The Clash "Sandinista!" album goes 40 today.
I always saw it as a record for people on oil rigs or Arctic stations.
- Joe Strummer on "Sandinista!"
By 1980, The Clash had fallen in love with New York, where they were recording "Sandinista!" following up "London Calling", released in the states the previous December. NYC, 1980: Punk was unleashing torrents of fury down in the basement dives, while disco was turning the beat around upstairs in the studios. Hip-hop and rap were spreading through those mean streets faster than cheap cocaine. Downtown, the jazz scene was tearing tradition a new blowhole. Funk and R&B, foundational components of disco, hip-hop, and jazz, raged as they had since rent parties were invented. A musical melting pot to go with the city's socio-cultural cauldron. Whether they were conscious of it or not, The Clash had reached the peak of their creative arc - "London Calling" split open The Clash's creative nut and out spilled unfettered brilliance: the sprawling, squalling 3LP "Sandinista!", more than twice as long as its predecessor. Source of the album's title and a matching postcard were set in the loping 'Washington Bullets', a scorecard of U.S. foreign policy in Central America.
- Raoul Hernandez: The Magnificent Seven (The Austin Chronicle, 2000)
It might be grammatically incorrect in literal terms to call a triple album a thing of two halves, but that's what The Clash produced in 1980. Essentially, "Sandinista!" is divided between The Clash made of win and The Clash made of lose - and the latter, unfortunately, easily wins out.
In rock music terms, things had moved on from the birth of punk in 1976. Highly politicised second-wave UK punks such as Crass and Discharge were lurking, ready to make bands such as The Clash look like bloated, cash-corrupted anachronisms in a much more effective way than Strummer and Co. had done for prog four years earlier. But the proof on "Sandinista!" suggests the opposite.
When people say that "Sandinista!" would have been killer as a single album, what they never go on to say (but should) is that it would have been a killer single reggae album. With the help of advisors Mikey Dread and Don Letts, they had nailed down tight what they'd failed to capture on previous attempts such as 'Bankrobber' and Junior Murvin's 'Police and Thieves'. The rest of this two-and-a-half-hour slog represents The Clash at their saloon bar romantic, ramshackle rock‘n’roll, lame pastiche and skiffle-punk worst. It is this unadventurous side.
In 1980, The Clash released "Sandinista!", six sides of vinyl that's considered one of the worst albums of all time. But is there a classic album lurking inside its 36 tracks?
To a young punk, coming across "Sandinista!" for the first time is a bit like a 7 year-old facing down a heaped plate of strange food in a restaurant. The sheer volume defeats them before they even start picking their way through it. And then the questions start: "What’re these?" "Chick peas." "What’s this?" "Okra." "This?" "Coriander..." "Sandinista!" is the same: there’s too much of it, the flavours are weird and sometimes it’s hard to know what anything is.
A triple album for the price of a single, The Clash's fourth album is a sprawling, genre-defying, self-indulgent snapshot of a band run wild. Emboldened by the success of "London Calling", free of manager Bernie Rhodes, and stoned out of their fucking minds, The Clash delivered an album seemingly tailor-made to piss off CBS and confuse the more conservative elements of their fanbase ("You want punk rock? Try this, sunshine!"). And that was a major problem in 1980 - when these islands echoed with the sound of fans lifting and dropping the needle across all six sides looking for a 'Safe European Home', 'Janie Jones' or even a 'Rudie Can't Fail' and asking themselves one single question: "Seriously: what the fuck are The Clash anymore?"
Even today it's understandable. The cliche/true-ism about any double album is that it'd make a great single album - "Sandinista!" surely stands alone as a triple album you could also edit into a really shit double. But as two sides of vinyl it would've done alright: 'The Magnificent Seven', 'Police On My Back', 'Washington Bullets', 'The Street Parade', 'If Music Could Talk', 'Something About England' and 'One More Time' alone could have provided the spine of an album that touched on funk, punk, calypso, rock, reggae and rap and would be talked about in hushed tones today.
Back in 1980 (pre-CD programming or the ability to make your own playlist) "Sandinista!" was a headache - and a head album, music for stoners - an indulgence to rank alongside the worst excesses of prog rock. Today it’d probably win the Mercury Prize. And that’s the thing. Time has changed "Sandinista!". The context and expectations have changed. If you don't come to it hoping for punk rock, you're less likely to be disappointed. If you do come to it knowing that it's a patience-testing mess that nevertheless contains some gems, then things get interesting.
- Scott Rowley: The 48 minute long classic album hidden inside The Clash's Sandinista! (Louder Sound, 2016)The way we consume "Sandinista!" has changed too.
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