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

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.