Occasional Albums Thing 047 - The Clash “Sandinista!”

Triple albums…that’s Prog Rock territory ain’t it ? ELP, the Grateful Dead, PMF, Yes…that’s who makes triple albums…not tough Punks from under the Westway and the squats of Ladbroke Grove. But on 12th December 1980, just 2 days short of a year after they released the double album “London Calling”, The Clash released a triple album, “Sandinista!”.

The title came from the Sandinistas of Nicaragua, Socialist freedom fighters who led the resistance to the US occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930’s. They were led by Augusto César Sandino and were officially named the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (the Sandinista National Liberation Front) or FSLN for short, from where The Clash lifted the catalogue number for this album, FSLN 1. See, we’re not just opinionated here, we’re educational too.

Just like “London Calling” the new album was sold at a low price (memory tells me that on release “London Calling” cost £3.99 for a double LP and “Sandinista!” was £5.99, although I may be wrong, memory not being a strong point of mine !), the band agreed to a lower royalty rate to allow for the low price, and the self written songs on “Sandinista!” were credited to The Clash rather than Strummer/Jones as before.

Side 1 is perfection. From the Hip Hop of “The Magnificent Seven” to the faux Motown hymn to independent record labels “Hitsville UK” (featuring Mick Jones then squeeze Ellen Foley); from the reggae of “Junco Partner” to Topper’s vocal debut on “Ivan Meets GI Joe”; from the rockabilly tabloid sleaze of “The Leader” to Mick Jones fabulous “Something About England”…not a note or song is out of place.

Mick Jones knocks a few out of the park here. Later on we get “Somebody Got Murdered” and “Up In Heaven (Not Only Here)”. Joe’s performances on “The Sound Of The Sinners” (which is listed as that on the sleeve but “The Sound Of Sinners” on the label) and “The Call Up” among others are their equal in every way.

My personal favourite on “Sandinista!” is a cover version. “Police On My Back” was written by Eddy Grant and originally recorded and released by his band The Equals on their second album “Explosion” in 1967. The original version is now a favourite of mine too, along with The Equals in general (and if all you know of Eddy Grant are his 80’s hits like “I Don’t Wanna Dance” you really should look into The Equals, one of the first multi racial groups. Their single “Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys” is incredible), The Clash ramp up the Punk and send the song somewhere else.

Not far behind that for me would be “Lose This Skin” again, not written by The Clash (sorry guys). This one is written, sung and fiddled on by Tymon Dogg. Tymon (aka Stephen Murray) had done his first gigs in Liverpool in the mid 60’s. At 17 he moved to London where, under the name Timon, he recorded the single "The Bitter Thoughts of Little Jane" (with session men Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones) for Pye Records. He later produced for Apple Records and The Moody Blues. He met Joe Strummer when Joe was in The 101’ers. “Lose This Skin” is a fiddle driven folk-punk blast sung by Tymon who later on hooked up with Joe again as a member of The Mescaleros.

Yeah there are some duffers on here…Paul Simonon’s “Crooked Beat” I could live without, like wise the cover of Mose Allison’s “Look Here”. The version of “Career Opportunities” sung by Blockheads keyboardist Mickey Gallagher’s children is a bit silly (Blockheads bassist Norman Watt-Roy subbed for Paul Simonon when he was unavailable for some sessions in New York which later led to he and Gallagher claiming authorship of “The Magnificent Seven”), “Mensforth Hill” is stuff played backwards. So it’s not all perfection but The Clash were having a good time in the studio again and obviously thought we needed to hear it all.

“Sandinista!” has divided opinions since it was released. One thing you hear a lot is “there’s a great single album in there struggling to get out”, and maybe that’s true (in Australia it was released as a 24 track double LP and in the US a 12 track Promo/Sampler, “Sandinista Now!”, was compiled). But what we got was the 36 track, triple LP version, if you wanted a single album you could use cassettes or CD-R’s or MP3’s to create your own, and everybody’s would have been different, but The Clash wanted you to have everything. In 12 months they gave us 5 LP’s full of music for less than a tenner (£9.98 if my memory is right)…not only were The Clash one of the greatest bands we’ve had they were bloody good value for money too.

The Sound Of (The) Sinners - https://youtu.be/dJLcrLRtT0M?si=L1opmgy8Y2swfErS