Ever go back and listen to Sandinista?

[bpdp3]

I did it this past weekend. All six sides. I have to tell you, I found myself liking it more and more.

I bought it the day it came out, and I remember thinking (at age 14 mind you) it was good because it was the Clash, and the Clash could do no wrong for me at that point. But I think alot of it was over my head.

I admit that some of the experimental dub stuff is a bit much, but it gives the album nice overall texture. Songs are buried in like diamonds in the rough (Kingston Advice) and you have to search for them. It's a really cool album.

This is the same band that only 3 years earlier gave us the initial straight-forward onslaught of the debut. I admit I have an ear for the eccentric, and these guys got from point A to point B in three years?? To me, they were brilliant.

I miss having a band around that I cared about the way I cared about the Clash.

[Frau_Blucher]

Heck yeah...just last week...and it motivated me to burn it to mp3 at beautifully high VBR rates. A London friend told me that the Clash originally intended that you'd take selections and make mix tapes off of it rather than expecting to listen to it straight thru all the time. It's great for both IMHO. And you're right, there's a quality of depth that's not present anywhere else in a current band.

[Crimsor]

Its still my favorite Clash album!

[WolverineSyr]

Awesome album, it never struck me as being spotty but having different moods and sections. My favorites are Up in Heaven (not only here), Police on my Back, Lose This Skin.

[Sean]

I love these Clash songs:

Police On My Back
Somebody Got Murdered

[cubby]

That's nothing, try to go back and listen to "Cut the Crap". My opinion of that one hasn't changed much in 20 yrs. Sandinista on the other hand is excellent. Very underrated.

[skinnytie]

I have had a love/hate relationship with this album since it first came out. I was one of those people who thought it would make a good EP ("Career Opportunities" sung by their kids? Oh, please!), but on the other hand, it was pretty much the only record on my turntable for 3 weeks after I first bought it when it came out ($12.99 at Bleeker Bob's as an import! What a deal!). The more I listened to it, more tracks stood out (the diamond in the rough thing that bpdp3 mentioned), and I got to tolerating the album as a whole, but it will never be my favorite Clash album ("Give 'Em Enough Rope" gets that honor). When I saw the Clash at Bonds, and they did "Corner Soul", I was cheering the selection.

I had heard a rumor that the record company didn't want to release the album as a 3-disc set that was priced so low. The Clash insisted, and the record company said they would, but that the Clash would have to sell 200,000 copies of it in England before they would see a dime from it. The Clash agreed (few thought it would sell that many). Whether this story's true or not, I have no idea.

One of my college buddies was the first to have purchased this record. He listened to it once, and hated it so much, returned it to the store and exchanged it for "Sound Affects" by the Jam (which was also a new release at the time). I couldn't disagree with his decision, but there was enough good stuff on "Sandinista" to keep it.

[ekahob]

I you were a Clash fan when [i]Sandinista! [/i] came out you probably weren't mature enough musically to appreciate the record. I know I wasn't. I put my favorite three tracks on my mix tapes and put the record away. A couple of years ago when I got it on CD I realized how great the record is. Many of the songs simply started out as the band jamming in the studio. It really is a brilliant record and ahead of it's time.

Here's a website dedicated to [i]Sandinista! [/i]. There's some interesting stuff there. http://sandinista.guterman.com/

bpdp3 said [quote]I miss having a band around that I cared about the way I cared about the Clash.[/quote]
I think I'm too old to develop bonds with musicians or bands to care any more. If I was 20 again I might feel that way about bands like Wilco or artists like Joseph Arthur.

[schwenko]

And of course there is the Vanilla tapes, demos and unreleased songs from the sessions that produced Sandhinista. Included on the recent re-issue IIRC. These were actually pretty crappy [:D] .

[SomebodySomewhere]

I, too, think "Sandinista!" is criminally underrated, although I pretty much agree with the consensus that it would've made a better double-album. (Whereas "Cut the Crap" wouldn't have even made a good double-A side single.) It's also criminally-underrepresented on "Story of the Clash."

It's so hard to pick a favorite track, because there's so many good ones, so I'll pick 11...


The Magnificent Seven
One More Time
Police on My Back
The Call Up
Something About England
Somebody Got Murdered
Version City
Broadway
Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)
Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)
Ivan Meets GI Joe


Most greatest hits albums of today's rock bands don't even have 11 good songs on them.

[Frau_Blucher]

And don't forget the very very very very very first Name That Tune song...Charlie Don't Surf. Come Waukena, you gotta be proud 'o me for that! But nobody got it, one of the great political songs of the new wave. [V]

[KYYX4ever]

I know, I know...that's my favorite Clash song and I can't believe I missed that one. (well, I really don't remember actually missing that one, but I'll take your word for it.) Argh !

[dearly beloved]

Of course it's been forever argued that if you took the best songs of this 3 disc opus, it'd make probably the best Clash long player ever. But as the late, great Mr. Strummer said in Westway to the World: (paraphrasing) Argue it all you want, it's an aural documentation of a period of time for the band....for better or ill.

-that said, I love it.

[marie3]

The Clash ROCKS!
I appreciate them more now then I did back in the day.
Many of their songs are as true today as they were when they were first released. Sandinista! has some great songs on it. I like The Call Up and of course The Magnificent Seven. When I first heard Hitsville UK, we used to sing "Hicksville" (the town we lived in) It was so unlike any Clash song back then. I still like it alot.

[bpdp3]

I'm glad it's this bloated 3-record set. I was looking at Wolverine and Somebodysomewhere's lists of fave songs thinking "Wait - where's Washington Bullets, or Rebel Waltz, or If Music Could Talk"???

To me that's why it's so great, that we'd argue endlessly what would make the cut to a double lp and what wouldn't. I think you need all the space that it has to say its piece. It's really a special lp.