Resequencing ‘Sandinista!’

I love the Clash, the U.K. rock band that did the most to push popular music past the tedium of the 1970s disco era and prove that the hard-driving punk/“new wave” sound wasn’t just a Sex Pistols-style novelty act.  After two relatively unheralded albums, The Clash (1977) and Give ’Em Enough Rope (1978), the group broke through to a wider audience and critical acclaim with their third entry: the double-disc London Caling (1979).  But as much as I love the Clash, I never quite connected with their fourth album: the three-platter Sandinista! (1980), which I bought on vinyl when it was first released.

I appreciated the album’s songs, but Sandinista! seemed like such a hodgepodge of styles and influences that I couldn’t quite wrap my head around its two-hour-plus playing time. For a long time, I’ve thought that if the songs appeared in a different sequence, it might give more body and form to the album, making its songs and the ideas behind them more digestible. I’m sure many a music maven will say that Sandinista!’s enormity and amorphousness is part of its genius, but not every Clash fan (such as the one I see in the mirror) is so astute.

So, for my own amusement, I re-ordered not long ago the sequence of Sandinista!’s songs on my iPhone to give, for me at least, a better sense of rise and fall, of perceptual passage, to the album’s unfolding. I decided to leave the record’s opening track, “The Magnificent Seven,” with its booming bass-line, in place. Imagining in terms of the original six-sided LP (with six songs per side, just like the initial vinyl release), I thought that I would place, if I could, the catchiest songs (potential singles) as the third track on each “side,” giving the “narrative arc” of each something to build up to and depart from, but I also wanted memorable, thought-provoking, groove-worthy tracks for each “side’s” beginning and ending.

Also, I hoped for each song to be followed by another that was different in style and drive, something that stood in contrast to what was just heard, making each number more memorable. However, since there were six of them that stood apart from the other songs, I did decide to put all of the dub tracks on one “side,” and I put the two tracks with children singing (“Broadway” and the remake of “Career Opportunities”) next to each other, so that one would lead into the next. Moreover, I made the three tracks introduced by spoken voices (“Lightning Strikes [Not Once but Twice],” “Let’s Go Crazy,” and “Version City”) the opening numbers for three of the “sides,” as a way to introduce each sequence. Finally, I made sure that each “side” fell within a certain time range, so that my theoretical LP wouldn’t have any sides unworkably longer or shorter than the others.

So, here is what I came up with for my reimagining of the Clash’s Sandinista! (I’m sure you’ll agree it’s time well spent):

Unless otherwise noted, all songs written by the Clash: Topper Headon, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, and Joe Strummer.

Side 1 (24:20)

1. The Magnificent Seven (Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, Topper Headon, Norman Watt-Roy, Mickey Gallagher) (5:33)
2. Rebel Waltz (3:26)
3. Somebody Got Murdered (3:34)
4. Junco Partner (Knocked Out Loaded) (Traditional — Wikipedia says Bob Shad) (4:52)
5. Ivan Meets G.I. Joe (3:05)
6. Washington Bullets (3:52)

Side 2 (22:03)

1. Hitsville U.K. (4:22)
2. The Street Parade (3:27)
3. Police on My Back (Eddy Grant) (3:17)
4. The Equaliser (5:47)
5. The Leader (1:42)
6. One More Time (The Clash, Mikey Dread) (3:32)

Side 3 (24:35)

1. Lightning Strikes (Not Once but Twice) (4:51)
2. The Crooked Beat (5:28)
3. Charlie Don’t Surf (4:54)
4. Midnight Log (2:10)
5. Corner Soul (2:42)
6. Up in Heaven (Not Only Here) (4:32)

Side 4 (24:27)

1. Let’s Go Crazy (4:24)
2. The Call-Up (5:28)
3. Lose This Skin (Tymon Dogg) (5:08)
4. Kingston Advice (2:37)
5. Junkie Slip (2:49)
6. The Sound of Sinners (4:01)

Side 5 (the dub side) (25:12)

1. Living in Fame (The Clash, Mikey Dread) (4:50)
2. Silicone on Sapphire (4:17)
3. Version Pardner (5:23)
4. Mensforth Hill (3:42)
5. One More Dub (The Clash, Mikey Dread) (3:36)
6. Shepherds Delight (3:28)

Side 6 (23:43)

1. Version City (4:23)
2. Look Here (Mose Allison) (2:45)
3. Broadway (5:48)
4. Career Opportunities (2:30)
5. If Music Could Talk (The Clash, Mikey Dread) (4:36)
6. Something About England (3:42)