The Clash - The Magnificent Seven

Sandinista!, The Clash' 1980 triple LP, is a demanding one, an album that explores a lot of uncharted musical ground, mixing African, Caribbean and American influences with the band's punk rock attitude, fusing jazz, reggae, dub, hip hop, rockabilly, calypso and almost everything else you can think of into a confusing whole. There's nothing confusing or demanding about "The Magnificent Seven" though. It was the third single to be culled from Sandinista!, inspired by the hip hop scene in New York at the time when acts like Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five and The Sugarhill Gang were at their peak. It's an amazingly funky song, irresistable in every way, and the intro may be - apart from "London Calling" - the band's best. And this was a band that was extremely good at intros!

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