Sandinista!

Sandinista! is the fourth album by the punk rock band The Clash, and their most experimental. Sandinista! was released in 1980 as a triple album containing 36 tracks, with 6 songs on each side. Some critics have argued that the album would have worked better as a smaller project, it being too ambitious, with many tracks put in as filler to reach the 36 song quota. Others think of the album as a breakthrough that deserves comparison to the Beatles' White Album. It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll.

Related Topics:
Punk rock - The Clash - 1980 - Beatles' - White Album - The Village Voice - Pazz & Jop

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The album was recorded over most of 1980, in London and New York. It was produced by the band (which, essentially, meant guitarist Mick Jones), and engineered by Bill Price and Jeremy Green. Dub versions for some of the songs and toasting was done by Mikey Dread, who had first hooked up with the band for their 1980 single Bankrobber. The album clearly displays the influence of reggae and in particular producer Lee Perry (who had worked with the band on their 1977 single Complete Control), with a dense, echoey sound on even the straightahead rock songs.

Related Topics:
London - New York - Bill Price - Jeremy Green - Dub - Toasting - Mikey Dread - Reggae - Lee Perry

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When recording began in New York bass guitarist Paul Simonon was busy making a film, and he was replaced briefly by Blockheads bassist Norman Watt-Roy; this later caused some bad feeling when Watt-Roy and keyboard player Mickey Gallagher, a fellow Blockhead, claimed they were responsible for co-composing the song The Magnificent Seven. Dread, too, was upset that he was not credited as the album's producer. Other guests on the album include singer Ellen Foley (Jones' partner at the time), Richard Hell's guitarist Ivan Julien, and Strummer's old busking buddy Tymon Dogg, who plays violin, sings on and is credited with writing the track Lose This Skin; he later joined Strummer's band The Mescaleros.

Related Topics:
Paul Simonon - Blockheads - Norman Watt-Roy - Mickey Gallagher - Ellen Foley - Richard Hell - Ivan Julien - Tymon Dogg - The Mescaleros

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For the first time, the band's traditional songwriting credits of Strummer/Jones were replaced by a generic credit to "The Clash". This is also the only Clash album on which all four members have a lead vocal.

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Three singles were released from the album in the UK: The Call Up, Hitsville UK and The Magnificent Seven. The latter deserves mention as possibly the first-ever British rap single.

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The title comes from the left-wing guerilla organization of Nicaragua, the Sandinistas, who the previous year had overthrown the dictator Anastasio Somoza. It has been said that Margaret Thatcher, no fan of left-wing guerrillas, wanted to ban the word sandinista, instigating The Clash to choose it as the title of their next album.

Related Topics:
Nicaragua - Sandinistas - Anastasio Somoza - Margaret Thatcher - Guerrilla

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In January, 2000 this album along with the rest of the Clash's catalog was remastered and re-released.

Related Topics:
January - 2000 - Album - Clash's

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