"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 is a Jewish term and is unlikely to be used by an Islamic king. However given the song's light-heartedness this doesn't matter too much. It is one of the more light-hearted songs by the Clash, particularly as they were well-established as a political band. Political undertones are often read into the song.
The track also makes references to the cordoned off Arab areas of European colonial holdings. The example most used is that of the Casbah in Algiers during the time that France occupied Algeria. Rock the Casbah has been said to be a reference to the anti-imperialist movements in colonial nations as well as the banning of music in Persian and Arab nations.
"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.
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. In the 2002 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.
The Clash made low-budget music videos for several of their songs, and the one for "Rock the Casbah" may be their most memorable. It depicts an Arab and a Hasidic Jew dancing together through the streets, often followed by an armadillo, interspersed with the band performing in front of an oil well. The humorous tone of the video fits the song, although it is easy to read the antics of the Arab and Jew as a desire for better relations between Israelis and Arabs. Many Muslims objected to the Arab man displaying a liquor bottle, as alcohol is forbidden in Islam. The video also features their first drummer Terry Chimes, because at the time of its release Headon was out of the band, due to his growing drug addiction.
It has been reported that "Rock the Casbah" was an unofficial anthem for the American army during the first Gulf War (the line about dropping "bombs between the minarets" being particularly relevant). This has been seen as highly ironic, if not downright insulting, by many Clash fans, given the band's well established left-wing politics and anti-war stance, yet as appropriate by some, as the song is an attack on hypocritical Arab leaders who ban Western influences for their subjects, but are happy to reap the benefits of such influences for themselves. In 2006, the conservative National Review released their list of the top 50 "conservative rock songs", with "Rock the Casbah" at #20[1], noting its frequent requests during the Iraq War, but without citing conservative themes in the lyrics.
Despite, or perhaps because of, its popularity with soldiers during the Gulf War, "Rock the Casbah" was one of the songs deemed inappropriate by Clear Channel Communications following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Other versions of "Rock the Casbah" have been recorded by the Australian band Something for Kate, the Algerian rock singer Rachid Taha, in Arabic, on his 2004 album Tékitoi, as well as the band Trust Company, on the 2005 album "True Parallels". Also, the techno group Solar Twins released an electronica remix in 1999. Will Smith's song "Will 2K" of the Willennium album of 1999 samples "Rock The Casbah" both instrumentally and in some of the lyrics.
Self-confessed The Clash fans Green Day have also been known to cover this particular track on tour on a few occasions
