Rock The Casbah by The Clash
Released in June of 1982, this song reached #8 on the US charts, the bands only Top Ten single in the US. One day during recording of the album, Combat Rock, the drummer found himself alone in the studio so he started toying with an idea he had on the piano. By the time the other members had arrived, he had added drums and bass to the song and was coming up with lyrics. The band's regular songwriting duo of Strummer and Jones were impressed with the music but not the lyrics and immediately set about to write some proper words to go with this great tune. Borrowing from the centuries long tension in the Middle East and a more recent event of Western music being banned from certain Islamic countries, the lyrics focus on a king trying to enforce a ban that seems to fail at every turn.
The hidden gem in this song is the watch alarm in the middle of the song that plays the song Dixie during one of the verses. Listen for it, it was added in carefully by the band.
The video was filmed in Texas while the band was on tour and follows the adventures of an Arab Sheik and a Hasidic Jew befriending each other (totally flying in the face of how the tension between these two groups is usually portrayed) as they head to see The Clash in concert. The band performs the song in front of an oil derrick and features guitarist, Mick Jones, hiding his face behind a veiled hat because he was in a bad mood on the day of the filming....not that his singer, Joe Strummer, cares much since he pulls Mick's hat off as the song is about to end.
Please enjoy....
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