Rock the Casbah - The Clash
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- 3-5 (1)
- 5-50 (1)
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- original (1)
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- pdf (1)
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- chords (1)
- guitar (1)
- lyrics (1)
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| last added by | pages | info | sheet | file | lyrics | chords | guitar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mar-tini (14) | 5 | not the best quality but ok | original |
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According to the Rock The Casbah Songfacts, Clash Drummer Topper Headon wrote the music and the original lyrics. Vocalist Joe Strummer then decided to take Headon's lyrics in a different direction, to tell the story of an Arab ruler (the Shereef) who hates music, but is defied by the citizens . According to former Clash co-manager Kosmo Vinyl, Headon's original words were a filthy ode to his girlfriend. Read more
Vinyl recalled to Rolling Stone: "He had really pornographic lyrics for it if I remember correctly. Very, very pornographic lyrics." Strummer's inspiration for re-working the song came from the Clash's other manager, Bernie Rhodes, who asked the band, "Does everything have to be as long as a raga?" after a particularly long take of the track "Sean Flynn." Strummer told Rolling Stone shortly before he died in 2002: "I got back to the hotel that night and wrote on a typewriter, 'The King told the boogie men You gotta get that raga drop.' I looked at it and for some reason I started to think about what someone had told me earlier, that you get lashed for owning a disco album in Iran."