Yeah, yeah - all fair comments so far. One thing I should mention - what I started off saying stemmed from the fact that i'm not a fan of 70's punk personally i.e. - The Sex Pistols, The Damned, etc. I can quite imagine that SANDINISTA and COMBAT ROCK probably sounded quite horrific to punk fans of the time, but like i said i came to The Clash slightly later. I was a young lad experimenting with music - and fell in love with how The Clash experimented with what influenced them. Most people in the UK were too narrow minded at the time to see what The Clash were trying to achieve - it was the rest of the world that embraced them.
What i'm saying is that The Clash's debut album was the only true punk one and that people seem to have this romantic nostalgic view of them as something they never really were. You know, a lot of people wear a Clash t-shirt, i just doubt it's because they dig MAGNIFICENT SEVEN - and they did a hell of a lot more stuff in that vein than they did with the WHITE RIOT stuff. Great to hear everyones thoughts though. Just my opinion.