sandinista! 3
i can't even pick a favorite side.
1: gets docked a notch for "hitsville u.k." (featuring jones' then-g/f ellen foley, 'member her?) and the silly cold war boo-shee of "ivan meets g.i. joe," but still boasts opening hip-hop salvo "the magnificent seven" (which included the oft-quoted-by-me line "cold water in the face / brings us back to this dreadful place"); an off-kilter-sounding version of the nawlins pianner staple "junco partner" (previously covered by strummer with the 101'ers); and "something about england," an historical overview cut at the dawn of the thatcher era. read the lyrics and weep.
2: worthwhile for simonon's follow-up to "guns of brixton," "the crooked beat;" jones' "somebody got murdered" (the closest thing to a "classic" -- e.g., first album -- clash song here besides the cover of eddie grant's "police on my back"); and strummer's reggaefied "one more time" in its 'riginal and dubwise versions.
3: i consider thisun the _speerchul_ side, between "lightning strikes (not once but twice)," "up in heaven (not only here)," and especially the cod-gospel "the sound of the sinners" ("after all these years / to believe in jesus / after all these drugs / i thought i was him"). there's also the caribbean flavor of "let's go crazy" to get your mind dancing.
4: besides the aforementioned "police on my back," this side contains the alb's, um, _ideological centerpieces_, namely "the call up" and "washington bullets," making it the most enduringly topical '80s release this side of three-way tie for last.
5: leading off with "lose this skin," featuring timon dog in the role of johnny-rotten-as-angry-fiddling-leprechaun, there's the backward-tape experimentalismo of "mensforth hill," the harrowing "junkie slip," and "the street parade," which wouldn't have sounded out of place on strummer's elegiac, veledictory streetcore set.
6: this dub-heavy side was the one i listened to the least back in the day, but now it's one of my faves, particularly for late-night spins, especially mikey dread's reworkings of "washington bullets" (the beautifully titled "silicone on sapphire"), "junco partner" ("version pardner"), and "police and thieves" (the closing "shepherd's delight"). not to mention the kid-sung version of "career opportunities."
when sandinista! was new, in response to an interviewer's observation that "there's a lot of stuff on there" (or words to that effect), strummer replied, "it's supposed to take you a year to get through." i could easily spend a year listening to the needle dig into these grooves again.
1: gets docked a notch for "hitsville u.k." (featuring jones' then-g/f ellen foley, 'member her?) and the silly cold war boo-shee of "ivan meets g.i. joe," but still boasts opening hip-hop salvo "the magnificent seven" (which included the oft-quoted-by-me line "cold water in the face / brings us back to this dreadful place"); an off-kilter-sounding version of the nawlins pianner staple "junco partner" (previously covered by strummer with the 101'ers); and "something about england," an historical overview cut at the dawn of the thatcher era. read the lyrics and weep.
2: worthwhile for simonon's follow-up to "guns of brixton," "the crooked beat;" jones' "somebody got murdered" (the closest thing to a "classic" -- e.g., first album -- clash song here besides the cover of eddie grant's "police on my back"); and strummer's reggaefied "one more time" in its 'riginal and dubwise versions.
3: i consider thisun the _speerchul_ side, between "lightning strikes (not once but twice)," "up in heaven (not only here)," and especially the cod-gospel "the sound of the sinners" ("after all these years / to believe in jesus / after all these drugs / i thought i was him"). there's also the caribbean flavor of "let's go crazy" to get your mind dancing.
4: besides the aforementioned "police on my back," this side contains the alb's, um, _ideological centerpieces_, namely "the call up" and "washington bullets," making it the most enduringly topical '80s release this side of three-way tie for last.
5: leading off with "lose this skin," featuring timon dog in the role of johnny-rotten-as-angry-fiddling-leprechaun, there's the backward-tape experimentalismo of "mensforth hill," the harrowing "junkie slip," and "the street parade," which wouldn't have sounded out of place on strummer's elegiac, veledictory streetcore set.
6: this dub-heavy side was the one i listened to the least back in the day, but now it's one of my faves, particularly for late-night spins, especially mikey dread's reworkings of "washington bullets" (the beautifully titled "silicone on sapphire"), "junco partner" ("version pardner"), and "police and thieves" (the closing "shepherd's delight"). not to mention the kid-sung version of "career opportunities."
when sandinista! was new, in response to an interviewer's observation that "there's a lot of stuff on there" (or words to that effect), strummer replied, "it's supposed to take you a year to get through." i could easily spend a year listening to the needle dig into these grooves again.
posted by stashdauber at 10:56 PM
1 Comments:
funny you're bringing this one up, cuz i've been lately (3 months or so) been thinking about getting a replacement copy of this for the one
that got liberated from me some number of years ago.
things ARE cyclical, and i guess Sandinista! just got its number called again.
and, it WILL take a year to get through--the way i tend to savor things these days. i bought an Ornette lp in 2005 that i have yet to open/listen to. it's just not time.
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