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ASPartOfMe
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22 Sep 2024, 12:26 pm
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23 Sep 2024, 5:38 pm
Mona Pereth wrote:
ASPartOfMe wrote:
The Clash were a British group. They were known for their lefty lyrics. 1982’s ‘Rock the Casbah’ was their biggest American hit.
I just now looked up The Meaning Behind The Clash’s 1982 Hit “Rock the Casbah” by Tina Benitez-Eves. Also the Wikipedia article on Rock the Casbah. According to the latter:
Quote:
The song was chosen by Armed Forces Radio to be the first song broadcast on the service covering the area during Operation Desert Storm. In one of the campfire scenes late in the 2007 documentary Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, a friend states that Strummer wept when he heard that the phrase "Rock the Casbah" was written on an American bomb that was to be detonated on Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.
Following the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the song was placed on the list of post-9/11 inappropriate titles distributed by Clear Channel.[21] In 2006, the conservative National Review released their list of the top 50 "Conservative Rock Songs", with "Rock the Casbah" at number 20, noting the Clear Channel list as well as frequent requests to the British Forces Broadcasting Service during the Iraq War. Cultural reviewer and political analyst Charlie Pierce commented that "the notion of the Clash as spokesfolk for adventurism in the Middle East might have been enough to bring Joe Strummer back from the dead."
Following the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the song was placed on the list of post-9/11 inappropriate titles distributed by Clear Channel.[21] In 2006, the conservative National Review released their list of the top 50 "Conservative Rock Songs", with "Rock the Casbah" at number 20, noting the Clear Channel list as well as frequent requests to the British Forces Broadcasting Service during the Iraq War. Cultural reviewer and political analyst Charlie Pierce commented that "the notion of the Clash as spokesfolk for adventurism in the Middle East might have been enough to bring Joe Strummer back from the dead."
The very idea of "Conservative Rock Songs" is a bit paradoxical. Back in the early 1980's, most conservative Christians, here in the U.S.A., still regarded rock music as "the Devil's music," and conservatives in general tended to dislike it.
It would seem that the Clash intended their song as a protest against musical prudery worldwide and did not intend any harm to people in the Middle East. However, the use of their song as war propaganda during the first Gulf war does illustrate one of the pitfalls of focusing on another culture -- especially in a very superficial, stereotyped way -- rather than on one's own culture when critiquing social ills.
The song was protesting the despotic theocratic rulers who were taking over the mideast in the late seventies and "keeping their own people in ignorance". Not a cry to westerners to bomb the people of the Mideast (though thats what it sounds like its about...it even has laser sound effects as if depicting laser guided munitions).
As an aside...our young hard drinking store manager told us all about "a cool new song that just came out ...called "Rock the Cash bar..ya know how the same place will have both a cash bar and an open bar-that takes credit cards...Rock the Cash Bar!".
Folks hear what they wanna hear...political or otherwise.
Last edited by naturalplastic on 23 Sep 2024, 7:20 pm, edited 3 times in total.
23 Sep 2024, 5:41 pm
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old_comedywriter
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23 Sep 2024, 7:56 pm
ASPartOfMe
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24 Sep 2024, 6:22 am
naturalplastic wrote:
Mona Pereth wrote:
ASPartOfMe wrote:
The Clash were a British group. They were known for their lefty lyrics. 1982’s ‘Rock the Casbah’ was their biggest American hit.
I just now looked up The Meaning Behind The Clash’s 1982 Hit “Rock the Casbah” by Tina Benitez-Eves. Also the Wikipedia article on Rock the Casbah. According to the latter:
Quote:
The song was chosen by Armed Forces Radio to be the first song broadcast on the service covering the area during Operation Desert Storm. In one of the campfire scenes late in the 2007 documentary Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, a friend states that Strummer wept when he heard that the phrase "Rock the Casbah" was written on an American bomb that was to be detonated on Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.
Following the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the song was placed on the list of post-9/11 inappropriate titles distributed by Clear Channel.[21] In 2006, the conservative National Review released their list of the top 50 "Conservative Rock Songs", with "Rock the Casbah" at number 20, noting the Clear Channel list as well as frequent requests to the British Forces Broadcasting Service during the Iraq War. Cultural reviewer and political analyst Charlie Pierce commented that "the notion of the Clash as spokesfolk for adventurism in the Middle East might have been enough to bring Joe Strummer back from the dead."
Following the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the song was placed on the list of post-9/11 inappropriate titles distributed by Clear Channel.[21] In 2006, the conservative National Review released their list of the top 50 "Conservative Rock Songs", with "Rock the Casbah" at number 20, noting the Clear Channel list as well as frequent requests to the British Forces Broadcasting Service during the Iraq War. Cultural reviewer and political analyst Charlie Pierce commented that "the notion of the Clash as spokesfolk for adventurism in the Middle East might have been enough to bring Joe Strummer back from the dead."
The very idea of "Conservative Rock Songs" is a bit paradoxical. Back in the early 1980's, most conservative Christians, here in the U.S.A., still regarded rock music as "the Devil's music," and conservatives in general tended to dislike it.
It would seem that the Clash intended their song as a protest against musical prudery worldwide and did not intend any harm to people in the Middle East. However, the use of their song as war propaganda during the first Gulf war does illustrate one of the pitfalls of focusing on another culture -- especially in a very superficial, stereotyped way -- rather than on one's own culture when critiquing social ills.
The song was protesting the despotic theocratic rulers who were taking over the mideast in the late seventies and "keeping their own people in ignorance". Not a cry to westerners to bomb the people of the Mideast (though thats what it sounds like its about...it even has laser sound effects as if depicting laser guided munitions).
As an aside...our young hard drinking store manager told us all about "a cool new song that just came out ...called "Rock the Cash bar..ya know how the same place will have both a cash bar and an open bar-that takes credit cards...Rock the Cash Bar!".
Folks hear what they wanna hear...political or otherwise.
There was no Wikipedia or Songfacts in 1982 to find out what they really meant, but that people hear what they want to hear is still true, especially in our polarized era. Whatever the intent and knowing The Clash I am sure it was anti-hate, the video which played endlessly on MTV was racist.
The Clash along with the Sex Pistols were the two seminal first wave British Punk Rock bands. Their lefty orientation was known enough that they were occasionally mocked as "Socialism for sophomores". Lyrics aside, this song was not a rebellious punk rock song but a mainstream rock song that was viewed by many as "selling out". That they played Shea Stadium further validated that notion. They weren't "So Bored with the U.S.A" then. They seemingly realized that as they broke up shortly after.
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