Its a song...
2007-02-02 08:02:20 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music
Rock the Casbah by The Clash.
The Casbah is the Arab quarters (ghetto) of Algiers.
Joe Strummer wrote the lyrics about an Arab ruler who hates music, but is defied by the citizens and even his own air force. Strummer was inspired by a news report of Iranians who were flogged for owning Disco albums.
2007-02-02 08:24:43 · answer #1 · answered by ajica nuna 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Rock the Casbah, one of the most popular songs by The Clash, was released in 1982. The song was inspired by the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini. the song give an account of the ban being defied by the population who proceeded to somewhat "rock the casbah", causing the King to order jet fighters to bomb people in violation of the ban. The pilots ignored the orders, and instead played rock music on their cockpit radios.
2007-02-02 16:18:39 · answer #2 · answered by Paul W 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Greetings,
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
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Cheers
2007-02-02 16:09:41 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
1) Cas·bah also Kas·bah (kzbä, käz-) KEY
NOUN:
A castle or palace in northern Africa.
often casbah The older section of a city in northern Africa or the Middle East.
2) 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: ×ָּשֵר) 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.
2007-02-02 16:07:05 · answer #4 · answered by Laughing Libra 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
hello, "Rock the Casbah" is by The Clash. Casbah is the word for "Juke Joint Strip", "Red Light District", etc. am not sure if it is Portuguese, or some other language.
2007-02-02 16:15:34 · answer #5 · answered by Jerry_S. 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Casbah is house. So it means rock the house. As in party hardy.
2007-02-02 16:09:40 · answer #6 · answered by Clown Knows 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the 1982 hit song by "The Clash", I would infer that the meaning of this song reflect back to when Iran in the 80's banned many forms of western culture--including rock music. Although no religious groups or any reference to Iran or Iranian are mentioned in the song, the video and other song lyrics tend to make the average music afficionado wonder if this song is really referring to the middle east ("Shareef don't like it... he thinks its not kosher").
As mentioned in www.songfacts.com, "Joe Strummer wrote the lyrics about an Arab ruler (the Shereef) who hates music, but is defied by the citizens and even his own air force. Strummer was inspired by a news report of Iranians who were flogged for owning Disco albums."
Personally, I feel that this song was one of the best made by the Clash, as they made this a 'story song' by use of a disco beat while maintaining their "rock-ness".!!!
2007-02-02 16:18:47 · answer #7 · answered by rc 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
lol.."casbah" is a palace that is used by i believe (i'm probably wrong) some iranian person or some indian person. (some king guy of the two)
obvouisly it means to rock that place.
2007-02-02 16:10:50 · answer #8 · answered by LS 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
in islamic countries (particularly those run by the mulah's) all things western are condemned.
the song was asserting the undergound existense of 'clubs' that played rock and roll & the political context of military action against those countries. The two things being rather unrelated, it made for an interesting mix.
2007-02-02 16:12:45 · answer #9 · answered by dharp66 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Absolutely love that song, even though the Clash purists consider it to be too mainstream.
2013-11-28 11:58:13 · answer #10 · answered by David 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋