"Rock the Casbah", one of the most popular songs by The Clash, was released on their 1982 album Combat Rock. It is one of their few songs to become a Top 10 hit in the United States, reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song was inspired by the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini. The song gives a fictitious account of the ban being defied by the population who proceed to "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, nor does it give the specifics of any Islamic nation, and in fact it uses Arabic terms instead of Persian, mentioning casbah, sharif, bedouin, and sheikh. This is typical of the Clash, who often mix up some of the particulars in political songs. This is also shown in the line 'He (he being the fictional Muslim king) thinks it's not kosher'. Kosher (Hebrew: כָּשֵר) is a Jewish term and is unlikely to be used by an Islamic king - a deliberate irony further emphasized by featuring an orthodox Jew dancing with a Sheik in the song's video.
"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?"[citation needed] (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.[citation needed] In the 2000 Documentary Westway to the World Headon describes that he played drums, bass (normally played by Paul Simonon, who was earlier featured smashing his bass on the iconic album cover of seminal 1979 album London Calling), and piano on the record. Headon claims that, while he thought he was merely playing the song for the rest of the band, his performances were, unbeknownst to him, recorded.[Wikipedia]
The song was inspired by the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini. The song gives a fictitious account of the ban being defied by the population who proceed to "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, nor does it give the specifics of any Islamic nation, and in fact it uses Arabic terms instead of Persian, mentioning casbah, sharif, bedouin, and sheikh. This is typical of the Clash, who often mix up some of the particulars in political songs. This is also shown in the line 'He (he being the fictional Muslim king) thinks it's not kosher'. Kosher (Hebrew: כָּשֵר) is a Jewish term and is unlikely to be used by an Islamic king - a deliberate irony further emphasized by featuring an orthodox Jew dancing with a Sheik in the song's video.
"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?"[citation needed] (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.[citation needed] In the 2000 Documentary Westway to the World Headon describes that he played drums, bass (normally played by Paul Simonon, who was earlier featured smashing his bass on the iconic album cover of seminal 1979 album London Calling), and piano on the record. Headon claims that, while he thought he was merely playing the song for the rest of the band, his performances were, unbeknownst to him, recorded.[Wikipedia]
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