The Clash celebrated the 40th anniversary of Sandinista! on Saturday, a milestone the punk forebearers marked with a new video for “The Magnificent Seven”. The visual accompaniment to the 1981 single features vintage footage of the band in New York City shot by filmmaker and Clash collaborator Don Letts.
The new video documents The Clash’s legendary 17-show run at the New York club Bond’s International Casino in Times Square in May and June 1981, which was later compiled and turned into a live album. During that same time, the band also appeared on Tom Snyder‘s The Tomorrow Show, where they performed “The Magnificent Seven”. Footage of that performance acts as a focal point for the new video.
The release of Sandinista! marked yet another turning point for The Clash, as the 36-song, triple album saw them move even further away from the genre they helped bring into the mainstream. It stands as a testament to frontman Joe Strummer‘s immense songwriting talent that a song like “The Magnificent Seven”—which is rooted in a suspiciously-disco backbeat—can still ruminate the same iconic anti-establishment sentiment that rocketed the band to stardom.
Meanwhile, the new video paints a picture of the vintage streets of New York City. While Letts’ footage from inside Bond’s as well as The Tomorrow Show is no-doubt fascinating to Clash fans, the exterior shots of crowded Times Square—in all its sleazy, Ed Koch-era glory—stabs directly at the root of what the then-exploding punk and new wave movement was all about.
Watch the new video for “The Magnificent Seven” by The Clash, featuring footage of the band’s 1981 residency in New York.
The Clash – “The Magnificent Seven”Â
[Video: The Clash]
[H/TÂ Brooklyn Vegan]