"F***ing long, innit?"-Joe Strummer at the end of the Magnificent Seven
Initially, the idea was to break down Sandinista! and it's tribute, the Sandinista! Project, side versus side and song versus song.
This was mostly due to necessity.
Because, quite simply, there are a few choice words to describe the scope of any project that requires a body to go over thirty six tracks, any number of which are impenetrable to begin with. Those words would be: completely and totally blinkered.
And here I am deciding to do it twice. Again, completely and totally blinkered, right? But there are certain things that you just have to do. Because, being a fan of the Clash is a beautiful and wondrous thing in and unto itself. Like the Who before them, being a fan of the Clash is often more than a passion: it's an effing obligation, man. Because once again, like the Who before them, being a fan of the Clash is being a part of a secret society.
We talk in our own language, where the songs and the albums and the vainglorious anecdotes (apochryphal though they may or may not be) are our secret handshakes and codewords and secret decoder rings. I've actually been at the barbeque, a few of them to be honest, where the hypothetical thunderdome of the Who versus Led Zeppelin came up (for the record, the Who usually wins this one). And I mention this only to put into context how being a fan of the Clash goes beyond the pale of your normal insanity. But, as usual, I must digresss... or this will go nowhere but into visions of the Westway to the world and fedoras and Jackson Pollack...
Really, I could do this all night.
And so, the decision was made to break the albums down and compare them side by side, song versus song. This allowed me the opportunity to re-examine each song in a renewed and objective light. To listen, as it is, as something more than a newbie Clash fan (which I kind of was when I originially bought this album), disappointed and titillated at the same time that this album was not London Calling mk. II.
In that initial listening response, I imagine I wasn't alone.
Additionally, in the process of grouping the songs together, I remembered something so plainly obvious that it became embarassing. I remembered what it felt like to listen to vinyl.
I remembered, for the first time in ages, the sublime perfection with which U2 blended "Bullet the Blue Sky" into "Running to Stand Still" and the anticipation I felt when I used to flip the record over into the opening arpeggio's of "Red Hill Mining Town." I remembered the spirit of '91, in which Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chili Peppers both delivered incredibly career defining albums, both mixed for vinyl, trapped on cd. They indelibly bled song into song, stopping only for the space in which you would flip the record over (between "Jeremy" and "Oceans" on Ten and "Give It Away" and "Blood Sugar Sex Magic" on, uh... Blood Sugar Sex Magic).
That these artists thought in terms of sides A and B led me to the first revelation of The Sandinista! Project and its namesake for which it was made: Originally, this was a three lp project. That means, three side A's and three side B's.
An act of hubris on the part of the Clash? To be sure. Especially when considering that it was one of those "dinosaur moves" that punk rock was supposed to eliminate altogether. Complicated and messy and beautiful? Also, to be sure.
But what I really realized was that I'd been listening to Sandinista! wrong all along. I'd been listening to it as a double cd. At my worst, I'd mixed it down to a more manageable hip-hop 70 minutes. So, of course, the original article never stood a chance. If, for one reason more than all the others put together, I'd never heard the original article.
Since U2's aforementioned Joshua Tree, tracklisting has become a formulaic excercise in record making. Like U2 before them, most artists these days frontload their albums, making sure that it's impossible to stop the record for at least the first three songs. Until ambivalence sets in, anyhow.
But this, Sandinista! is something different altogether. Viewing it as six songs by six sides, what seemed like dubious tracklisting instantly became more understandable. The artist's vision opened up and revealed itself to me.
By breaking the work down into two wholes as opposed to the original three, the vision of the artist became difficult, muddy and unsympathetic. Grouping that work back into sides A and B, as opposed to disc 1 and 2, restores the original balance even if just a little.
Which is completely necessary when dealing with 36 songs. Twice.
Armed with this revelation, Sandinista! has already become less daunting and less of a taxing prospect. Now, its more of a beautiful proposition, wide open for interpretation and discovery.
With that in mind, here's the docket for Sandinista! and its tribute:
DISC ONE:
Side A.
-the Magnificent Seven
-Hitsville U.K.
-Junco Partner
-Ivan Meets G.I.Joe
-the Leader
-Something About England
Side B.
-Rebel Waltz
-Look Here
-The Crooked Beat
-Somebody Got Murdered
-One More Time
-One More Dub
***with the inclusion of "One More Dub" at the end here, this is obviously the safest of the three lp's. While not necessarily a barn burner of a charting record, this lp provides the safest and most reliable of songwriting on all three records. "One More Dub" is, at most, like the bonus remix track on most marketable records these days. Back then, they dubbed. Now, we remix.
Tomatoe... Tomahtoe...
DISC TWO:
Side A.
-Lightning Strikes (Not Once but Twice)
-Up In Heaven (Not Only Here)
-Corner Soul
-Let's Go Crazy
-If Music Could Talk
-The Sound of Sinners
Side B.
-Police on My Back
-Midnight Log
-The Equalizer
-The Call Up
-Washington Bullets
-Broadway
***In modern marketing terms, this would be a b-sides and rarities sorta disc. Most likely, a collection of oddities featuring songs as strong as most of their singles but lacking the cohesion to be included in the main event. But really, most of my favorite songs are on this disc and they feature the Clash stretching out at their craziest.
DISC THREE:
Side A.
-Lose This Skin
-Charlie Don't Surf
-Mensforth Hill
-Junkie Slip
-Kingston Advice
-The Street Parade
Side B.
-Version City
-Living in Fame
-Silicone on Sapphire
-Version Pardner
-Career Opportunities
-Shepherds Delight
***Again, in modern marketing terms, this would be the remix disc that the record company would trot out in order to get you to buy the record for... the third time. Half lazy, half inspired remixes? Check. Haphazard arrangements that showed more forethough put into the drug of choice? Check.... But don't be fooled. There is some crazy brilliant stuff on this lp. Its just hard to find because so much of it is just so... crazy.
Alright, now that we've mapped out the genome of this monster, let's get on to the actuall reviewin', yeah?
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