The Magnificent Seven by The Clash

"The Magnificent Seven" is a song by the English punk rock band the Clash. Released in 1981, it was the third single from the Clash's fourth album, Sandinista!. It reached number 34 on the UK Singles Chart.The song was inspired by old school hip hop acts from New York City, like the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. Rap was still a new and emerging music genre at the time, and the band, especially Mick Jones, was very impressed with it, so much so that Jones took to carrying a boombox around and got the nickname "Whack Attack". "The Magnificent Seven" was recorded in April 1980 at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, built around a funky bass loop played by Norman Watt-Roy of the Blockheads. Joe Strummer wrote the words on the spot, a technique that was also used to create Sandinista!'s other rap track, "Lightning Strikes (Not Once But Twice)". The song represents the first attempt by a rock band to write and perform original rap music, and one of the earliest examples of hip hop records with political and social content. It is the first major white rap record, predating the recording of Blondie's "Rapture" by six months. Strummer said of the group's encounter with hip hop: When we came to the U.S., Mick stumbled upon a music shop in Brooklyn that carried the music of Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, the Sugar Hill Gang...these groups were radically changing music and they changed everything for us. Though it failed to chart in America, the song was a hit on underground and college radio. Music critic Jeff Chang wrote that in New York City, the song "had become an unlikely hit on the Black radio station, WBLS." Also popular were various dance remixes, including the official B-side ("The Magnificent Dance") and original DJ remixes. WBLS' "Dirty Harry" remix appears on various Clash bootlegs, including Clash on Broadway Disc 4: The Outtakes. The single was reissued in 1981 with "Stop the World" as its B-side and with different sleeve art.