The Sharif don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rockin' the Casbah
The Sharif don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rockin' the Casbah
- Rock the Casbah by The Clash
I had no idea what this song meant when I first heard it as a teenager in the 1980s. I could have sworn that the first line of the song was about two women, Charlene or Diane, and the singer was trying to pick one of them based on how they were doing something called the casbar. It was quicker for me to understand existentialism by Albert Camus' famous tome, L'Etranger (which I read in the original French) than to figure out what Joe Strummer meant singing about those women.
Fast forward to today. I finally had a chance to research the song's lyrics, what they mean, and even their place in cultural history. The song was banned from American radio following the September 11 attacks for being inappropriate. I watched the video for the first time ever today and still can't figure out what a Hasidic Jewish man, an armadillo, and an oil rig have to do with a Mediterranean citadel.
All of this is pretext for today's sofa adventure to the Casbah in Algiers, made possible by France 24. Even though I run the risk of some people not understanding French, I chose to share it provides the most compelling images of the Casbah renovation I have seen.
I loved that song! In my freshman year in college I was hanging out in a friend's dorm room and the song came on, we cranked it and started dancing around the room jumping up and down, having a great time. Then came a knock on the door. Apparently there was a "No Nukes" meeting going on in the community room below and the ceiling lights were swaying back and forth and it did not go over well. I can't listen to that song without thinking about it and since then, I've been curious about the casbah itself. Maybe someday I will actually "Rock It" , until then I will enjoy it from your Blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sandy -- what a great story! Isn't it amazing how songs have the capacity to bring back a flood of memories... :)
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