at a glance...

Hometown: London, England
Formed: 1975

Members:
Joe Strummer -vocals, guitar, songwriting
Mick Jones -vocals, guitar, songwriting
Paul Simonon -bass, vocals, songwriting
Nicky "Topper" Headon -drums
Mikey Dread -producer, toasting
Tymon Dogg -violin, vocals
Ellen Foley -vocals

Bands in the family :
Mikey Dread, Big Audio Dynamite, Big Audio Dynamite II, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Allen Ginsberg, Ellen Foley

Imagine you're The Clash. You've just made one of the greatest records in rock 'n' roll history, one which over the course of four sides of vinyl (one CD, for you digital kids) essays punk, rockabilly, reggae, disco, pop, and jazz-what do you do for an encore? Well, if you really WERE The Clash, you'd make one of the longest records in rock 'n' roll history, one which over the course of six sides of vinyl (two CDs) essays all of the above categories and some new ones: heavy dub, electronica, hip-hop, avant-folk, Broadway-styled ballads, children's choir versions of first-album Clash songs, Motown soul, skiffle, and some surprisingly effective gospel, among others. You'd title it as a tribute to the commie insurgents in Nicaragua, you'd offer the thing for the price of a double album, and a lot of people would be baffled as hell. Sure, some critics would vote it album of the year (Village Voice Pazz & Jop), but others would say it was bloated and pretentious and just not what you should have done.

Well, screw them and the beer-stained notebook they rode in on; this huge monstrosity is a freakin' masterpiece. What, are we going to start penalizing records for trying too hard, bands for being too generous? C'mon kids, that's how we got Warrant. I'm not denying that there's a classic album-and-a-half hiding in here, but don't make me choose "the good stuff" over filler that's crept into my heart in the last 20 years. Everyone'd put "Police on My Back" on their tape but me; I'd be too busy with the surreal double-tracked Joe Strummer monologues that form "If Music Could Talk," or the steel drum easy ambient electronic skank of "Silicone and Sapphire." In fact, when I received my review copy of Sandinista! I realized I didn't really need it, because I know every word, every note, every sound on this album. And it holds up, for me, better than London Calling, because it's bigger, more experimental, weirder, and more all-around Clashlike. How messed up is it to have the whole thing produced and dubbed-out by the inimitable Mikey Dread, the Jonathan Richman of dub? Way messed up - but brilliant.

Yeah, there are missteps: do we need both "Junco Pardner" and "Version Pardner"? Is it imperative that Strummer's old busking buddy Tymon Dogg really sing and play shrieking violin on "Lose That Skin"? And why sequence the album so that so many down-tempo things show up at the end? But these are glorious missteps that prove the breadth of ambition and love for music that pervade Sandinista! It's the damndest thing you ever heard, and it's fully beautiful in spots ("Rebel Waltz" and "Broadway" are in the Top 10 of Clash songs in my heart), and it wears its big humanist/socialist/internationalist heart on its sleeve. When Jim Titus and David Holbrook and I decided in high school that this was the greatest record ever made, we were wrong. But it might become one of your favorite albums, which is very different from being merely great.

So open up. Let the dub light in. Wallow in Sandinista! I'll see you on the other side. We'll both be the ones smiling.

If you like The Clash, check out:

The Clash London Calling
The Clash Live: From Here To Eternity
The Clash The Clash
The Clash Give 'Em Enough Rope
The Clash Super Black Market Clash
The Clash Combat Rock
Various Feel Like Jumping: Best Of Studio One Women
Various In The Red Zone (Essential Collection of Classic Dub)
Various Rare Reggae Grooves from Studio One
Prince Emancipation
Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs
Mikey Dread Happy Family/African Anthem

-- Matt Cibula