sure. And to be fair to the author, on a positive note I was happy to see them bring up Half Gentlemen/Not Beasts early on as a primary point of comparison, the 2nd-most-important punk triple-album of 1980.

lol at this from wikipedia, on the decision to release a triple-LP

Mick Jones said, "I always saw it as a record for people who were, like, on oil rigs. Or Arctic stations. People that weren't able to get to the record shops regularly."
― visiting, Wednesday, December 30, 2020 7:03 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I will say one of the reasons I keep coming back to it recently is I can't figure out what I feel like to listen to and eventually Sandinista! does get there

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCaRrrUSiGL/?igsh=MTE4dW15dmx5eHIwaQ==

Huh i’d never seen this til now, seems topical

Yeah that's great. Coils of energy. And Topper really elevated them, fucking shame how his addiction took him down

"somebody got murdered" is really the best

How Topper’s snare fills are punctuating Strummers delivery im that video is amazing

"One More Time" is a groove.

The more you listen, the less you’ll want to cut.

True words. Been immersing myself in the "Dread Mix", a 3.75h behemoth of the entire album plus related cuts. I'm not onboard with all of the resequencing but I really like the idea of starting and ending each side with an original and its dub version.

Is there somewhere to download that mix?

Send me a PM