What does rockin the casbah mean

Meanings of other songs by The Clash:. Add your own interpretation and discuss lyrics of this song: Name:. E-mail: Show my email publicly. Human Verification:. Public Comment: characters. A combination of live exposure via a tour with the Who and a video on the then-new MTV network helped "Rock the Casbah" shoot to number eight on the U. It remains a favorite on classic rock radio today and is frequently played by sarcastic disc jockeys whenever there is a military situation in the Middle East example: it got a lot of airplay during the Persian Gulf War.

Guarisco punkemofan on August 19, Link. No Replies Log in to reply. 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 the revellers. The pilots ignore the orders, and instead play rock music on their cockpit radios. JeffKaos71 on March 10, Link. JeffKaos71 When the Iranians got the Happy song recently, they were on the internet dancing on a roof.

General Comment It's a little ignorant to call The Clash sell outs, when it is widely known they were never entirely driven by money. They refused to sacrifice their principles and thus were in debt to CBS Records until , when they only just broke even. Not quite sell outs. Furthermore, they're not pop punk; I doubt it even existed back in the first wave of punk in the UK..

Ingido on January 08, Link. General Comment To clear up a few things: 1. Topper wrote the riff. Joe the lyrics. A casbah is a section the citadel of MANY middle eastern cities. Not just in Algiers. Just like many western cities have a downtown, an arts district, etc. In fact this song is loosely based on something that happened in Iran 3. This song was the first song played on armed forces radio during Desert Storm something that made Joe Strummer furious. He obviously opposed everything that the US invasion stood for.

The Clash's song was one of the most "ordered" songs by coalition's soldiers - soldiers could order a song by sending a request to American Forces Network, which US Army radio is a part of. This song was so popular that American soldiers started to write "Rock the Casbah" on artillery shells. When Strummer found out about this he was both angry and sad. He could not understand how his meaningful pacifist song could be simply understood as nothing more than a catchy song that you can listen to while bombing Iraq.

I didnt know the meaning. Honestly was just another person who thought it was just another catchy song haha. Poor Joe Strummer. All posts.