Dissect DJs - The Clash - Rock the Casbah

Episode Date: January 5, 2023

We conclude 80's month by breaking down one of the all-time throwback 80's bangers: The Clash - Rock the Casbah! Did you know the heavy backstory that this song gets into? Did you know the extremely lame story that this song almost got into? We get into all of it and break it down accordingly, alongside our new mascot Dottie! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Everybody, it's your boy DJMC. Jiggin. Jiggin. What up, Steve? And I know it's the next month, but we decided 80's month, it's just too good. Let's keep it rolling. Push it a little bit longer.

Push it a little bit longer. We don't need to be a month. It's a little month and plus. So we got the extension of 80s month. 80s month. Because we are the DJs are like a spin-in, mix it. Throw it back and dashed. And we honestly have a one that we all know.

screams 80s. We all know the song. We all know and we sing along with it. However, I guarantee that you have no idea what this fucking song is talking about. Why? Because I didn't know.

I know Castle didn't know. I don't know that you know. Did you know? I had no idea. No idea. I asked my auntie. She was like, I don't fucking is. I asked the guy down to the street right now.

I walked outside. I was like, hey, you know, I rocked the catchman. Surprisingly, he knew. I just didn't want to get in a deep conversation with him. I was like, no, right. Well, good for you.

Anyways, you get what I'm saying. You get what I'm saying. It was a whole, yeah. It was a thing. It was weird. It got weird quick and I was like, you know what? Forget it. Anyway, but yes, guys, this song gets deep quick.

And from the lyrics. And then just stays there. Stays there. Stays in the death. But you think it's rocking out. You're like, we're going to party. Yeah. I always assume.

Soon find out. The cast ball just meant like rocking on stage. Very different thing. No, that I mean, kind of. But the level of, uh, Danger and, I guess, breaking the law that they get into while rocking the cashball leads to a very foul ending. And we're going to get into it. So let's go off the beginning lyrics here.

Rock the cash ball. Now, the king told the boogeyman, you have to let the ragga drop. Again, me and Castle kind of were asking, you know what Raga is? He was like, no. No idea. What the fuck is Raga is? I don't even know who the king is or the boogeyman. Boogie man, king.

Who is this king? Who is this booing about? A lot of characters already being thrown at us. The oil down to death. Magic Way has been shaking to the top. Now that makes me feel like they've been, you know, building the oil to get it to the top. I don't know.

Their money's about to be made. I don't know. Here we go. The Sheik drove his Cadillac. He went a cruising down the bill. The Musen was a standing on the Radiator grill. Can we get back to the boogeyman? We got boogeyman.

We got a king. We got Musen. What are all these characters, man? In this universe, there's just a boogeyman. He's just like on call. And like, the king can just go. say what's up to him and like talking to him about Iranian oil like what what all right wait how'd you know is Iranian oil what you because I'm done a little research on this shit there we go

we're stepping the game up and decided to look into it a little bit we researching y'all aren't you I spent about you know the I took the extra 30 seconds to be like let me actually look into what this is so you just you call that the moosin right what is that I googled that I don't know but apparently he was a standing so what was he doing the moosin is the person who proclaims the call to the daily prayer five times a day at a mosque. Muzan plays an important role in ensuring an accurate prayer schedule for the Muslim community. Man, what if he falls asleep or something? Like, what if he was like taking a nap?

Sounds like an important, dude. Yeah, he has five times a day that he has to specifically let everybody know that's time to prayer. However, what if he was like mid-dump? You know what I mean? He's supposed to say that shit at five. He got on the shooter at 458. Like, dude, this shit's got a guy. I got to go now.

And it's now 502. Like he's fucking up. This musin's going to get fired of it. Anyway, going off on my tanges as far as detail-oriented bullshit. We have a musin. We have a sheik who's been driving a Cadillac. We have a king that told the boogeyman. They don't let the Google drop.

So far, the story has no clue. There's no way you can find out what the story's talking about. At this point, I think it's important to actually bring in the music video because we begin with an armadillo randomly. Random isolated armadillo. Armadillo is just running around and gets strung along through the entire music video. I have no idea. It's never really brought into play as to what.

That actually is. But then we got a sheik and a Hasidic Jew, and they're just both parting. They both got a bottle in their hand, and they're just rocking through a crowd, and they're just, like, jamming. And they're just like, we are... We are here to trance.

Yeah. And by the way, this song is... I don't even think we've said it yet. It's by The Clash. Rock the Casbah released June 11th, 1982, and I need you to see the cover photo, because it goes along with what we just discussed. The picture of the song displayed on genius lyrics is a chic and said Hasidic Jew,

and they are just raging. They're both just getting it. Dranking. Yeah. So it immediately feels like this is like a clash of cultures, and they're just here to rock the casbah. And what does that mean? Goes into the main lyric of Cherif, he don't like it. So whatever they're doing, the party and they're doing,

Sharif, he don't like it. Rocking the cash ball. Rock the cash ball. They're rocking it. He don't like it. Sharif, he don't like it. What's a Sharif, by the way? Have we looked that up?

Have we, do we figure out what Sharif is? Okay. Name of somebody, but... Yeah. The Sharif is the title used to designate a person to send it or claiming to be descended from the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Wow. So that fucking guy doesn't like it. He's not into it.

Not into the party. Okay. That's where we are. Okay, well, then at this point, actually, along with the research that I decided to throw in there. I knew that basically we're going to come to what does Rock the Caspaw mean. Okay. All right. So.

Let's let them know early so everybody gets an idea. Yeah, I did my 30 seconds of research and I came up on this description right here. Okay. When it was first written, the meaning of the lyrics was more pornographic and centered around He'don's longing for his ex-girlfriend at the time.

Wait, what? That is referring to the clashes drummer, Topper Heedon, who initially wrote the lyrics. So he had a kind of different vision for this. However, Strummer. Who the fuck is Strummer? Joe Strummer, he's the lead singer of the Clash.

He decided, no, fuck all that. We're not going to release this dope-ass jam that is going to rock the entire nation and world to be about your ex-girlfriend that you're pining for. So Strummer was intent on rewriting the lyrics and keeping, would music hit on initially tracked for the song, and took the meaning in an entirely different direction. Rock the Casbah turned into an anthem centered around the persecution of the Iranian people for enjoying music,

particularly for owning a disco album at the time. So you're telling me if they had Saturday Night Live, the album? Yeah, this is like a real-life footloose situation, except for instead of what? Instead of they get killed. Instead of dancing, it was like you can't own disco or music of any kind. You cannot enjoy it. What kind of culture feels the need to tell people? They're not allowed to enjoy music like that

The next lyrics say it By order of the profit we ban the buggy sound Degenerate the faithful with the crazy Koshba sound So the rocking of the sound that they think is going to degenerate their people Therefore they don't want any of the boogie sound Which is the disco They brought out the electric

But then all the people brought out the electric camel drum Local guitar picker brought out the guitar pick and thumb And as soon as the Sharif cleared and left they started fucking partying. They began to wail. The very fact that they call it the buggy sound just shows how out of touch this boogie sound.

What's a boogie sound? It must delete this. It cannot have this in our culture. It kind of clashes. Hey, I see what you did that. Hey, with the music video, which just shows a chic and a Hasidic dude just ranting and parting it up,

just rocking through the town, slamming their bottles, just having a good old time because apparently they're just breaking the law and maybe that's the whole the clash of this song. That's their theme. It's just like, you know what? I don't give a fuck what the Muzin says.

We can go fuck what the Sharif says. And you could do that. And you could do that for a point. Rock the Caspa. We are here to. Rock the Caspa. But if you keep doing that, you're dealing with the higher authorities.

You've got to be careful. We'll find out exactly what we're talking about. Let's let them sing it. Rock the cash bar. Rock the cash. Can we just say how bad this fucking singer is, though? He doesn't sing good at all. So these guys are pioneers of, like, the entire punk sound.

So this song was released in 1981, and that was when I think the punk scene really started to take on it. So these guys are pioneers, because this singer has that sort of black Mohawk look that I think. And he can't sing for shit. And, yeah, and it, he literally said, Bejadry, that's not any singing whatsoever going behind that, dude. Like, you had to have the Whitney.

It really, like, embodies the sound where it's like, you don't even need to be a good singer. If you have the enthusiasm and you have the, like, yeah, like, it's just, you bring it to the right. That's so loud. I mean, I can be able to get it. There's something against us, goodness. This song is cursed.

Something against us. us wanted to do this Rock the Cashbaugh thing that we've been that we're knocking out here because this is a good one and we want to get you guys the details but fuck these guys doing construction that just started right outside our door we're not gonna be able to finish we can't do this with that we already did a whole episode and it didn't record and we're trying we're trying our best to like act like we first did you know our first time but

we did an awesome we did an awesome episode we were doing pretty good we were doing pretty good all the re i gotta be honest our second one was coming through pretty well yeah and then dotty leave his shoes alone suddenly we got Dottie after Dottie. Doty. Everybody's like, where's their embraces?

He's not around today. I'm taking care of Dottie. We got a dog literally in between the two attempts to record this. Yeah, I decided to buy an eight-week-old dog. Who does that, me? Yeah. I think they might be done.

This whole song's about oil. Isn't that crazy? It's about oil, man. It's not about, that's not about oil. It's about, like you said, it's about the people trying to dance. The Iranian people, really. They're trying to dance, and listen to disco music.

And the guy said, no. Then when he turned his back, the stereo kept dancing, and then we still have yet to find out what happens as a repercussion of them dancing while the Sharif left. But the music video also has the band just performing in front of a whole oil drill. Oil rigs. Yeah, yeah. Just, you know, affluent behind me.

Which I got to say, especially given the time in 1981, great location for a video shoot. Good spot. Good spot. Easy. A lot better than that Sting video where they just did it in the Montreal Exposed locker room. Yeah. You know? Absolutely. This brings home the meaning of the song. prematurely stopped it.

Let's keep you going. If I could just sum up that last part, what they basically did is, over at the temple, people were starting to gather. Crowds say, they're starting to really get into like, I kind of like this,

what's going on. And then I... To dig this chaining thing. They weren't sure. They're kind of figuring out. And by the time they realized they got a whiff of this band that decided to go nuts

and play some disco jam. With that crazy Keshba? Jai! Jai! Really? All right, man. So these people are partying. They said,

Fuck the Sharif. We're going to do our thing, and they're doing their thing. Let's find out what happens next. Wait, King did what? Called up his jet fighter. Record scratch. Did you guys just hear what just fucking happened? The fuck just happened.

Quick synopsis of what's happening so far. They got a guy that doesn't like disco music. He tells all his people, Sharif, he says, do you guys can't dance? And he leaves the play, and then they start dancing anyway. So much so that the band goes nuts and they start packing the place. Now they're packed into place dancing Sharif sees that shit He goes

Oh jet fighters Come earn your paycheck Once I'm out of here You need to blast these fucking people And literally Once he leaves a situation Blast the people that are partying Am I wrong and thinking this?

Am I dark? Dark! That fool just killed all his people Yeah So by the way The Casbah Which I always thought he said Cash Box when I was a kid

Yeah Yeah And I don't know I always thought it was cash ba like you know cash did that make sense to you at the day i just you know i thought cash it had to do with cash and then ba's just something else you know he just thought it made like rocking the party but i always thought it was cash and they didn't know what they say afterwards it's most commonly the citadel of a fortified quarter of a city it is also equivalent to the term alcazaba in spanish

which derives from the same arabic ward by extension the term can be referred to a medina quarter particularly in algeria So basically it is the area around a citadel. Are you taking pictures of your dog? You're sleeping. She sleeps up here. Okay. The area around the citadel, I got it.

So it was like a religious area where they're kind of a lot of people are, which, Okay, now the video is coming a light a little bit more because you got the Sheik and you got the Hasidic Jew and they're just rocking through a crowd. And that was the people around the citadel for their daily prayer. and they're just rocking through. They're like, I got Drens. They're like, we don't pray, we party. They both got, like, handles of jack in their hand, and they're just, like, yanking shots left and right,

and they're just like, we're here to party. And then the video just, it doesn't get too dark, but it shows these jet fires going over. And, yeah, apparently that was just by the Sharif. Once he took off and chauffeur it out of there, the jet pilots, the jet pilots wailed. and because the Sharif don't like it, rock the cash ball. Shereef, you need to chill a little bit.

Now, here's the great thing about this, guys. The story gets better. Listen to this. Sorry, guys, I have a DJ version of it. Let it run. Let it run. They didn't have it. I got to get it for us.

Here it is. I lied. I lied, guys. It doesn't get any better. People were partying. They're going against what the Sharif said. Shrife said, all right. Fire pilots

Shreif don't like it Go earn your check And the fire pilots killed him There's the other story Fade the black The fade to blast The end of the fucking story Now the movie

Now the video doesn't have That they have the two guys Still partying through But he's like At the end he goes He really doesn't like it Fundamentally What is it?

Fundamentally can take it Now he really really Hates it He hated it And he killed all his people Because they were partying Dark story I bet you guys

Had no idea When you guys have been singing I do you don't like it That it was about a sheriff that didn't like That his people were dancing to disco And therefore killed him So straight killed his people With a jet fighter

This definitely falls in the category Of songs that are way darker Once you get in digging and die sex It's like it's even further than When we did the Pinyacolada song And we realized that was actually just about A horrible couple that was trying to cheat on each other And they're like oh it's you

You're the one I was trying to cheat on This is almost sadder than me trying to cheat in the first place. Yeah, yeah, it's a bad story. Episode something. Go back to it. Episode something. But yeah, guys, so with that said, man, I hope you guys realize that the song you guys have been yelling this fantastic 80s song, and everybody goes, Daddy, they don't like it.

Rock that you guys have been singing about. If you're going to make a song about this dark of a subject, why not make it rock? I mean, why make a song about this anyway? I mean, because the fucking drumming. He wanted to make it about his ex that he's still strung up on. Let's get a little more meaningful behind it. Props to the singer for being like, no, we're not doing that. If we're going to make this jam a jam,

it's going to be about the Iranian music and oil crisis and how they're trying to destroy their people. That's way better than John trying to make it about his ex that he just can't get over. John, you bitch. I don't think his name is actually John. Oh, whatever his name is. His name is actually Topper.

That's my old bird's name Which is way worse than John It's I mean that's a If I'm gonna place the name Topper on somebody It should be a bird Not a human being Who's the drummer for the clash

Who then decides to write a dope-ass track He didn't write the dope track He wrote the music for it That was fantastic But what he wrote was shit Yeah well he wrote the song originally To be all about like Chelsea I love you

Yeah but he put together a great rock beat to it But then he was like Chelsea trustee i love you get back with me and the guy was like there's no fucking chance i'm singing that no no no we're rocking the caspaw and there's some shit going down in the middle east let me fucking break that down we need to

let people know about you know what that route you know the sad irony of this song is that they decided to speak out about this thing where people in iran are being persecuted for just enjoying the love of music and made this absolute bangor to represent present for them, and then they couldn't even hear it because they're being... Couldn't even be supportive of a song that supports them. It's just, what?

Yeah. I like to think that maybe there's somebody from Iran right now. I don't know if that... I like to think that this law is still not in effect. But maybe they're hearing this episode, and they never were aware of Rock the Casbah, and we're reaching out to you. I'll let you know, hey, the clash, we're there. They were looking out for them.

They were trying to represent. They put together an absolute 80s smash hit banger. to represent you and your cause to just fight for the right to party, you know? And what happens if you do, which is just... Yeah, and maybe now you can finally enjoy rocking the castbaugh. How many slaps and how many snaps are we given? The clash, rock the cast ball. Out of five slaps, Jag, what's you got?

Fundamentally can't take it! It's good. I almost gave it four because it's one of those that rings. It's true with me. Gets me dancing, gets me moving. Class did a great job with it. You know, it's just... Everybody sings along with this.

One of those sing-alongs. Great song. However, man, it's about the genocide of a bunch of people dancing to good music because their head guy didn't want to. It's a really kind of somber note, and I feel bad for all the people that got hit by the Jet Fighter and died

for dancing to disco. So, three claps and... Slaps! It's fucking slaps, not claps. That's it. can't take it. What do you got, Steve? I think that's the first time

in DASIC DG's history that a rating included fundamentally can't take it. I think. How did I got to check the records in that? I feel like it is. All right. Out of five slaps,

rock the casbah gets. Four slaps and mouse cases? What is that? No, that's like an armadillo just worming his way through traffic in the casbah region. That works. Because I don't know why.

Armadillo, Let's never explain in the lyrics or the video. There's a random armadillo just running around. I respect the fact that they grabbed an armadillo for it because that can't be easy to find. You got almost like go to your local zoo. They're like, should we get a dog? Should we get a monkey? No, let's get an armadillo.

An armadillo in this bitch. I can't even spill on me. I feel like they're probably close to being extinct. I mean, I just imagine. I don't, have you ever seen an armadillo? No, armadillo is one rampant in the Idaho region. Maybe in Iran. Maybe they're, stop taking pictures of your dog.

You're so. We're not going to be able to do this podcast while Doddies and presents anymore. I don't know. It's kind of like three hours ago. I didn't even know I was going to get her six hours ago. It's fantastic. But with that said, rock the cashball. 80s month.

I think we've come to a conclusion with this. We might be bringing it too close. There's plenty of 80s tracks. Oh, man, it's so sad. We'll probably come back in the 80s month. But you know what we decided to come back with 80s month? We'll make it an annual thing. Not even annual.

It might be a season. But yeah, this is just the perfect jam. I feel like we haven't even hit hard how much this. just this is the absolute epitome of 80s rock jam. All around it, man. You could be playing any music if you're in a DJ setting, and they could be just straight playing EDM music, and everybody's loving that vibe.

And then just throw this one on. And I feel like everybody's just going to roll with it because it just works. I just don't feel a setting that this doesn't work in, unless you're maybe at the Casbah at a Citadel outside of Iran. You can hear air fighters coming. You're like, oh, shit.

Okay, let's maybe turn down. Let's stop rock the Casbah. And they're actually saying rocking the caspaw. How did we find out about that? Why did we end up choosing this song? What was this? Oh, yeah, because Jag over here put together a little promo video thing for our 80s month. And he threw this song in there.

And I was immediately like, why haven't we dissected that song yet? Let's get it. And I had no idea why I put that song in there. But it worked out. And you guys got to hear Rock the Cashball and what it's all about, which is quite depressing. But still a banger, baby. Salute binger. Oh, I also figured out where the Ruper Holmes escaped Pena Collada song episode was.

It's episode 54. If you want to go down the rabbit hole of finding other songs that are actually much darker than they sound, rock the Casbah. And give one more shout out for our three things that we're starting. The three things about. The Three Things About podcasts, we want you all to check in. If you like what we do here on the Dysack DJs, go ahead. head and check that out. That is where we're going to be breaking down three things about mostly movie reviews. Classic movie films that we discuss. We have three important burning

questions to discuss about it and really just go over all the notes that need to be hit about that movie. Check that out. I want to pump that up because that is the new one that's taking off. The movies mainly, but we might be jumping into any three things we want to talk about. But we're trying to focus it on movies because we feel like it's good avenue for us to take. So featuring most recent episode of a league of their own. Which came out on Hulu as a series. We did not know what. We didn't even know that.

But you know what? Great timing. It works out fucking perfectly. Featuring our next episode. Willie Wonka. Coming up next. And actually there's a series coming out on that soon. Shut the word out.

Made that up, but it would have been good. They should. I actually don't know if that would work as a series. It would be like three episodes of like everybody trying to find the Golden Bar. That shit goes on for way too long in that movie. But anyways, yeah. Look up three things about podcast. subscribe and listen in because me and jag we got a lot to say and we got a lot of casbahs to rock next