Why does everyone hate "Rock the Casbah"?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Sure, it's not punk, and it's not political, but how anyone can listen to it and not get a goofy grin on their face is beyond my comprehension. Why is it so hated on ILM?

― musically (musically), Friday, 20 January 2006 20:58 (twenty years ago)

Wait, people hate this song?????

― Dan (FFS) Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:00 (twenty years ago)

yeah, I like it

― Dominique (dleone), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:00 (twenty years ago)

Is this question like how Christmas is being erased by liberals?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:02 (twenty years ago)

I think Clash fans get annoyed when it's the only Clash song someone knows. Like how I break bottles when someone only knows Pure Prairie League for Amie. Philistines.

― erklie, Friday, 20 January 2006 21:03 (twenty years ago)

it's probably my favorite clash song! i mean, i don't like the clash very much, but that's one fuckin killer bassline!

― ZR (teenagequiet), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:04 (twenty years ago)

I like it too.

Say "NO" to hate. Say "HAIL NAH" to strawman hate crimes.

― Cunga (Cunga), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:08 (twenty years ago)

Okay, the fact that Cunga and I never seem to agree on anything and we both love this song should be a massive indicator of precisely how flawed the premise of this thread is.

― Dan (It's Like GWB Popped Out Of Lurkdom Or Something) Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:10 (twenty years ago)

I spose people hate on it because its a) massively popular and b) it's from the record when they stoppped being a punk band completely and became their-own fucked-up version of hip hop, riding Eno's dick all the way.

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:17 (twenty years ago)

i always thought people hated "should i stay or should i go" much, much more.

― gear (gear), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:21 (twenty years ago)

i love it. i love all the clash "hits". should i stay or should i go. radio clash. train in vain. etc. they are all i really need from the clash.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:22 (twenty years ago)

i don't know why i put hits in quotes. they were hits.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:23 (twenty years ago)

my favorite clash "song" is the guns of brixton

― gear (gear), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:27 (twenty years ago)

that's not true, actually. i lied. i prefer "janie jones"

― gear (gear), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:27 (twenty years ago)

having complete the 80s singles tally i can assure you very muchly that ilx most decidedly does NOT hate 'rock the casbah'

― #3 (papa la bas), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:28 (twenty years ago)

When he says 'This is not kosher' shouldn't it be 'This is not halal'?

― ratty, Friday, 20 January 2006 21:34 (twenty years ago)

it's political. it's sort of about the middle east political system. or maybe you mean it's not polemical, that it's political in the way d. henley's "all she wants to do is dance" is political

― hegira, Friday, 20 January 2006 21:36 (twenty years ago)

how could you hate this song?

the laser sounds when they send in the jet fighers? classic!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:36 (twenty years ago)

"Why does everyone hate orgasms?"

― Dan (Madness) Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:36 (twenty years ago)

Hey, musically. When did you stop sexually fantasizing about your mother?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:37 (twenty years ago)

at worst, its just one of those songs i never really need to hear again....at worst...

its politics are watery, like many a clash song..but, big deal

― bb (bbrz), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:37 (twenty years ago)

That fucking fascist Don Henley.

― erklie, Friday, 20 January 2006 21:37 (twenty years ago)

Now come on. If it were a choice, I'd take the orgasm over Rock the Casbah and I think you would too.

― ratty, Friday, 20 January 2006 21:38 (twenty years ago)

i like the clash better when they do funky jamz and reggae. the punk stuff is lame-o.

― howell huser (chaki), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:40 (twenty years ago)

chaki OTM. black market clash is their best album.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:44 (twenty years ago)

Dan otm

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:49 (twenty years ago)

SHARIF DONT LIKE IT

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:50 (twenty years ago)

actually come to think of it my favorite clash tune might be their "pressure drop" cover.

― gear (gear), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:51 (twenty years ago)

i was gonna say how i like it if only for the laser sounds when the jets are sent out!

― oops (Oops), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:53 (twenty years ago)

it's not my favorite clash song, but i like just about everything in it except when the title is said.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:55 (twenty years ago)

when i was a wee child I thought he was singing "rockin' the asphalt" and I had this mental image of Joe Strummer breakdancing or something. Or marching really seriously.

― brokeback titty sanskrit (sanskrit), Friday, 20 January 2006 21:59 (twenty years ago)

so is going to be first to say Mustapha Dance is so much better?

― brokeback titty sanskrit (sanskrit), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:01 (twenty years ago)

i think ill be listening to black mrkt clash tonight...

damn that one skip on side 2, though

― bb (bbrz), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:03 (twenty years ago)

Rock the Casbah is good stuff.

― WillS, Friday, 20 January 2006 22:30 (twenty years ago)

One of the few Clash songs I like.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:31 (twenty years ago)

don't like it

― shareef (fandango), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:51 (twenty years ago)

O RLY?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:59 (twenty years ago)

http://www.orlyowl.com/blankrly.jpg

― Dan (Hahahahhha) Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:00 (twenty years ago)

Original post:

Clumsiest. Strawman. Ever.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (my crop froze in the field) (Rock Hardy), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:10 (twenty years ago)

I find it's one of those songs that works anytime, anywhere: indie dance nights, retro-'80s superclub nights, electro/post-punk parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs...

― stuber, Friday, 20 January 2006 23:15 (twenty years ago)

but what about miller time?

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:24 (twenty years ago)

http://users.bigpond.net.au/clarks/Return.jpg

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:51 (twenty years ago)

'twas their shark jumping song, IMO. (a comment that i know people will disagree with.) for whatever reason, this is the clash song that sticks in my mind such that i get tired of it.

― Mitya (mitya), Saturday, 21 January 2006 03:09 (twenty years ago)

OK, wait for it.......

THE CLASH ARE THE MOST OVERRATED BAND IN THE HISTORY OF RECORDED MUSIC!!!! (YES, EVEN MORE THAN THE BEATLES)

Ugh, Joe Strummer = world's worst "singer" (Tone-deaf bellowing is not technically singing)

First album, fine
A few songs thereafter, ok-ish
But most is just leaden, oafish crap.

95% of the love for this band is probably related to their politics, yeah I thought the contras sucked too, but, please......

― king kracker, Saturday, 21 January 2006 03:33 (twenty years ago)

damn the armadillo.

― retrogurl, Saturday, 21 January 2006 07:31 (twenty years ago)

Try to listen with fresh ears: one of the strangest hit records ever. Had it been the Gang of Four's follow up to "I Love a Man in a Uniform", everyone would be unanimous in it's praise.

― bendy (bendy), Saturday, 21 January 2006 07:40 (twenty years ago)

This has been in my top 20 of all time or thereabouts for some 15 years.

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Saturday, 21 January 2006 13:59 (twenty years ago)

Official theme song for every piece of US military adventurism since its release.

Uncle Joe and the lads were being ironic of course, but there you are.

― soukesian, Saturday, 21 January 2006 14:14 (twenty years ago)

I don't like it much, surprise. I don't hate it, though.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 21 January 2006 14:33 (twenty years ago)

I prefer the single version. what a bassline!

The Clash are probably my favourite band, and I don't even care for there politics.

― Gukbe (lokar), Saturday, 21 January 2006 14:41 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

the one great clash record.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Thursday, 8 February 2007 14:21 (nineteen years ago)

it's actually my 4th fav

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Thursday, 8 February 2007 14:24 (nineteen years ago)

Clash fans get annoyed

Oh no, not the briar patch!

― Elsa Svitborg (tracerhand), Thursday, 8 February 2007 14:37 (nineteen years ago)

chaki OTM. black market clash is their best album.

-- scott seward (skotro...), January 20th, 2006 9:44 PM.

yes! but Rock the Casbah is a piece w/the stuff on that comp, i think except with an awesome chorus.

― artdamages (artdamages), Thursday, 8 February 2007 15:11 (nineteen years ago)

I don't mind the song.

But I do mind Virgin Radio playing it three times per hour. They did make other records.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 8 February 2007 15:16 (nineteen years ago)

Also, at the time of its release it was assumed in certain quarters to be a commentary on the Falklands war, viz. in the chorus they were really singing: "fuck the task force."

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 8 February 2007 15:17 (nineteen years ago)

I kinda like Rachid Taha's cover of it.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 8 February 2007 17:19 (nineteen years ago)

That's a fantastic version!

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 9 February 2007 08:56 (nineteen years ago)

I don't mind it - it's cute. But I definitely don't love it, for the same reason I like-don't-love most of the Clash's best stuff: Joe Strummer's lousy singing. (Mick Jones was better, but not much.)

― Myonga Vön Bontee (Monty Von Byonga), Friday, 9 February 2007 09:39 (nineteen years ago)

I like later Clash much more than early Clash. So ner.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Friday, 9 February 2007 09:47 (nineteen years ago)

my favorite clash "song" is the guns of brixton

-- gear (speed.to.roa...), January 20th, 2006 8:27 AM.

gear 100% OTM

the only problem that i have w/ "rock the casbah" is that it's overplayed (in the 80s, it -- and "train in vain" or the ramones' "i wanna be sedated" -- were the token punk songs on the rock stations in my neck of the woods).

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 9 February 2007 09:52 (nineteen years ago)

Video for Rachid Taha's version here:

http://arabworld.nitle.org/audiovisual.php?module_id=5&selected_feed=294

― Elsa Svitborg (tracerhand), Friday, 9 February 2007 11:06 (nineteen years ago)

I like the idea of Rachid Taha's cover much better than the cover itself. "Rock The Casbah" was not a song that cried out for Egyptian strings. It's one of the weakest cuts on Taha's otherwise-amazing Tekitoi?.

― Vornado (Vornado), Friday, 9 February 2007 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

six years pass...

the mustapha dance pandora station is everything

(it's probably identical to the rock the casbah station)

currently listening to: paul young - sex

― musically, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 02:18 (twelve years ago)

That's a bit like Scritti Politti's song with the same name

― Mark G, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 06:19 (twelve years ago)

one year passes...

I dunno I find the Tahid live version moving so here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1p_dkJo6Y8

― Adam J Duncan, Monday, 4 January 2016 10:21 (ten years ago)

Rachid Taha... ugh

― Adam J Duncan, Monday, 4 January 2016 10:21 (ten years ago)

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' cruisnin' down the ville
The muezzin was a' standing
On the radiator grille
CHORUS
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' 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 Bedouins 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

CHORUS

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
The temple band took five
The crowd caught a wiff
Of that crazy Casbah jive

CHORUS

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

CHORUS

― Adam J Duncan, Monday, 4 January 2016 10:22 (ten years ago)

The Clash of Civilizations

― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Monday, 4 January 2016 15:49 (ten years ago)

The in crowd say it's cool
To dig this chanting thing

― how's life, Monday, 4 January 2016 16:06 (ten years ago)

the music on "Rock the Casbah" was allegedly primarily written and even recorded by Topper Headon - hope he got a publishing credit at least!

― Paul, Tuesday, 5 January 2016 03:12 (ten years ago)

Not even allegedly, Topper did the piano and drums one night ... maybe he did more. The other guys filled it in.

Sandinista! and Combat Rock, I think all songs are credited to the Clash collectively.

Saw this:

ou wrote many songs for the band. How did you write and what instruments did you use?
Well, I can play the piano in D – but in D only, that’s why Rock The Casbah’s in D. I can play a great Mose Allison bass line and I used to play Stanley Clarke’s School Days on the bass too. It could be anything. I used to play all the instruments at sound checks and in rehearsals. I just picked it up.
How did Rock The Casbah come about?
I was in the studio and they weren’t - that’s how Rock The Casbah happened. Mick and Joe weren’t really speaking by this point - we just weren’t gelling. The song was based around the piano – it was my song, my tune! Joe wrote the lyrics and then - Mick wants to put his wristwatch on there, “No! No way Mick!” He was upset because it was nothing to do with him really. I had this song where I’d done everything and it was me and Joe’s song - I laid down the drums, bass and piano when no one else was around.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 5 January 2016 03:23 (ten years ago)

Strummer told the same story, that he got to the studio early and found Topper had written and recorded the song overnight; Joe added guitar and the vocal before anyone else turned up.

Songwriting on Combat Rock is credited collectively to The Clash, and I've always assumed that behind the scenes they give the lion's share, or possibly all the publishing, to Topper for Casbah, and that this is why it's one of the most-licensed and sampled Clash records. Along the lines of Mick & Joe periodically paying for rehab for him in the post-split decades.

― glandular lansbury (sic), Tuesday, 5 January 2016 04:45 (ten years ago)

lol did i really start this thread

anyway "mustapha dance is so much better" otm

― musically, Tuesday, 5 January 2016 18:16 (ten years ago)

Sandinista! and Combat Rock, iirc they were recorded pretty piecemeal a la The White Album, rarely with all four in the studio at the same time.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 5 January 2016 18:52 (ten years ago)

Sandinista was largely recorded with a five-piece band of Strummer, Jones, Headin, Watt-Roy and Gallagher.

― glandular lansbury (sic), Tuesday, 5 January 2016 21:28 (ten years ago)

i o

― glandular lansbury (sic), Tuesday, 5 January 2016 21:29 (ten years ago)

one year passes...

stuck in my head right now but it's

By order of the prophet
On the radiator gri-i-i-i-il
Degenerate the faithful
On the radiator gri-i-i-i-il
etc

― how's life, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 09:22 (eight years ago)

Wow never realised how bad the lyrics actually are before seeing them all written down

― mor frog bs (S-), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 10:55 (eight years ago)

Wait, people hate this song?????
― Dan (FFS) Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, January 20, 2006 9:00 PM (eleven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 16:08 (eight years ago)

the song/video feel kind of racist to me?

― clouds, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 16:19 (eight years ago)

Modern artifact. I doubt one could make a song about Mideast cultural conflicts without being either maudlin or appearing racist.

― Special Egyptian Guest Star (Sanpaku), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 17:13 (eight years ago)

Wait, people hate this song?????
― Dan (FFS) Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, January 20, 2006 9:00 PM (eleven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 17:08 (one hour ago)

― Zings Can Only Get Better (snoball), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 17:37 (eight years ago)

I fucking love this song so much

― brimstead, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 23:59 (eight years ago)

let's explore the racism, it's not clear to me

― brimstead, Thursday, 21 September 2017 00:01 (eight years ago)

I guess using a bunch of foreign words incorrectly is pretty racist

― brimstead, Thursday, 21 September 2017 00:02 (eight years ago)

Everybody who likes music loves The Clash!

40 years later: we regret to inform you that The Clash is racist

― El Tomboto, Thursday, 21 September 2017 00:04 (eight years ago)

some of joe strummer's singing style is probably kinda racist

― brimstead, Thursday, 21 September 2017 00:52 (eight years ago)

So racist they played at Rock Against Racism in '78.

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Thursday, 21 September 2017 12:33 (eight years ago)

ten months pass...

Legendary Spotify forum complaint pic.twitter.com/wrUdOcilfh
— Face (@Arr) August 15, 2018

― ciderpress, Wednesday, 15 August 2018 20:17 (seven years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.