Rocktrospectiva: The Odd And Experimental "Sandinista!" Turns 45

Released on 12 December 1980 "Sandinista!" was the 4th., studio album by English rock band The Clash, it was released as a triple album containing 36 tracks, with 6 songs on each side. It crossed various genres including funk, reggae, jazz, gospel, rockabilly, folk, dub, rhythm and blues, calypso, disco, and rap. For the first time, the band's songs were credited to the Clash as a group, rather than to Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. The band agreed to a decrease in album royalties in order to release the 3-LP at a low price.

The title refers to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and its catalogue number, 'FSLN1', refers to the abbreviation of the party's Spanish name, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional., the album spawned three singles "The Call Up", "Hitsville UK" & "The Magnificent Seven" and "Bankrobber" which not appear on the album.

The album was recorded over most of 1980, in London, Manchester, Jamaica and New York. It was produced by the band (primarily Mick Jones and Joe Strummer), recorded and mixed by Bill Price, and engineered by Jeremy "Jerry" Green (Wessex Sound Studios), J. P. Nichols (Electric Lady Studios), Lancelot "Maxie" McKenzie (Channel One Studios), and Bill Price (Pluto + Power Station Studios). 

Dub versions of some of the songs and toasting was done by Mikey Dread, who had first worked with the band for their 1980 single "Bankrobber". With Sandinista! the band reached beyond punk and reggae into dub, rhythm and blues, calypso, gospel and other genres. The album clearly displays the influence of reggae musician and producer Lee "Scratch" Perry (who had worked with the band on their 1977 single "Complete Control" and who had opened some of the band's shows during its stand at Bond's in New York in 1980), with a dense, echo-filled sound on even the straight rock songs.

When recording began in New York, bass guitarist Paul Simonon was busy making a film called Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, and he was replaced briefly by Ian Dury and the Blockheads bassist Norman Watt-Roy; this later caused some bad feeling when Watt-Roy and keyboard player Mickey Gallagher, a fellow Blockhead, claimed they were responsible for co-composing the song "The Magnificent Seven", as the song was based on a tune of theirs. Watt-Roy and Gallagher would subsequently be given a co-writing credit. Dread, too, was upset that he was not credited as the album's producer, although he was credited with "Version Mix". Other guests on the album include singer Ellen Foley (Jones' partner at the time), guitarist Ivan Julian formerly of the Voidoids, harmonica player Lew Lewis (formerly of Eddie and the Hot Rods), and Strummer's old friend and musical collaborator Tymon Dogg, who plays violin, sings on and wrote the track "Lose This Skin"; he later joined Strummer's band the Mescaleros. 

This was also the only Clash album on which all four members have a lead vocal. Drummer Topper Headon made a unique lead vocal contribution on the song "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe", and Simonon sings lead on "The Crooked Beat".

 

According to Joe Strummer, the decision to release a triple-LP was their way of mocking CBS for resisting their desire to release London Calling as a double album, then releasing Bruce Springsteen's double album The River less than a year later. Strummer took pleasure in the abundance, saying "It was doubly outrageous. Actually, it was triply outrageous." 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." The band's wish to release the album at a low price was also met with resistance, and they had to forgo any royalties on the first 200,000 copies sold in the UK and a 50% cut in royalties elsewhere.

 

The song "Washington Bullets" was lyricist Joe Strummer's most extensive—and most specific—political statement to date. In it, Strummer name checks conflicts or controversies from around the world; namely in Chile, Nicaragua, Cuba, Afghanistan and Tibet. (In reference to the first three, Strummer seems to side with what he sees as popular leftist movements or governments, while in the latter two, he sharply criticises the policy of Moscow's and Beijing's communist governments for what he sees as their imperialist actions.) Some reviews of Sandinista! called "Washington Bullets", along with "The Equaliser" and "The Call Up", "the heart of the album".

 

The initial reviews in the UK, initial reviews were mostly poor some considered the album as simple and ultimately depresses, meanwhile in the US, critices were more mixed by considerind the album as an ambitious project, a breakthrough record thar deserved comparison with The Beatle's "White Album", even though the album was included in several "best of the year" critics polls in 1981.

 

Sandinista Track List: 

 

CD1: 

 

1. The Magnificent Seven

2. Hitsville UK

3. Junco Partner

4. Ivan Meets G.I. Joe

5. The Leader

6. Something About England

7. Rebel Waltz

8. Look Here

9. The Crooked Beat

10. Somebody Got Murdered

11. One More TIme

12. One More Dub (dub version of One More Time  

13. Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)

14. Up In Heaven (Not ONly Here)

15. Corner Soul

16. Let's Go Crazy

17. If Music Could Talk

18. The Sound Of Sinners

 

CD2:  

 

1. Police On My Back

2. Midnight Log

3. THe Equaliser

4. The Call Up

5. Washington Bullets

6. Broadway 

7. Lose This Skin

8. Charlie Don't Surf

9. Mensforth Hill (Something about England's backwars with overdubs)

10. Junkie Slip

11. Kingston Advice

12. The Street Parade

13. Version City

14. Living In Fame (dub version of If Music Could Talk)

15. Silicone Sapphie (dub version of Washington Bullets)

16. Version Pardner (dub version of Junco Partner)

17. Career Opportunities 

18. Sheperds Delight