Singing drummers fascinate me, I can never quite believe doing the two things in unison is possible. I like the sound effects and that it had its own comic but its not anyone's finest hour. 3.5.
Ivan Meets G.I. Joe This has a nice slick groove to it and Topper's vocal work well for the mood of it. I don't mind all the sound effects as it gives it a dub feel. I would say that it is poorly placed as track 4 and should have been somewhere within sides 4 to 6. 2.5/5
Ivan Meets GI Joe. It's OK, only four tracks in and Sandinista already sounds crazy and it's obvious they were indiscriminately recording and releasing everything they had wrote at this time regardless of it's merits or the flow of the album. I love that Sandinista is like no other album. Ivan 2.5 / 5
Ivan - 2/5. It's dated, doesn't hold up well, and the arcade sound effects are too obtrusive and distracting.
Ivan Meets G.I. Joe From rap to Motown to reggae to disco - jeez the Clash are the definition of eclectic and we still have music hall, dub, calypso, Jazz, Rock and gospel to go! IMGIJ is a light-hearted song about a serious issue. The problem I have with the track is Topper’s weak vocals that fail to carry Strummer’s humorous lyric and sound as flat as a pancake. It sounds chaotic and has a pretty lame chorus. The space invader sound effects date this really badly. As Lance LaSalle mentioned earlier, a remixed cleaned-up version could be good, with perhaps a Strummer vocal. In fact a stripped back version of the whole album would be cool…… As someone said, the Clash were the soundtrack to the Cold War, but with a disco beat ? For me this is very lightweight Clash….. 2/5
Topper’s nasal three-note bark reminds me of those old WWII news reels: “and now news from the front!!” “What does it take to make a Russkie break!!?? I wonder of that was intentional.
"Ivan Meets G.I. Joe" As someone else mentioned it works in the context of the album. I like the blizzard of sound effects which give the track a sense of disorientation. 4/5
Ivan Meets G.I. Joe A total madness, in the context of the album in its mix of styles and experimentation has its space. I can't say that I would select it on a track list outside from the album. I am amazed at how far they were willing to go with the eclectic nature with this album and I can't imagine the atmosphere of those sessions. Cool lyrics. Musically it is certainly not definable. Disco? Uhmm... I get used to hearing it there on the album but sometimes I connect with it and other times I don't. Listening to some live tapes at The Bonds and from 1981-82 it certainly was a live sonic blast, very powerful 3/5
Ivan Meets G.I. Joe - It's a wacky mess and I like it. This was a continuation of the exploration on London Calling and it still works for me on this song. Not a classic but good fun. 3/5
Ivan Meets GI Joe I'm a bit ambivalent about this one - I don't skip it when it comes on, but it wouldn't make my top 10 on the album. 3.25
Yes and one can tell that they structured this first side to deliberately throw us all off-guard. I imagine they also felt that after delivering such a high quality rock album (London Calling), it couldn't be followed, so a page had to be turned.
Sorry for the backtrack - I am wondering if anyone can point me to a good live version of this track - there's a poor sounding one from Wichita Falls 1983 Maybe DM me off the list?
Another middling song - not great but not horrible either. The lyrics are kind of lame and as others have mentioned the sound effects are too much. 2.5/5
“Ivan Meets G.I. Joe” - There’s a sliver of a decent song here, but it’s completely lost among all the sound effects. 2/5
Sory, been away for a couple of days, so behind..... Junco Partner - 3/5 Ivan Meets GI Joe - 4/5 Country-ish version from the wonderful "Sandinista Project" CD.....
I’ve missed the last few songs but having heard them…wow this album is a hot mess. 2 for each of them.
Ivan Meets GI Joe Are you sure that's not The Buggles? Or Thomas Dolby maybe? 2/5 Think I'm gonna struggle to meet my predicted 8 likes out of 36.
Ivan Meet G.I. Joe - 3/5 - OK, not their best song, but I think that the eclecticism and sprawl are very deliberate parts of the album. It's cool to see that they will try anything - punk rock says there are no rules. This is a fun song and it sounds like it's playing in the background of an arcade where maybe Ivan Meets G.I. Joe is a video game. Not a stone classic, but fun stuff.
Singing and drumming at the same time isn’t as hard as many people assume - it just takes practice. I don’t really find it much more difficult than say, singing and playing guitar simultaneously - maybe a bit harder. If you are persistent, chances are good that you’ll have an “aha” moment where everything just clicks.
Ivan Meets GI Joe. What a great title. Unfortunately, the song doesn’t live up to it. As others have noted, the vocals are iffy and the arcade sound FX are distracting. 2.5/5