Sandinista! [Import] [Original recording remastered]

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
Japanese remastered reissue packaged in a limited edition miniature LP sleeve. Details TBA. CBS. 2004.

Tracks:

The Magnificent Seven
Hitsville U.K.
Junco Partner
Ivan Meets G.I. Joe
The Leader
Something About England
Rebel Waltz
Look Here
The Crooked Beat
Somebody Got Murdered
One More Time
One More Dub
Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)
Up In Heaven (Not Only Here)
Corner Soul
Lets Go Crazy
If Music Could Talk
The Sound Of Sinners

Tracks:

Police On My Back
Midnight Log
The Equaliser
The Call Up
Washington Bullets
Broadway
Lose This Skin
Charlie Don't Surf
Mensforth Hill
Junkie Slip
Kingston Advice
The Street Parade
Version City
Living In Fame
Silicone On Sapphire
Version Pardner
Career Opportunities
Shepherds Delight

Amazon.com essential recording

What the hell is this? Though the two-record sprawl of London Calling--with its exploratory mutations of reggae, rockabilly, and even disco--proved that the Clash weren't content to lie fallow in a punk-rock ghetto, nothing prepares you for Sandinista's messy melange. For 36 tracks (the Clash originally released this as a three-record set for not much more than the price of one), the band tackles everything in sight, including waltz, gospel, disco, children's ditties, funk, reggae, dub, delicate instrumentals, psychedelic explorations--hell, they even play a Clash rocker or two. Though many have said there is a single great album hidden among the three here, it's the pure chutzpah of Sandinista that makes it such a particular pleasure and a brain drain at the same time. It's the document of a band that can do anything and tries to do everything. It's the glorious sound of failure. And if that ain't the Clash, what is? --Tod Nelson

Album Description

Digitally remastered from the original production master tapes, this a reissue of the 1980 & fourth album by 'the only band that matters'. Features the original artwork and all 36 of the original tracks, including 'The Call Up', 'Somebody Got Murdered', 'Police On My Back', 'The Magnificent Seven' and 'Hitsville U.K.'. 'Sandinista!' broke the top 30 in the U.S. at the time. Also includes a miniaturized reproduction of the faux neswpaper/ lyric sheet 'The Armagideon Times No.3'. Double slimline jewel case. 1999 release.

Customer Reviews:

punk.......2007-05-24

The Clash is one of those bands that are not quite part of reality anymore...they have become a legend not only of music but in the world as a whole. This album says a lot just by the name: sandinista! , its a name that tells the people that there are some serious issues represented on the album, but this is not a motive to be sad ...on the contrary: its a celebration to diferent rythems such as pure rock and roll, gospel, funk, rap, regaee and so much more. I enjoyed it from the first track to the last. Everybody can relate to the lyrics because it they just sing about life- and life is judged in a large amount by politics....but the rythms are so out of this world....it just makes you feel alive and at the same time so happy dispite the fact the the world is so dark and injust....

I love this album....and the clash is one of the best bands this world has ever seen.

Melting Pot.......2007-03-28

Sandinista!-The Clash ****

Punk, Post-punk, Proto-punk,Rockabillie, Dub, Dance, Childrens, Reggea, Doo-Whop, Motown, New Wave, Waltz, it is all here if you name The Clash provides it here. Sandinista! is the album where Joe Strummer and Mick Jones have an identity crisis, and in my opinion it pays off. The Clash try everything here and for the most part they do it well, give or take a few missteps. Mick Jones is using every guitar effects-pedal imagenable to him at this point. Topper and Paul are so out of their minds on herion and everything else at the time that they are just going along with the flow while Strummer or should I say Stalin is taking this band in every direction other then where they started out to go which is fine. You know why The Clash are one of if not the greatest band of all time....it's becasue they dared, they dared to grow and do it. The Clash are what every other band wishes they could be because they knew no boundries and they did what they thought was cool, or good, or what ever other word you want to use. They did what they did because to them at the time it felt right.

This triple album has been turned into a double cd which is great because it saves the consumers money and you dont lose any of the songs. The Clash actually almost got thrown off their record company because they faught to have this sold at a cheaper price then a single album, gotta love that.

The first disc of the album is arguably the better side. The better selection of songs is on this disc and the amount of good songs is greater on this disc. 'The Magnificent Seven' which is magnificent opens the albums and does so superbly. One of the best songs on the album. 'Junco Partner' is a killer reggea track done masterfully by the only white boys that ever did the genre any justice. 'Ivan Meets G.I. Joe' is a dub dance club hit and a great song. It's about when Joe Strummer met a Russian named Ivan and they managed to make a hit song about it. 'Hitsville U.K.' is a great motown/doo-whop song that is about Hitsville U.S.A. only in the U.K. and superisingly it sounds really good, who know the Brits could do Motown? 'Somebody Got Murdered' is one of the best tracks ont he album and easily the best on the first disc. It is very nostolgic of the London Calling album. 'If Music Could Talk' is another great song with a great concept behind it that has to be heard to be appreciated. While clearly that is not all of the songs on the first disc those are the tracks that stand out the most. 'One More Dub' is one song that could have been left off of the album because it is the exact same song as the one before it 'One More Time' exept not as good.

While disc one is the better disc, the second one is still very good. Infact it contains the two best songs on the album and two of the bands all time best. The first is the cover song that opens the second disc, 'Police On My Back' this is one of the very best songs I have ever heard, and that is the original, but The Clash manage to make it even better, and into a true classic and into one of the bands all time best.The vocals are phenomonal, and the arrangement is out of this world. Later on the album offers 'Charlie Don't Surf' which is the second best song on the album. About Vietnam and is just so laid back and wonderful. Clearly one of the top five songs the band has ever made. 'The Equaliser' is a great song as is 'Midnight Log' the songs are quite simillar. 'The Call Up' is a nice song but could have been stronger. 'Washington Bullets' was a minor hit for the band and was a concert favorite and with one listen you will hear why.'Version City' is another one of those songs that are just so good you can't believe the band really came up with it. Now I must say the new alternate version of 'Career Opportunities' is awful. Truly a waste of space on the album. It is turned into a nursery ryhme which kills the whole entire meaning of hte original song.

Sandinista! is a melting pot for all sorts of different musical styles and songs. It is also one of the single greatest pieces of music in the history of rock n' roll. With this album The Clash proved that they were second to none and that they were capable of anything musicaly and taking over the world to become the biggest band in the world would be just around the corner if only they could keep their ego's under control.

Still Subversive, Topical, Brilliant .......2007-02-09

"Sandinista!" is undoubtedly the Clash's most underappreciated and misunderstood album. Issued as their fourth LP in the US, the disk was panned by many critics as undisciplined and unfocused, with many of the 36 tracks unpolished and a handful downright incoherent. Guilty as charged, at least partially. "Sandinista!" is still a brilliant album, with most of the excesses attributable to an explosion of creativity seldom seen.

Coming off the "London Calling" double album, the Clash work most favorably recalled today, Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon tumbled headlong into a variety of musical styles and tastes. Straight-ahead rock is leavened with ska, reggae and dub, Trinidadian steel drums, calypso, dance pop and nascent rap, `60s girl group vocals, old time Negro spiritual, soul and funk and whatever else caught their fancy. The group worked long hours in the studio, rehearsing, noodling, brain-storming - and recording - just about everything. Ultimately they ended up with more than enough material for two sides of a vinyl LP. Determined to give the fans "value for money" and in fact engaged in a wasteful battle of wills with CBS/Epic over what the Clash perceived as loathsome promotion efforts, the boys insisted on releasing a 3-disk record featuring everything-but-the-kitchen-sink.

The result is a "Sandinista!" that fans and critics initially (and understandably) found hard to digest, let alone embrace. Twenty-some years later, however, the album remains as subversive and topical and rewarding as any ever made. It is at once entertaining and thought provoking, disturbing and soothing, good natured and dour, confounding and brilliant.

In opening number The Magnificent Seven, Joe Strummer raps to a bass-and-drums dance beat, spitting out such classic lines as, "What do we have for entertainment? Cops kickin' gypsies on the pavement!" and "Wave bub-bub-bub-bye to the boss. It's our profit, it's his loss." As the rhythm section propels the tune, an irresistible call and response chorus goes, "You lot! What? Don't stop, give it all you got." Hitsville UK prefigures Bananarama, featuring Mick Jones' girlfriend at the time, Ellen Foley. An old street bum serves as the device to poignantly lament post-war England, the class system, and other social ills. Somebody Got Murdered is a straight-ahead rocker. As reported by Marcus Gray in his superb Clash biography "The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town", it was `commissioned' by the director of the Al Pacino movie "Cruising" - who never returned to claim his song! It is immediately followed by One More Time, a reggae lament influenced by Jamaican DJ-songwriter-producer Mikey Dread, the lyrics a sharp depiction of ghetto poverty and violence. (Mikey Dread would in fact heavily influence the album overall.) An up-tempo romp, Lightning Strikes (Not Once but Twice) lightens the mood with some dance-funk fun.

Mick Jones' joyful, rocking melody on Up in Heaven (Not Only Here) masks lyrics portraying the soul-crushing `towers of London', dreadfully bleak concrete high-rises thrown up by unimaginative city planners to house the post-war poor. Later, Jones' earnest vocals on a cover of the Equals' Police on My Back (written by Eddy Grant) propel the desperate protagonist against a wall of siren-wailing guitars. Effectively following on, the bounce ditty Midnight Log warns the listener, "Working for the devil, you'll have to pay his tax. That means going to see him down among the racks..." Later, on Kingston Advice a vocal chorus echoes a working class theme first established in The Magnificent Seven, the struggle for dignity and redemption amidst oppression, corporate and otherwise: "In these days nations are militant. We have slavery under government. In these days in the firmament, I look for signs that are permanent."

In the universal anti-war brood The Call Up, Joe pleads with his youthful listeners, "It's up to you not to heed the call up. I don't wanna die! It's up to you not to hear the call up. I don't wanna kill!" To Washington Bullets' steel drums and sunny island melody Joe laments America's (and England and Russia's) historic `interference' around the world. Charlie Don't Surf pushes the point further, with a decidedly "Apocalypse Now" anti-Vietnam backdrop. It is Strummer's closing shout of "Sandinista!" that produced the album's title and longest lasting cultural imprint.

Another collaboration stands out: Lyrics penned and sung by Joe's eccentric folk singing pal Tymon Dogg, to a fiddling reel arranged by Mick, Lose This Skin is uplifting, chilling, beautiful, an altogether exhilarating song.

Perhaps the best way to listen to this album is to edit it yourself, i.e. boil it down to a single coherent, more focused, digestible, and clearly themed album. For example, I would open with Magnificent Seven, followed by Hitsville UK, Something About England, Rebel Waltz, Somebody Got Murdered, One More Time, Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice), Up in Heaven (Not Only Here), Police on My Back, Midnight Log, The Call Up, Washington Bullets, Lose This Skin, Charlie Don't Surf, and Kingston Advice. I'd close with the rousing The Sound of the Sinners, in which Joe Strummer sings, "After all this time to believe in Jesus. After all those drugs I thought I was him. After all my lying and a-crying and my suffering, I ain't good enough, I ain't clean enough to be him." Powerful stuff and another good example why this is a great album.

Once digested, go back and listen to the rest of the stuff. But yes, Clash fans, I initially would skip Junco Partner, Joe's tongue in cheek anti-drug rap; Ivan Meets GI Joe, an effects laden disco ball groove; The Crooked Beat, Paul's follow-up to Guns of Brixton, which the others inexplicably turned into a reggae song - not at all what Paul intended; the Equaliser, a song type of which Joe did better many times over; the piano driven "Version City", and a half dozen others of lesser merit.

A masterpiece? No. Is this the Clash's "White Album" or "Exile on Main Street"? No. It IS too long, too undisciplined and too unfocused to be called that. If anything, "London Calling" may fit such a characterization. But "Sandinista!" is still a great album nonetheless, capable of stunning the listener with its creative highs. Soak it in and appreciate. You'll listen to "Sandinista!" long after you've mined everything from other albums, Beatles to the Clash.

Cool Confusion...?!.......2007-02-02

More than anything else, "Sandinista!" is the album that sets the Clash apart from the rest of punk, and probably also the rest of rock. There are a couple of clunkers, sure... I don't exactly think that listening to Mr. Gallagher's kid warbling through "The Guns Of Brixton" is exactly essential listening, for instance.

But.

The stuff that's good is among the best that the Clash, or anyone else, ever recorded. And I think that if you're going to attempt something this ambitious, you're going to fall short from time to time. When it works, and when the band--augmented by a few of the Blockheads, a future Mescalero, and a handful of other friends--is firing on all cylanders, it's nothing short of magic.

For every hit, like the irrepresably funky "Magnificent Seven" or "Somebody Got Murdered," there're two that should have been. "Lightning Strikes," "Broadway," "Charlie Don't Surf," and "The Call-Up" (among others) are worthy additions to the Clash canon, while some of the tracks also point the way to Joe Strummer's future work with Latino Rockabilly War and the Mescaleros (and some of the other songs serve as blueprints for other artists' sounds; if Brian Setzer never covered "Look Here," he should, already).

There's something else to the Clash that you didn't get from a lot of the rest of punk, that started to show itself on "London Calling" and is even more pronounced here: there's a warmth and compassion, especially to Strummer's material, that you wouldn't get from, say, the Pistols, the Buzzcocks, or the Ramones.

David Byrne remarked once that when you walk down the streets of most cities, you're assaulted by every kind of music imaginable; he complained that you hardly ever hear that in music. This is the exception to the rule; it sounds like someone took a walk down a thriving main street with their ears open, decided they loved every last bit of what they heard, and wanted to see what it'd sound like all stuck in the blender. So is it uneven? Sure. But if whether or not you're a Clash fan, you owe it to yourself to hear a great band push the envelope. It's a wonderful mess, and a good reminder of all that's possible in music.

A very talented band that maybe got a bit carried away.......2007-01-26

OK, I can relate with people that say the Clash included a lot of filler in this album. Yes, there are some songs that are, well, they aren't even Clash songs. I mean, you got kids singing, you got Jamaicans singing, women singing, etc. And if you get caught up in some of these "different" songs, you start to take a negative view of the album. HOWEVER, let's keep something in mind. When this album was released, it was on three albums. However, it was priced the same as your typical double album. So in effect, you were getting triple the music for not much more. So, when you keep that in mind, you se that you are not being ripped off at all. You are just experiencing an extremely talented band having fun. They play rap, reggae, punk, ska, funk, etc. And if you don't like a song, just forward it, there are plenty to choose from. There are plenty of Clash staples here, like "Something About England," "Somebody Got Murdered," "Lets Go Crazy," "Police on My Back," "Charlie Don't Surf," etc.. Yeah, "Lose this Skin" is a stretch, among others, but like I said, if you don't like it, forward it and keep in mind, for the price, you got a pretty nice deal just the same.

Average customer rating:

RETURN TO SANDANISTA!
One of the best tributes ever!

The Sandinista! Project
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Megaforce
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Punk Revival | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

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Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer
Excitable Boy
Preludes
Easy Tiger

ASIN: B000OZ2CVG
Release Date: 2007-05-15

Tracks:

The Magnificent Seven, Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers
Hitsville U.K., Katrina Leskanich
Junco Partner, Jon Langford and Sally Timms with Ship & Pilot
Ivan Meets G.I. Joe, Jason Ringenberg and Kristi Rose
The Leader, Amy Rigby
Something About England, The Coal Porters
Rebel Waltz, Ruby on the Vine
Look Here, Jim Duffy
The Crooked Beat, Wreckless Eric
Somebody Got Murdered, Matthew Ryan
One More Time/One More Dub, Haale
One More Time (One More Time), Ted Harris
Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice), London Calling of Chicago
Up in Heaven (Not Only Here), The Smithereens
Corner Soul, Ethan Lipton
Let's Go Crazy, Storybox
If Music Could Talk, Steve Wynn
The Sound of the Sinners, Bill Lloyd

Tracks:

Police on My Back, Willie Nile
Midnight Log, Soul Food with Mick Gallagher
The Equaliser, Sunset Heroes
The Call Up, The Lothars
Washington Bullets, Phil Rockrohr and the Lifters
Broadway, Stew
Lose This Skin, Jim Allen
Charlie Don't Surf, The Crunchies
Mensforth Hill, Bee Maidens
Junkie Slip, Mark Cutler
Kingston Advice, Camper Van Beethoven
The Street Parade, Dollar Store
Version City, Tim Krekel
Living in Fame, Lou Carlozo
Silicone on Sapphire, The Blizzard of 78 featuring Mikey Dread
Version Pardner, Sally Timms and Jon Langford with Ship & Pilot
Career Opportunities, Sex Clark Five
Shepherds Delight, The Hyphens

Amazon.com

Even those who prefer the punch of the Clash's classic London Calling to the sprawl of the subsequent Sandanista! will find plenty of revelation here. Spearheaded by rock journalist Jimmy Guterman, the project accentuates the original album's expansive range through a roster of artists that is transatlantic, transgenerational, and transgenre. Jason Ringenberg (of Jason and the Scorchers) and Kristi Rose transform "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe" into a hardcore country duet, while Katrina Leskanich (of Katrina and the Waves) puts plenty of bounce into "Hitsville U.K." The versions of "The Magnificent Seven" by Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers and "Police on My Back" by Willie Nile remain true to the the Clash's hard-rocking spirit, with the loopy atmospherics of Wreckless Eric's "The Crooked Beat" and the Lothars' multi-theremin arrangement for "The Call Up" exploring the outer fringes of the album's musical adventurousness. This project has the musical strength, variety, and inventiveness to stand on its own, but it will likely do what tribute albums should: Drive listeners back to the source. --Don McLeese

Album Description

2-CD set honoring the epic Clash release to be issued May 1 on 00:02:59 Records

Features The Smithereens, Camper Van Beethoven, Jon Langford & Sally Timms, Amy Rigby, Katrina Leskanich (Waves), Wreckless Eric, Willie Nile, Matthew Ryan, Stew, Sex Clark Five, Sid Griffin & Coal Porters and more; proceeds benefit two Clash-backed charities.

BOSTON, Mass. - Sandinista!, recorded by The Clash in 1980, was one of the most ambitious records in the history of rock 'n' roll. According to one of its biggest fans, author and journalist Jimmy Guterman, "It wasn't necessarily their best record, their best-selling record, or even their most enjoyable record, but it's an exciting, sprawling mess that I return to constantly." Guterman liked it so much, in fact, that he took it upon himself to amass a tribute as ambitious as the album itself - 36 tracks by nearly as many different artists.

On May 1, 00:02:59 Records - a label named after a lyric from the Sandinista! song "Hitsville U.K." - will release The Sandinista! Project as a two-CD set, with profits split between two charities - Amnesty International (heartily supported by The Clash) and the Joe Strummer Memorial Forest, which is a division of Future Forests, an organization fighting global warming.

In preparing the Herculean task of commissioning 36 songs to correlate with Sandinista!'s own 36, album producer Guterman called upon artists with whom he'd admired over his years as a journalist. Initial reactions were generally along the lines of "That's the craziest idea I've ever heard." The second reaction, following a brief pause, was "I want in."

Guterman received enthusiastic commitments from such artists as The Smithereens, Camper Van Beethoven, Jon Langford & Sally Timms, Amy Rigby, Katrina Leskanich (Waves), Sid Griffin & Coal Porters, Willie Nile, Matthew Ryan, Stew, Sex Clark Five and many more. Some recorded faithful tributes, other nearly dada-esque abstractions of the songs in question. And many boasted their own organic thread to the Clash, the song in question or both.

For instance, Katrina Leskanich of Katrina & the Waves, seemed a natural for "Hitsville, U.K." After all, her hit, "Walking on Sunshine," shared the same bass line as "Hitsville U.K." which was borrowed from Motown's "You Can't Hurry Love." Jon Langford & Sally Timms from the Mekons took "Junco Partner," originally a James Booker new Orleans R&B hit, and returned it Stateside as only two British punk expatriates can. Sid Griffin, a native of Kentucky who has since migrated to the U.K., tackled "Something About England," a powerful ballad about British deterioration, and turned it into a bluegrass stomp.

Singer/songwriter Matthew Ryan, who had already recorded "Somebody Got Murdered" on his 2001 album Concussion, donated the track intact. Labelmate Willie Nile's streetwise take on "Police on My Back" recorded for this project, also appeared on his own 00:02:59 album released in 2006. Steve Wynn, frontman for The Dream Syndicate and more recently the Miracle3, had been the subject of a double-disc charity record, and got into the spirit with a cover of "If Music Could Talk." And if you ever wanted to hear "The Call Up" performed on theremin, The Lothars provide you that opportunity.

There is even a track from a dedicated Clash cover band, London Calling of Chicago, whose "Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)" displays what Guterman calls "a sharp, spirited cover by a sharp, spirited band."

And there are several more stories to be gleaned in The Sandinista! Project's 36 tracks - "Washington Bullets" by Phil Rockrohr & the Lifters, "Kingston Advice" by Camper Van Beethoven," "Silicone on Sapphire" by The Blizzard of 78 featuring original Sandinista! producer Mikey Dread - all chronicled by Guterman in the liner notes.

Guterman sums it up: "Joe Strummer once said that Sandinista! is 'a magnificent thing. I wouldn't change it if I could.' And now, join us on The Sandinista! Project, in which we change everything on that magnificent record."

Customer Reviews:

RETURN TO SANDANISTA!.......2007-06-09

As difficult to digest as The Clash's original, SANDANISTA!, this tribute album, which covers all 36 songs from the 1980 three album set by The Clash, comes with all the warts and band-aids, ups and downs, of the original work. By far, the best track here, (and one of my favorites from the original album), is Wreckless Eric's, take on The Clash's stoned-out, ska-hazy, "The Crooked Beat", which takes an already bizarre but strangely calming song and turns it into ska from Mars, with obstructing clash-like sound effects cutting into it, like a fleet of flying saucers interfering with your car radio. Also completely satisfying is Willie Nile's point blank interpretation of The Clash's cover of The Equals' "Police On My Back". It's a fiery charged-up cover which knows enough not to twist that which is already perfect. Lou Carlozo's "Living In Fame" sounds like any '60's pop band forced to crash into the far future, with claustrophobic remnants of song that were once a simple melody, and Tim Krekel's "Version City", allows that song to come full circle with what it always wanted to be; an Americana folk junkie praise of railroads.

But too often, many of the songs are tiring novelty numbers that are more cutesy than interperative, and some of the lazy covers are simply bland. It's fun to hear the disco meets cold war, "When Ivan Meets G.I. Joe", as a corny country and western duet, but fun only once. And certainly something more novel could have been applied to "Mensforth Hill", which originally was a song from side one played backwords on side 5. If you're a Clash fanatic, hollowed ground is trampled upon when the climactic, war and peace mongering, "Corner Soul", is interpreted as if it were an Elton John number.

If you're that Clash fan (had all the albums, all the imports, shed a tear when Joe Strummer died), you'll stand behind SANDANISTA!, regardless how you feel about it, as you would behind an impossible, problematic brother. You'll defend it, hate it, love it, and stop just short of throwing the whole damn thing atop a book burning pile. So while this is a worthy project, (aren't all tribute albums?), it is, for me, unfriendly packaging. Designed like the original album, with a faux newspaper, (The Armagideon Times), I take exception to the smug light Seinfeld-like humor of the accompanying comic strip with representatives of two generations, (now and then), discussing SANDANISTA! in a Starbucks. And if you read the 2007 Armagideon Times Update, you may cock a pierced eyebrow and spit everytime the writer attests to generally hating tribute albums, (this is SO tribute album), and labelling side 6 from the original album as "evil", and unlistenable. It's always been my favorite side, and much more contemplative and listenable than the other 5 sides of the original vinyl.

But I digress, as SANDANISTA! is prone to make me do. This tribute album is certainly as worthwhile a listen as the original work which I once called, "London Calling's ugly sister". It opens the door again to the conflicted, chaotic follow-up to the brilliant "London Calling". It causes one to consider Joe Strummer's historic legacy, and his strange creative left turn mess of an album that is SANDANISTA! He's probably out there somewhere, still rebelling against heaven.

One of the best tributes ever!.......2007-06-01

This collection makes even the marginal songs on the original sprawling collection sparkle and reveals the strong songwriting underneath the sonic smog that tended all too often to engulf the originals. Especially amazing, but perhaps to be expected given that The Clash's version of this album followed London Calling, is the very American (blues, folk, rockabilly, jazz, rap, gospel, bluegrass, zydeco) elements underlying these songs, which these assorted and sometimes unknown interpreters bring out big time. Certainly some contributors push the edge (The Lothars's "The Call Up", substituting a wall of theramins (?!) for guitars on what was originallly a strong single, at least in the UK, comes to mind), but this album generally makes The Clash's most challenging effort much more accessible to the general public (i.e., no bong required but may still help) than the original. Joe Strummer would no doubt approve and Mick can weigh in at his leisure; Jimmy Guterman deserves major kudos for conceiving this project.