#323 The Clash, 'Sandinista!' (1980)
New Entry
The follow up to the landmark album, ‘London Calling,’ was a 3-disc, 6-sided, two hour and twenty four minute affair. The album is a smorgasbord of genres, from punk to reggae to dub to gospel to RnB to calypso and more. I like The Clash as much as the next fan of classic punk, but I’m not sure anyone needs 2 hours and 24 minutes of it in one go. But want to heard one of the most punk things ever? There’s a reason for it. CBS, The Clash’s record label, was resistant to releasing ‘London Calling’ as a double album. They did begrudgingly and less than a year later, they happily released Bruce Springsteen’s double album, ‘The River.’ This pissed the band off so much that for their follow up record, they decided to release a triple album JUST to annoy their record label. They even forwent royalties for the first 200,000 albums in the UK and a 50% cut of royalties elsewhere just so that they could release the album at a lower price.
This album has some great moments; ‘The Magnificent Seven,’ ‘Hitsville UK’ and ‘Ivan Meets G.I. Joe,’ amongst others. ‘Broadway’ features a very cute version of ‘Guns Of Brixton’ at the end, sung by Maria Gallagher, the daughter of Mickey Gallagher, keyboardist and member of Ian Dury and the Blockheads (a couple of Blockheads were brought in when Paul Simonon had to duck off to make a film for a bit). The album is definitely longer than it needed to be, though, and kinda suffers because the band were trying to make a point. As Joe Strummer said, “It was doubly outrageous. Actually, it was triply outrageous.” He also said “Even though it would have been better as a double album, or a single album, or an EP! Who knows? The fact is that we recorded all that music in one spat, at one moment. In one three-week blast. For better or worse, [Sandinista!] is the document.” As a single disc, this record would be amazing, but as a triple disc I got bored and restless. Tracks segued into each other and my interest dipped in and out. However, it really showcases the band’s refusal to be pigeonholed into a single genre, true masters of their craft. As a sidenote, if you haven’t already, I’d recommend listening to the podcast on ‘Stay Free: The Story Of The Clash,’ which is narrated by Chuck D (exclusive to Spotify, sorry to those on competing services).
#rs500albums