THE CLASH ~ Rock the Casbah {HQ 24bit V Remaster}

Details

Description

As 1983 got underway, The Clash were enjoying the biggest American hit of their career.
Never a band noted for their internal harmony, they were on showing symptoms of last legs syndrome by the previous year’s Combat Rock; an underrated mess even more diverse than the artily experimental Sandinista!, yet cleverly packaged as a more pop-friendly move.
Joe Strummer had the punk rage, Paul Simonon had the reggae bass, and Mick Jones had the guitar flash. But the set’s second single Rock The Casbah was just drummer Topper Headon messing around in the studio waiting for the others to show up. Four decades on, it sure doesn’t sound like a band in freefall either — it’s a rowdy not always white riot of slash guitar, disco bass, digital bleeps from a Casio watch. Oh, and that crazy casbah jive. Sound familiar?
Though many punk purists consider The Clash’s brief career to have peaked with 1979’s London Calling, I have to confess a sentimental attachment to Rock The Casbah — or Rock The Cashbah as the school person I occasionally used to chat about music to called it. I didn’t keep a diary back then, but I have a strong recollection his name was Paul. He was older and his tastes seemed fully formed, whereas in 1982 mine had only just begun.
“I really like Rock The Casbah,” I beamed, vaguely knowing he was a Clash fan. “Oh, do you? It’s OK, but I prefer their old stuff. They’ve kind of sold out now.”
Well, what did I know? I was an Adam Ant aficionado with no previous reference points that could help me ascertain whether he was right or wrong. All I knew is that he wasn‘t planning to see his favourite band play* at the Stoke Mandeville Stadium in a few week‘s time, and it was only 20 minutes away. “He thinks it’s not kosher,” perhaps.
Perhaps he’d just discovered Joe Strummer wasn’t quite the punk anti-hero he’d imagined, and was even more middle class than us: a self-confessed “thick rich kid” son of a diplomat who went to boarding school and credited his entry into the music world to the Beach Boys. My knowledge was little more than a vague recollection that, like Adam, The Clash were punks but not punks who’d been around for a while.
After hearing Rock The Casbah blast out of the radio when Andrew Thelwell and I decided to doorstep our classmate Jonathan Etienne at his home on Heelands (literally — we weren’t invited in), I genuinely did like the song. Though not enough to buy it, free stickers or no free stickers.
(Article by Steve Pafford).
https://www.stevepafford.com/casbah/



LYRICS:


"Rock The Casbah"


Now the king told the boogie men
You have to let that raga drop
The oil down the desert way
Has been shakin' to the top
The sheik he drove his Cadillac
He went a' cruisin' down the ville
The muezzin was a' standing
On the radiator grille


The shareef don't like it
Rock the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rock the Casbah
Rock the Casbah..


By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that crazy Casbah sound
But the Bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the shareef
Had cleared the square
They began to wail


The shareef don't like it
Rock the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rock the Casbah
Rock the Casbah


Now over at the temple
Oh! They really pack 'em in
The in crowd say it's cool
To dig this chanting thing
But as the wind changed direction
And the temple band took five
The crowd caught a whiff
Of that crazy Casbah jive


The shareef don't like it
Rock the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rock the Casbah
Rock the Casbah


The king called up his jet fighters
He said you better earn your pay
Drop your bombs between the minarets
Down the Casbah way


As soon as the shareef was
Chauffeured outta there
The jet pilots tuned to
The cockpit radio blare


As soon as the shareef was
Outta their hair
The jet pilots wailed


The shareef don't like it
Rock the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rock the Casbah
Rock the Casbah


He thinks it's not kosher
Fundamentally he can't take it.
You know he really hates it.