Everyone - even if you've only a fleeting ear for rock based music - must know this song!
'Rock the Casbah' has to be one of the most famous and widely known songs by English punk band, The Clash, and taken from their fifth album, Combat Rock. The album also spawned the singles 'Know Your Rights', 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' (an indie disco staple!), and 'Straight To Hell', which you may recognise as being heavily sampled in Brit rapper, M.I.A's song 'Paper Planes which addresses immigration issues and perceived reasons for immigration. But that's another story.
Similarly, the ethos of The Clash is consistently liberal and anti-establishment, although their message has been twisted in the past; singer, songwriter and rhythm guitartist, Joe Strummer was famously reported to have wept when he heard the phrase 'Rock the Casbah' was written on a U.S. bomb to be used in the First Gulf War in Iraq [1]. What the story of 'Rock The Casbah' really entails is a fictional account of an oppressive Sharif banning rock music but being defied by the country's citizens by proceeding to 'rock the casbah' anyway, and pilots ordered to bomb those who didn't comply defied the ban by listening to rock music in their cockpit radios themselves.
Lyrics aside, the song is poppy with a fun beat and is easily my favourite Clash song - 30 years on and it doesn't feel dated! First released in 1982, it actually charted higher in the UK Singles Chart upon its second release in 1991, hitting a peak position of 15.
What do you think of The Clash and 'Rock the Casbah'? What's your favourite song by The Clash, and what do you think of how the message of the song has been distorted and applied to something completely opposite as to what was originally intended?
[1] Ty, Burr (9 November 2007). "Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten Movie Review". Boston Globe (via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_the_Casbah)
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