(Or “how I learned to embrace an album that’s messy and way too long even though I love the band that made it”)
I first heard The Clash in the early 1980s, only a year or so before the band imploded. Just a few years later, I owned all of The Clash’s proper albums on cassette except for “Sandinista!” The band soundtracked my middle school and high school years.
And my love for the band has only grown in the three decades since. Yet I still don’t own “Sandinista!” When I was a high school and college student, the album was spread across two cassettes and then, later, two CDs. That meant the record shops priced it higher, and $25 or $30 seemed like a big investment at the time.
Also, seeing that track listing of 36(!) songs, many of which I hadn’t heard of, was intimidating.
And, finally, between The Clash’s debut album (one of my first musical loves), the over-produced but good “Give ‘Em Enough Rope,” the masterpiece of “London Calling,” and “Combat Rock”—the weirdest try at becoming a “commercial mainstream” band that you’ll ever hear—I had enough Clash in my life.
But it still bugged me. So, in recent years, I’ve approached the album again, albeit with a side eye because of the album’s reputation. I found some unexpected gems, but like others, I often still got stuck somewhere in the back half of this sprawling album.
Then I read this during the past week. I like Rob Sheffield’s writing, and I respect most of his musical opinions. So I started playing “Sandinista!” from track one all the way to the end. This time, I got through it all in one sitting.
I think Sheffield’s wrong. “London Calling” is a near-perfect album that flows better than “Sandinista!” and has more outstanding songs. It truly is The Clash at the band’s artistic height. That said, “Sandinista!” and I are no longer battling each other as it turns 40 years ago and I’ve hit the half-century mark. Maybe we’ve grown into a middle-age understanding of each other.
First, the good and great stuff: “The Magnificent Seven” leads off this album and is one of my longtime favorite songs. It shows the band embracing rap in 1980, a time when it was still largely an overlooked form of music. Also, it has this gem of a rhyming line: “Italian mobster shoots a lobster.”
“Somebody Got Murdered” sounds much like a classic Clash song. “The Sound of Sinners” is a cheeky punk gospel song, with St. Joe Strummer preach-singing with passion as the backing vocals repeat “judgment day.” And the band’s cover of The Equals’ “Police on my Back” rips. “The Call Up” also is a longtime favorite of mine that exudes restrained resistance and determination against militarism, perhaps appealing to my Quakerness.
Those are all songs I know well from years past, having heard them on compilations well before I first tried “Sandinista!” Even through repeated listening, though, some of the album still baffles me a little.
“Look Here” is jazzy? “If Music Could Talk” is jazzy reggae? “Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)” is very funky?! “Broadway” has Strummer scatting—jazz again—and is oddly great, and then it ends with a kid singing “Guns of Brixton” from the “London Calling” album for some reason. “Hitsville U.K.” has guitarist Mick Jones singing with his then-girlfriend Ellen Foley, who also sang with Meat Loaf and was on one season of the 1980s sitcom “Night Court,” of all things.
This album obviously has lots of stuff going on: rockabilly, new wave, reggae, dub. “Lose This Skin” is fiddle-powered pub rock by Strummer’s once and future bandmate Tymon Dogg, providing an unexpected jolt deep into this triple album. As The Washington Post review of this album said back in the day: “Once again, the limits of rock ‘n’ roll are being tested, destroyed and then reinvented.”
Many of the songs are LONG—pushing well past four minutes each. On “The Magnificent Seven,” as it passes the five-minute mark, Strummer mutters “F-ing long, innit?” This never fails to make me smile.
Among other things, the Clash’s politics are there. “Charlie Don’t Surf,” inspired by a line in the film “Apocalypse Now,” is an anti-war, anti-imperialist song that includes a familiar lyric: “Everybody wants to rule the world.” There’s an oft-told tale that Strummer apparently first related to Musician magazine in the late ‘80s (I can’t find the original source). He wanted to prove that Tears for Fears borrowed that lyric from for the title of its hit “Everybody Wants To Rule The World.” So when he ran into Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears at a restaurant, Strummer said “you owe me a fiver.” According to Strummer, Orzabal reached into his pocket and gave him a five-pound note. I sure hope that story is true, because I love it; I should note I like Tears for Fears, too.
The song “Washington Bullets” also hits its political message nice hard against a laid-back tropical sound and includes the titular callout: “Sandinista!”
The Clash’s love of reggae and dub music is all over this album. Most notably, perhaps, on the catchy “One More Time,” which includes a cameo from the legendary Mikey Dread. The next track, “One More Dub,” is just an extension of “One More Time,” and it’s fun, too.
Somewhere in its final stretch, “Sandinista!” loses whatever thin plot line was holding together this collection of songs and dives straight into eccentric and experimental territory. “Mensforth Hill” is backwards-played music. “Junkie Slip” is an actual song, but just barely. “Kingston Advice” is more fleshed out, but it still sounds unfinished to my ear. Mikey Dread returns on “Living in Fame,” then “Silicone on Sapphire” is a mostly instrumental reprise of “Washington Bullets” with tech terms spoken over it. Similarly, “Version Pardner” is a reprise of the earlier “Junco Partner” in spaced-out dub form.
The 35th track is a less aggressive cover of “Career Opportunities”—an early hit for The Clash—sung by the keyboardist’s kids. At this point, you’re wondering if the band’s just pulling your leg. The last track, “Shepherds Delight,” features a few farm animal sounds mixed amid the dub beat as the album’s finale.
It’s like a huge, rich, exotic meal: Lots of good stuff, some flavors that taste new and uncertain. But you have to admire that members of The Clash decided to stray even further from straight-ahead punk than “London Calling” did and just get weird.
That said, it’s too much at once. I’d argue that nearly 2 ½ hours is too long for ANY album. But I feel like I understand the album a little more than before; it feels more approachable now. And the top songs on “Sandinista!” rank with the band’s best from any of its albums.
Also, the double-CD version of “Sandinista!” now sells for $15 online. Maybe I’ll finally buy it.