Rock the Casbah

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"Rock the Casbah"

Single by The Clash
from the album Combat Rock
B-side(s)	"Long Time Jerk"
Released	June 11, 1982 (U.K.)
Recorded	1982
Genre	Rock
Length	3:43
Writer(s)	Topper Headon is said to have written the main piano riff, but he as well as the rest of the band are credited
Chart positions
#8 (U.S. Pop) #30 (UK)
The Clash singles chronology
"Know Your Rights" (1982)	"Rock the Casbah" (1982)	"Should I Stay Or Should I Go" (1982)

"Rock the Casbah", one of the most popular songs by The Clash, was released on their 1982 album Combat Rock. It is their only song to become a Top 10 hit in the United States, reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1]

The song was inspired by the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini. The song gives a fabulist account of the ban being defied by the population who proceed to somewhat "rock the casbah", causing the King to order jet fighters to bomb any people in violation of the ban. The pilots ignore the orders, and instead play rock music on their cockpit radios.

The song does not mention Iran or any other Islamic nation. The lyrics include a mish-mash of Arabic, Hebrew, and North African terms such as sharif, bedouin, sheikh, kosher, and casbah.

According to the album notes on the box set The Clash on Broadway, "Rock the Casbah" originated when the band's manager, after hearing them record an inordinately long track for the album, asked them facetiously "does everything have to be as long as this raga?" (referring to the Indian musical style known for its length and, at least to rock audiences, complexity). Joe Strummer later wrote the opening lines to the song: "The King told the boogie-men 'you have to let that raga drop'". The rest of the lyrics soon followed.

The song is one of the few in which drummer Topper Headon played a substantial role in the writing of the music beyond the percussion tracks. The instrumental opening was a tune he had written on the piano some time earlier, and had toyed with during rehearsals before being incorporated into the song.{"Last Gang in Town", Marcus Gray} In the 2000 Documentary Westway to the World Headon played drums, bass, and piano on the record for the song. Headon claims that, while he thought he was merely playing the song for the band, his performances were, unbeknownst to him, recorded.^{[citation needed]}

The Clash made low-budget music videos for several of their songs, and the one for "Rock the Casbah" may be their most memorable. Filmed in Austin, Texas, it depicts an Arab and a Hasidic Jew skanking together through the streets, often followed by an armadillo, interspersed with the band performing in front of an oil well. The humorous tone of the video fits the song, although it is easy to read the antics of the Arab and Jew as a desire for better relations between Israelis and Arabs. Many Muslims objected to the Arab man displaying a liquor bottle, as alcohol is forbidden in Islam. The video also features their first drummer Terry Chimes, because at the time of its release Headon was out of the band, due to his growing drug addiction.

The song became an unofficial anthem for U.S. forces during the first Gulf War largely on the basis of the line about dropping "bombs between the minarets". In fact, it was the first song played by Armed Forces Radio at the start of the war. This has been seen as highly ironic, if not downright insulting, by many Clash fans, given the band's well established anti-war stance. Conservatives counter that it is entirely appropriate, as "rocking the casbah" (as with bombs) was seen as one of the objectives of the U.S. military effort.

In 2006, the conservative National Review released their list of the top 50 "Conservative Rock Songs", with "Rock the Casbah" at #20[2], noting its frequent requests during the Iraq War. Despite, or perhaps because of, its popularity with soldiers during the Gulf War, "Rock the Casbah" was one of the songs deemed inappropriate by Clear Channel following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Other versions of "Rock the Casbah" have been recorded by Austin, Texas band One Bad Pig on the 1992 album Blow the House Down. The Australian band Something for Kate, the Algerian rock singer Rachid Taha, in Arabic, on his 2004 album Tékitoi, as well as the band Trust Company, on the 2005 album True Parallels. Will Smith's song "Will 2K" of the Willennium album of 1999 samples "Rock The Casbah" both instrumentally and in some of the lyrics. Richard Cheese recorded a lounge cover of the song on his 2004 album I'd Like a Virgin.

"Rock the Casbah" also has a degree of notoriety for how often its lyrics are misunderstood [3], which is featured in a 2006 television commercial for Cingular. Two men download it to a phone, but confuse the lyrics ("The beets had some cataracts," "The sheep don't like it," "Lock the cashbox," and "Isn't it 'stop the catbox?'"). A number of people noted the similarity to the phrase "Lock The Taskbar" and this has been referenced in a "Youtube Video" and a site on YTMND which use images of the Windows interface. It is also used as a euphemism for sex in The Simpsons episode Natural Born Kissers. Marge says "It is our anniversary night, I suppose we should... Rock the Casbah." and also later on in the episode; Bart says "So did you guys... Rock the Casbah?" , the song also plays in the credits.