Following on from
his recent Combat Rock review, Craig Stephen returns to the everythingsgonegreen
lounge bar to soak up another Clash album … only this time, he asks
the barman to pour him a triple.
***
As a young laddie
getting into The Clash for the first time, I recorded a friend’s tatty vinyl
copy of (the triple LP) Sandinista! onto tape. Given the editing abilities afforded by the
format I cut out a number of tracks and for many years would listen to what was
effectively a double album. It was, in effect, what a sizeable number of
critics had been saying since its release at the end of 1980: that Sandinista!
was bloated and carried too many fillers.
Buying the
reissued triple album on vinyl two years ago I was given an opportunity to
hear, again, Sandinista! in its entirety: every waltz, dub version and
children’s vocal take. In reviewing it, I
decided to listen backwards, as it were, from the generally derided sixth side
back, thus waiting longer for the hit singles and the heavyweight tracks like ‘Washington
Bullets’.
It “starts”,
therefore, with a curious side of versions, dubs and alternative takes. So … ‘Career
Opportunities’ is sung by session man Mickey Gallagher’s young kids, with
predictable results, ‘Silicone On Sapphire’ is the rather exotic name for the
dub(ish) version of ‘Washington Bullets’, and ‘Living In Fame’ is ‘If Music
Could Talk’ with Mikey Dread’s distinct take on it. It’s rounded off with an
instrumental ‘Shepherds Delight’ (yes grammar nazis, it is apostrophe free) but
the side is notable for the one true original, and a fine one at that, ‘Version
City’.
Side five features
a mix of the sublime and the ridiculous. The latter being provided in the form
of ‘Mensforth Hill’, one of the most un-Clash songs put to vinyl, a version of ‘Something
About England’ played backwards with overdubs. Strummer’s singing is barely
comprehensible and its proto trippyness makes for a bizarre listen. And yet it
points to a new direction The Clash could have taken if it had survived, and
did adopt in some of the versions that would feature on B-sides and outtakes.
‘Lose This Skin’,
as well meaning as it is, (about racial division) features Tymon Dogg on vocals
and if he isn’t deliberately singing out of key, well …..
And yet, here are some
of the strongest components of the album, in particular ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ (a
take on the new world order: “The reign of the superpowers must be over/ So
many armies can’t free the earth/ Soon the rock will roll over/ Africa is
choking on their coca colas”). ‘Kingston Advice’ is one of the understated gems
of the entire work, and its close cousin ‘The Street Parade’ is heavy on
calypso drums. These two tracks were just meant for each other.
Side four contains
heavyweights a go-go, beginning with ‘Police On My Back’, a fast and frenzied
version of a very little known track by The Equals (yes, the ‘Baby Come Back’
lot). ‘The Call Up’, a rallying call to conscientious objectivism (It’s up to
you not to heed the call up/ I don’t wanna die/ It’s up to you not to heed the
call up/ I don’t wanna kill”), ‘Washington Bullets’, and finally ‘Broadway’.
The middle of the
trio is the most political track of the album, a sign that punk hadn’t left the
band entirely. Referencing Chile and the brutal and illegal overthrow of its democratically-elected
leader Allende, and the failed CIA-initiated futile invasion of Cuba at the Bay
of Pigs (“those Washington bullets want Castro dead”). And yet ‘Washington
Bullets’ also shows what resistance can do, in Nicaragua when the FSLN
overthrew the Somoza regime. But if this is sounding all somewhat aggressive
against America’s aggressive foreign policy, Strummer also chides the “Moscow
bullets” fired in Afghanistan and the Chinese invasion of peaceful Tibet.
 |
| Dub Fiends and Political Animals |
‘Lightning Strikes
(Not Once But Twice)’, which kickstarts the third side, is notable for
Strummer’s semi-slurred take on rap music, one of the band’s first forays into
the genre, initiated by their visits to New York. It comes across in the same
way as Debbie Harry did when rapping on ‘Rapture’ about the same time. Mick
Jones’ ‘Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)’ is a critique of the many cheaply
constructed, crime-ridden towers of London flats that is as relevant now as it
was in 1980 in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster. “You can’t live in a home
which should not have been built/ By the bourgeoise clerks who bear no guilt.”
And rather ominously portends that the building will fall to the ground when
the wind is too strong.
This side features
‘Corner Soul’, which begins with a radio excerpt from the Notting Hill Carnival
and segues into ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, both harbouring Caribbean tendencies, while ‘The
Sound of The Sinners’ is pure gospel that could have been recorded in the Bible
Belt.
Bypassing ‘Rebel
Waltz’, as to do otherwise would only result in unhelpful comments, the second
side is on to an old Mose Allison number ‘Look Here’ and the Paul Simonon
voiced ‘The Crooked Beat’, which reflects the bassist’s obsession with reggae.
Soon turning, as they would regularly do, to another beat, ‘Somebody Got
Murdered’ is the kind of raucous up and at ‘em track that reminds me of ‘Spanish
Bombs’ from London Calling. It concludes with the magnificent reggae anthem ‘One
More Time’ and its accompanying dub version. Remember, the original intention
was to record an album entirely of reggae and dub in Jamaica, and the band
likely achieved that ambition with a string of tracks in the genre. If you look
for one, you’ll find a complete reggae or dub album within these 36 tracks.
And that leads us
to the first side, and the most impressive, with two excellent singles, ‘The
Magnificent Seven’ (clip below), and ‘Hitsville UK’ kicking it off. The former is all New
York, pseudo-rap and souped-up funk. The lyrics appear to be a stream of
consciousness that name-check all manner of historical figures and drops in
lines such as “vacuum cleaner sucks up budgie” at odd points. It’s ostensibly
about the working day, “Ring! Ring! It’s seven a.m.” is the opening holler and
when our wage slave reaches the workplace “minutes drag and the hours jerk”. ‘Hitsville
UK’ meanwhile, features Ellen Foley on main vocals along with Jones in a
diatribe on the hit-making pop factory.
There’s a version
of James Waynes’ 1951 blues cut ‘Junco Partner’, with Strummer back in his
customary position; ‘Ivan Meets G.I. Joe’ is cold war disco, ‘The Leader’
explores the cult of personality and media sycophancy, all within one minute
and 40 seconds, and ‘Something About England’ begins with plenty of piano and
forlorn signing before Strummer gets into his stride.
You’ll have
noticed I have breezed past some songs (and omitted some completely), but it
would be impossible to delve into them all in great detail. Suffice to say
there’s an enormous sway of styles and ambitions on the six sides, and that’s
not to mention the occasional inter-song dialogues and other experimental
tricks the band get up to.
Sandinista! isn’t,
per se, a bloated album, as some commentators have long suggested. It has its
flaws, of course; it would be virtually impossible for a triple not to dip in
quality at some points. But the flaws are not in the triple album concept, more
in the inclusion of say, half a dozen tracks that there must have been some
ready-made substitutes for. ‘Career Opportunities’ sung by children?? Someone
was having a laugh, but it wasn’t funny. And Tymon Dogg should never have been
let near a microphone, but ‘Lose This Skin’ is his song and he’ll sing if he
wants to.
But, you know,
quite frankly, who gives a jellyfish’s family jewels for these slip ups,
they’re as much a part of the concept as grandad’s missing teeth. And while
there’s a case for, say, having all the dub and alternative versions corralled
into a separate disk released sometime in 1981, this is what we have, and a
little patience and commitment results in a pair of satisfied ears.
Here's 'The Magnificent Seven':
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