Sunday night ended up with a bit of an impromptu gathering in our garden due to it being a bank holiday Monday the following day and very warm and sunny. The drinking started at about 5pm and carried on through til late. The neighbours were all given the benefit of various albums and compilations playing from inside the house out into the garden, starting off with the Mastercuts Classic House comp (vinyl, sounding a bit crackly and worn in places), then the first four sides of Sandinista!, with the switch from Voodoo Ray to The Magnificent 7 working very well indeed. Sandinista! works really well on cd, and Mick Jones' remastering on the Sound System edition is spectacular, revealing new delights with almost every listen.
Side 2 of Sandinista! is essentially a Clash mixtape, opening with Rebel Waltz, a much overlooked moment of brilliance, a Mose Allison cover, some sweltering Simonon dub (The Crooked Beat), a blinding rock song (Somebody Got Murdered) and then The Clash and Mikey Dread kicking it out in a proper reggae style with One More Time and it's dub sister. One More Time is Strummer's depiction of ghetto poverty and the civil rights movement of the 60s, with the band on fire in the Electric Ladyland studio. It is followed by Mikey Dread's heavier dubbed out version.
One More Time
One More Dub
7 comments:
Sounds like the perfect way to spend an evening.
it does that. I have always been much derided for my love of Sandinista
I am coming to the conclusion that it may be their best album.
Behind London Calling.
I'm glad you added that caveat SA! I agree completely.
you are right about the cd, it does sound great. And it is like a mixtape - which is probably why i love it so much
For a band that were little concerned with the monumental and more concerned with the plight of those holding up the monuments, Sandinista! is both monumental in its bravado as well as its reflection of the life and times it was made in.
And THANK YOU for raising up Somebody Got Murdered to the recognition it so deserves. To this day, it sends shivers up my spine with its urgency. It is a compelling Rock and Roll song! Whenever I program a Clash playlist I revert to coupling Train In Vain with Somebody Got Murdered - the many amazing facets of Mick Jones.
The intro to Somebody Got Murdered and the rush through to the first vocal line is hair raising
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