Do I need to own Sandinista?

If not only for "Up In Heaven (Not Only Here)"

You probably don't need to own Combat Rock, though.

Yes, you should buy the album.

thanks jazzbo!

How about a little love for Broadway, which is easily one of Joe Strummer's best vocal performances.

Plus, there's Charlie Don't Surf, Something About England, and The Street Parade.

A sprawling, weird classic. Much better than Combat Rock.

TS: "MAGNIFICENT SEVEN" Album version or "From Here to Eternity" live version?

***************************

vote one for from here to eternity

POX Sandinista:
The Magnificent Seven
Something About England
Somebody Got Murdered
Up In Heaven (Not Only Here)
Police On My Back
Washington Bullets
Broadway
Lose This Skin
Charlie Don't Surf
The Street Parade

But get it anyway.

Did/do I have the 2cassette version? I'm not sure.

Oh, and the "Sandinista Now" 1LP version, but that's dull.

remember the guys in the clash were influenced by the local reggae scene
in which they lived and worked

PUNK=REGGAE went hand in hand in the punk days in london in the late
seventies I know I was there.....

If you just want trash get the best of the clash...
cheers all...

Reminiscent of something that wouldn't exist for another year, instead of I dunno the Holland-Dozier-Holland aesthetic in general?

As I said before in answer to thread question, absolutely.

xpost: Cut the Crap is the one no one needs, and I'm lukewarm to Combat Rock even if "Should I Stay..." has entered the common parlance.

I'm listening to this for the first time. It reminds me of Ill Communication for some reason.

ah! I remember hearing it for the first time!

Me too. My dad sent me a copy for Christmas in 1980, along with the Boys Don't Cry by the Cure (Christmas, on my dad's calendar came somewhere between April and July of the following year). I was 14, and it was the first punk music I'd ever heard. Immediately loved the Cure, took several months to get my head around the Clash. At first it sounded like a tossed-off, tuneless mess. I listened to it compulsively though, trying to figure out what songs to put on one side of a 90-minute TDK reduction. In the long run, it's easily my favorite Clash album, and one of my favorite records period.

P.S. Combat Rock gets dissed cuz it so obviously wants to go pop, but the best stuff there is better than anything on Sandinista!

By which I mean, Straight To Hell > Sandinista!

Just got The Sandinista! Project last week, and it's hugely enjoyable.

Definitely the best Clash album, followed by Combat Rock.

I always thought the orthodox view regarding Clash albums was strange. The two worst (the debut and "London's Calling") were lauded to the skies, and the two best were vilified. And this by their "fans"!

I think the original band of Clash groupies (Tony Parsons et al.) just didn't like music at all. The Clash were an action-adventure, so when they disappeared for months in the studio to actually craft something worth listening to, they were spoiling the fun of the accolytes.

If more people started with "Sandindista", there'd be a lot less Clash-hate in the world today.

There is something in that, yes.

P.S. Combat Rock gets dissed cuz it so obviously wants to go pop

An interesting remark, because apart from the two singles there's nothing pop about it! I mean, "Ghetto Defendant," "Car Jamming," and "Straight to Hell" are three of the oddest songs found on a Top Ten album.

Sandinista is a must have album, believe me.

are any of the 'sandinista!' tracks known outside the album?

i think my local classic rock station growing up would play singles off 'london calling' and 'combat rock', weirdly enough considering how they absolutely would not play any other punk(-related) music

but i'm pretty sure they gave 'sandinista!' a complete pass

wiki sez 'Hitsville UK" got to #53 in the US, which sounds about right. I was listening to FM radio a lot during 1981 and MIGHT have heard "Police On My Back" a few times, but that was it. "Magnificent 7" made a dent in the US "club" charts, #21.

I fucking love this album btw, along with the "super" version of Black Market Clash this is the one I keep coming back to. secret weapon tracks abound - Something About England, Lose This Skin, Street Parade...

That's a mistake re "Hitsville"'s US chart placing.

Yeah, it didn't chart in the U.S. at all.

As I recall "The Call Up" and "Police On My Back" got a bit of AOR play in Detroit, but it was extremely limited (possibly even just on Sunday night new wave shows) -- nothing like "I Fought The Law," "Train In Vain," or the Combat Rock singles. And I think "Magnificent Seven" may have hit Billboard's dance chart -- The instrumental B-side version "Magnificent Dance" apparently got club play in New York, too.

Wikipedia shows "Hitsville" hitting #53 on the US Mainstream Rock Chart, which wouldn't have been impossible (and is primarily based on radio play); but it definitely didn't touch the Hot 100.

Only Clash singles to chart in the US were "Train in Vain" (#21), "Rock the Casbah" (#8), and "Should I Stay" (#45).

I think "Hitsville" got to number 53 in the UK

See, I have the 3lp, the 2cd, the 2minidisc and I'm fairly sure I have the 2 cassette version.

Still tempted to get the 3cd 'l.p. Facsimile' that is the latest version

But, hey.

Yeah, get the original and this too
Just got The Sandinista! Project last week, and it's hugely enjoyable.

― Pete Scholtes, Friday, August 31, 2007 1:12 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Some details here:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-05-08/music/a-track-by-track-clash-tribute-that-cuts-the-crap/full/

Producer Guterman threatened to continue with The Self-Portrait Project and others: reworking all "the worst albums by the best artists." It might be happening---TSP took several years.

But what happens when the albums get reappraised and common consensus changes?

Think The Sandinista! Project stands as an adventurous re-exploration, whatever you think of the original (my take/interest has varied over the years), and so might The Self-Portrait Project, Lord willing. (But also, I suspect Jimmy Guterman was being a bit tongue-in-cheek in those cases: they prob aren't the artists' worst.)

someone lights a cigarette
while riding in a car
some old guy takes a swig
and passes back the jar

^ I absolutely love that song. I still don't own Sandinista but one day I will

^ I absolutely love that song. I still don't own Sandinista but one day I will

Love it so much I had to say it twice

The lights clicked off in the bedsits
An' old England was all alone

People tend not to dislike the same songs so yes you need it

Yeah, get the original and this too
Just got The Sandinista! Project last week, and it's hugely enjoyable.

― Pete Scholtes, Friday, August 31, 2007 1:12 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Some details here:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-05-08/music/a-track-by-track-clash-tribute-that-cuts-the-crap/full/

― dow, Saturday, August 9, 2014

Of course now it's more a matter of "Should I stream?"

"get (or now, stream) the original and this too" is my advice in that post, not Pete's, but think he concurred re the original as well.

Sandinista is an ideal record for the streaming era because it makes it a lot easier for any listener to cut out the fifteen or twenty duds they will inevitably encounter according to their preference.