The Clash

[Les Waste]

The second half of Sandinista disc 2 is pretty boring, but there are some cool songs. Street Parade and Version City are two of my favorite songs. I like Sillicon on Saphire, which if you listen closely enough you hear it's a techno version of Washington Bullets. And the last song on the album sounds a lot like Revolution Rock. Putting a dub of Junco Partner on the album was probably a bad idea though. As was having children sing Career Opperutinites. But even though it might not be good, I like it so much because I think it's extremely interesting.

The album was named after the FSLN, or the Sandinistas, who were a Marxist revolutionary group in Nicaragua named after an old leader named Sandino who was killed years earlier. They overthrew the crooked dictator who was appointed by the US (I can't remember his name right now) and set up a moderately successful, socialist government. One of the verses on Washington Bullets is about that.

After the album was made, Reagan sent contra groups there to try and overthrow the government, and the Sandinistas had to spend all the country's funds on defense. Remember the Iran-Contra scandal? Where we sold weapons to Iran and used the money to fund the contras? Well, after almost 20 years we completely destroyed Nicarauga, but we finally got the Sandinistas out. That's a sad story.

I have no idea who the little girl at the end of Broadway is, but I have an interesting fact: Most people ask me who the girl is who sings the lyrics on "Lose this Skin." Well, that's a guy. His name is Tymon Dogg, and he not only did the vocals, he was also the fiddle player. He joined Strummer's last group the Mescaleros and was on their second album as a fiddle player. Who knew?