What are the Clash talking about?

[MOSHUN]

Rock The Casbah is one of my favorite songs of all time but I still have no idea what in the hell they are talking about...

I know the Clash were a protest/political group so i figure they were protesting something but what was it??

[MartinBlank]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_the_Casbah

Another good site for music trivia is http://www.songmeanings.net/ ....but it seems to be down at the moment.

[Inverse]

Those cats in the Middle East don't dig the rock and roll sound. It's squaresville, man!

[DVD Josh]

Rock The Casbah is one of my favorite songs of all time but I still have no idea what in the hell they are talking about...

I know the Clash were a protest/political group so i figure they were protesting something but what was it??

Basically about a political leader who does not like music and has banned it. The Clash are advocating loud music and plenty of dancing to send a message to the tyrant in his house (i.e., the Casbah).

[wendersfan]

They were ridiculing, among other things, the Ayatollah Khomeini's ban of Western music in post-revolutionary Iran.

"You know he really hates it,
Fundamentally, he can't take it."

:)