"Rock the Casbah" is a song by the English punk rock band The Clash, released in 1982. It was released as the third single from their fifth album, Combat Rock. The song reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. (their only top 10 single Stateside) and, along with the track "Mustapha Dance," it also reached number eight on the dance chart.[2] It is the band's highest charting single worldwide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_the_Casbah
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
[Chorus]
The sharif don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The sharif 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 Bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the sharif
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 whiff
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 sharif was
Chauffeured outta there
The jet pilots tuned to
The cockpit radio blare
As soon as the sharif was
Outta their hair
The jet pilots wailed
[Chorus]
He thinks it's not kosher
Fundamentally he can't take it.
You know he really hates it.
* Topper Headon is said to have written the main piano riff, but he as well as the rest of the band are credited.
The Clash broke up over politics ego & heroin addiction. Even improvisation (whaaat...?) on the part of drummer Topper Headon was used as an excuse to replace him effectively ending the band. Headon was the driving force. Once Headonism was overthrown did reaction settle back in...?
I recall the old Revolutionary Communist Party USA's former newspaper The Revolutionary Worker ran a series of articles likening the infighting on the Left with the internecine warfare/problems/differences of The Clash. I don't know how accurate they were but it was an interesting analogical concept.
