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The Clash is the band that best represents the entire punk movement. In 1980, they declared themselves Sandinistas, a political movement inspired by the political thought of the Nicaraguan revolutionary Sandino, aiming to create a free and independent Nicaragua.
Everyone knows the Clash as a punk band, but perhaps not everyone knows they were the first white band to produce rap songs. In the 36 brief gems of this "infinite" triple album, the Clash showcase their ability to authoritatively engage with various musical genres: from reggae to funk and soul, from dub to jazz. The album represents an unprecedented work: an unrepeatable mix of genres that blends the best musical feelings of that period, marking the debut of "pop." The album somehow, indeed, marks the transition of the Clash from punk to the experimentation belonging to the concurrent new wave movement, a brief interlude before returning to a softer, less inspired, and more catchy punk in the subsequent album "Combat Rock."
The album opens with the rap of "The Magnificent Seven," one of the most significant tracks, and is followed by various, but brief, changes in rhythm and melody that impress the listener without ever annoying or tiring them. The Clash dedicate themselves to experimenting with new and different sounds, skillfully combined with voices of various intonations and noises of different nature, both natural and artificial ("Ivan Meet G.I. Joe").
In the album, there is ample time to try and successfully compose tracks that include jazz and swing ("Look Here"), and even waltz ("Rebel Waltz"). They are built on long and fascinating echoes ("The Crooked Beat"), and the melody never leaves the listener, surprising them with tunes that, upon superficial listening, might be defined as mere ditties ("Up in Heaven"). The motif changes, passing several times through dub ("Let's Go Crazy") and returning briefly to punk in its most classic sense ("Police on My Back").
In this album, in addition to including more musical styles belonging to hip hop, we find reggae tracks ("Junco Partner," "One More Time"), black - funky and soul - ("The Sound of the Sinners"), and I believe it could even be considered the precursor of trip hop ("The Equaliser").
The desire to "cross boundaries" from world music to country - folk ("Lose This Skin") makes listening to "Sandinista" a continuous experience of new sensations and exceptional moments. "Silicone on Sapphire" hypnotizes by alternating the singing between the left and right channels and "Version Pardner" is an alternative dub version of "Junco Partner," almost tried by chance in the recording studio, which would normally be discarded in another situation, yet here it is perfectly placed in a record where everything is different, and anything can find its rightful place.
The experiments and blends follow one another, creating a transversal work that enters and exits every genre, passing through the noise rock of "Mensforth Hill," where the gloomy setting is realized not only by the music but especially by the lyrics of "Something About England" sung backwards with some verses from "If Music Could Talk."
By mixing these countless musical varieties, a unique result is achieved that overflows from every genre and does not fully fit into any definition.
Punk is mature to be revolutionized, and the Clash are the first to do it, transforming it and shaping it to their liking, without forgetting who they are and what they have done, writing and playing all sorts of music, creating a rhythm never heard again in their albums.
The Clash is one of the most significant bands of the '80s, and "Sandinista" marks the musical beginning of that decade 30 years ago. The triple LP is a turning point not only musically but also commercially: no one at that time had ever thought of including so many compositions in a single album, produced moreover on a medium, vinyl, meant to hold music for just over 50 minutes.
Bold and ambitious, not pretentious as many defined it at the time, it is a project, or experiment as it is best described, ultimately successful even in its packaging, desired at a special price; it is a collage of new and brilliant ideas and represents the maturity album of the Clash.
The album can presumably be even defined as the symbol of 1980, as a dense collection of tracks that best embrace all the styles and trends that would be celebrated in the newly begun decade.
Sandinista is ahead of its times, and despite not receiving favorable reviews and acceptance from fans and critics upon its release, it carves a special place in the Clash's discography and also in music history, not only of those '80s.
It is the result of an unparalleled level of compositional inspiration, a work completely different from what was expected, not understood by those who hoped for an album that would return, after "London Calling," to the classic noisy punk sound. The album still today, indeed, can either excite or not, and it is unlikely that anyone with an opinion on this record will change their mind with further listens. It is different both from previous and subsequent works of the London band. It is incomparable, a project similar to it was never realized before and few have pursued it thereafter (The Smashing Pumpkins - "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" fifteen years later and Magnetic Fields - "69 Love Songs" a full twenty years later), but nonetheless, "Sandinista" is an exceptional work, a milestone.
Seen as a revisitation with concurrent reevaluation of many past works, the often excessively positive judgments attributed in reviews of many old records that are nothing more than parts of long discographies of prolific artists, "Sandinista" can only be considered a masterpiece of music, unfortunately very often overlooked.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 The Magnificent Seven (05:30)
Ring! Ring! It's 7 A.M.!
Move y'self to go again
Cold water in the face
Brings you back to this awful place
Knuckle merchants and you bankers, too
Must get up an' learn those rules
Weather man and the crazy chief
One says sun and one says sleet
A.M., the F.M. the P.M. too
Churning out that boogaloo
Gets you up and gets you out
But how long can you keep it up?
Gimme Honda, Gimme Sony
So cheap and real phony
Hong Kong dollars and Indian cents
English pounds and Eskimo pence
You lot! What?
Don't stop! Give it all you got!
You lot! What?
Don't stop! Yeah!
Working for a rise, better my station
Take my baby to sophistication
She's seen the ads, she thinks it's nice
Better work hard - I seen the price
Never mind that it's time for the bus
We got to work - an' you're one of us
Clocks go slow in a place of work
Minutes drag and the hours jerk
"When can I tell 'em wot I do?
In a second, maaan...oright Chuck!"
Wave bub-bub-bub-bye to the boss
It's our profit, it's his loss
But anyway lunch bells ring
Take one hour and do your thanng!
Cheeesboiger!
What do we have for entertainment?
Cops kickin' Gypsies on the pavement
Now the news - snap to attention!
The lunar landing of the dentist convention
Italian mobster shoots a lobster
Seafood restaurant gets out of hand
A car in the fridge
Or a fridge in the car?
Like cowboys do - in T.V. land
You lot! What? Don't stop. Huh?
So get back to work an' sweat some more
The sun will sink an' we'll get out the door
It's no good for man to work in cages
Hits the town, he drinks his wages
You're frettin', you're sweatin'
But did you notice you ain't gettin'?
Don't you ever stop long enough to start?
To take your car outta that gear
Don't you ever stop long enough to start?
To get your car outta that gear
Karlo Marx and Fredrich Engels
Came to the checkout at the 7-11
Marx was skint - but he had sense
Engels lent him the necessary pence
What have we got? Yeh-o, magnificence!!
Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi
Went to the park to check on the game
But they was murdered by the other team
Who went on to win 50-nil
You can be true, you can be false
You be given the same reward
Socrates and Milhous Nixon
Both went the same way - through the kitchen
Plato the Greek or Rin Tin Tin
Who's more famous to the billion millions?
News Flash: Vacuum Cleaner Sucks Up Budgie
Oooohh...bub-bye
Magnificence!!
FUCKING LONG, INNIT?
02 Hitsville U.K. (04:21)
They cried the tears, they shed the fears
Up and down the land
They stole guitars or used guitars
So the tape would understand.
Without even the slightest hope of a 1000 sales
Just as if there was a Hitsville in UK
Know the boy was all alone, till the Hitsville UK.
They say true talent will always emerge in time
When lightening hits small wonder
It's fast rough factory trade
No expense accounts, or lunch discounts
Or hypeing up the charts
The band went in 'n' knocked 'em dead in 2 min. 59.
No slimey deals, with smarmy eels - in Hitsville UK
Let's shake 'n' say we'll operate in Hitsville UK
The mutants, creeps and muscle men
Are shaking like a leaf
It blows a hole in the radio
When it hasn't sounded good all week
A mike 'n' boom, in your living room - in Hitsville UK
No consumer trials, or A.O.R. in Hitsville UK
Now the boys and girls are not alone
Now the Hitsvilles hit UK.
03 Junco Partner (04:52)
''[Chorus:]''
Down the road came a Junco Partner
Boy, he was loaded as can be
He was knocked out, knocked out loaded
He was a'wobblin' all over the street
Singing 6 months ain't no sentence
Yeah, and one year ain't no time
I was born in Angola
Serving 14 to 99
Well I wish I had me one million dollars
Oh, one million to call my own
I would raise me, and say, "grow for me baby"
Raise me a tobacco farm
Take a walk, Take a walk, Junco Partner
Well, when I had me a great deal of money
Yeah, I had mighty good things all over town
Now I ain't got no more money
All of my good friends they're putting me down
So now I gotta pawn my ratchet and pistol
Yeah I'm gonna pawn my watch and chain
I would have pawned my sweet Gabriella
But the smart girl she wouldn't sign her name
''[Chorus]''
Well I'm down, yes I'm getting thirsty
Pour me out a good beer, when I'm dry
Just, just give me whisky, when I'm thirsty
Give me headstone when I die.
Down the road.
04 Ivan Meets G.I. Joe (03:05)
So you're on the floor, at 54
Think you can last – at the palace
Does your body go to the to and fro?
But tonight's the night – or didn't you know
That Ivan meets G.I. Joe
He tried his tricks- that ruskie bear
The united nations said it's all fair
He did the radiation – the chemical plague
But he could not win – with a cossack spin
The Vostok bomb – the Stalin strike
He tried every move – he tried to hitch hike
He drilled a hole – like a russian star
He made every move in his repertoire
When Ivan meet G.I. Joe
Now it was G.I. Joe's turn to blow
He turned it on – cool and slow
He tried a payphone call to the pentagon
A radar scan – a leviathan
He wiped the earth – clean as a plate
What does it take to make a ruskie break?
But the crowd are bored and off they go
Over the road to watch china blow!
When Ivan meets G.I. Joe
05 The Leader (01:41)
Atom secrets, secret leaflet
Have the boys found the leak yet?
The molehill sets the wheel in motion
His downfall picks up locomotion
The people must have something good to read on a Sunday
The leader's wife takes a government car
In the dark to meet her minister
But the leader never leaves his door ajar
As he swings his whip from the Boer War
He wore a leather mask for his dinner guests
Totally nude and with deep respect
Proposed a toast to the votes he gets
The feeling of power and the thought of sex!
Now the girl let the fat man touch her
Vodka fumes and the feel of a vulture
The driver waited in the embassy car
The fat man's trap was set for capture
So the girl let the thin man touch her
Mixing questions, drunken laughter
The ministry car was waiting there
A minister knows his own affair
The people must have something good to read on a Sunday
07 Rebel Waltz (03:25)
I slept and I dreamed of a time long ago
I saw an army of rebels, dancing on air
I dreamed as I slept, I could see the campfires,
A song of the battle, that was born in the flames,
and the rebels were waltzing on air.
I danced with a girl to the tune of a waltz
that was written to be danced on the battlefield
I danced to the tune of a voice of a girl
A voice that called, Stand till we fall
we stand till all the boys fall.
As we danced came the news that the war was not won
5 armies were coming, with carrige and gun
Through the heart of the camp
swept the news from the front
A cloud crossed the moon, a child cried for food
We knew the war could not be won.
So we danced with a rifle, to the rhythm of the gun
in a glade through the trees i saw my only one
Then the earth seemed to rise hell hot as the sun
The soldiers were dying, there was tune to the sighing.
The song was an old rebel one.
As the smoke of our hopes rose high from the field
My eyes played tricks through the moon and the trees
I slept as I dreamed I saw the army rise
A voice began to call, stand till you fall
The tune was an old rebel one.
08 Look Here (02:45)
Look here!
What d'you think you're
Gonna be doin' next year?
No lie...
How you know you're not
Gonna up and die?
No doubt...
Soon enough your friends
Will find you out
Take care...
You know you might not have
Too much time to spare
I say...
How long have you been acting
Up this way?
One knows...
When you gonna get
Your own floorshow
I'm hip...
And you could use a button
On your lip
Look here
What d'you think you're
Gonna be doing next year
I'm hip!
09 The Crooked Beat (05:28)
Start the car lets make a midnight run
Across the river to South London
To dance to the latest hi-fi sound
Of bass, guitar and drum
Seeking out a rhythm that can take the pressure off
Stepping in and out of that crooked crooked beat
Take a piece of cloth, a coin for thirst
For the sweat will start to run
With a cymbal splash, a word of truth
And a rocking bass and drum
Seeking out a rhythm that can take the pressure on
Stepping in and out of that crooked crooked beat
So one by one they come on down
From the tower blocks of my home town
Stepping with the rhythm of the rockers beat
Drowning out the pressure of the crooked beat
Seeking out a rhythm that can take the tension on
Stepping in and out of that crooked crooked beat
It has crooked past this crooked street
Where cars patrol this crooked beat
Badges flsh and sirens wail
They'll be taking one and all to jail
Prance! Prance! You want a law to dance?
10 Somebody Got Murdered (03:33)
Someone lights a cigarette
While riding in a car
Some ol' guy takes a swig
And passes back the jar
But where they were last night
No-one can remember
Somebody got murdered
Goodbye, for keeps, forever
Somebody got murdered
Somebody's dead forever
And you're minding your own business
Carrying spare change
You wouldn't cosh a barber
You're hungry all the same
I been very tempted
To grab it from the till
I been very hungry
But not enough to kill
Somebody got murdered
His name cannot be found
A small stain on the pavement
They'll scrub it off the ground
As the daily crown disperses
No-one says that much
Somebody got murdered
And it' left me with a touch
Somebody got murdered
Somebody's dead forever
Sounds like murder!
Those shouts!
Are they drunk down below?
It's late, and my watch stopped
Some time ago
Sounds like murder!
Those screams!
Are they drunk down below?
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Other reviews
By peeck
In just four years, the Clash transitioned from champions of raw, street punk to a refined rock band with a 360-degree musical vision.
The English critics initially received this masterpiece lukewarmly, only to later elevate this complex album to its rightful rank among the most ambitious works of rock music.
By bjork68
I was listening to an incredibly multifaceted work, with a thousand facets, an overwhelming big bang of genius and creativity.
With Sandinista! this eclectic and surprising group bequeaths us a timeless masterpiece that still disconcerts and fascinates.
By ChaosA.D.
"Sandinista! certainly does not go unnoticed!"
It shows that you can break the bars of that prison known as labels or musical genres and create something new and absolutely honest.
By hoamazzatokenny
This is music without gossip or scoops around. Only the lyrics and voice of Strummer, Jones’ musical inventions, Simonon’s love for the sounds of the third world, and Topper’s technique.
Sandinista! is an album that must be listened to. Even if just to shut up those who tell you, 'I listen to a bit of everything...' and then that everything is just what’s served to them by the radio at work.
