This 1982 Hit by The Clash Was Almost a “Soppy” Love Song, Then It Took a Hard Left Turn to West Asia

When it comes to co-creating music as a band, it’s best to let everyone cater to their own specific strengths. A great arranger might not write the best lyrics, or vice versa. Someone who can produce the exact right sound might only know what gear to use, not which chords to play. Splitting up duties is a tried-and-true method for most bands that co-write, but there’s no denying that The Clash vocalist Joe Strummer took quite the blunt approach when enforcing this idea in 1982.

Around this time, The Clash was working on their fifth studio album, Combat Rock. Drummer Topper Headon had a riff he was playing on the piano for a while, eventually creating the framework for what would become “Rock The Casbah”, one of the band’s most memorable hits. Musically speaking, the song caught everyone’s ear. Lyrically speaking, Strummer believed Headon’s ideas left much to be desired.

Thus, Strummer took over writing duties. But one could hardly call his method of taking over the reins a delicate one.

“Rock The Casbah” Almost Had an Entirely Different Vibe

According to guitar tech Digby Cleaver in Pat Gilbert’s Passion Is A Fashion: The Real Story Of The Clash, the original idea for “Rock The Casbah” was all Topper Headon’s. “It became his tune, completely by accident. He put bass and drums on it. And it sounded brilliant. He did the whole thing himself. He presented it to Joe [Strummer] with this soppy set of lyrics about how much he missed his girlfriend.”

Cleaver continued, “Joe just took one look at those words and said, ‘How incredibly interesting!’, screwed the piece of paper into a ball, and chucked it backwards over his head. Topper’s face! Joe said, ‘Look, I write the bloody words.’ I’ve got a set of lyrics that will fit this already.’ And that was what became ‘Rock The Casbah’.” 

Strummer got the idea for the phrase “rock the casbah” while listening to his friend and violinist, Tymon Dogg, practice Eastern scales. “Casbah” is the romanized version of the Arabic word for a fortress. This prompted Strummer to start thinking of other words in this same vein: bedouin, sheikh, minaret, and so on. Once Strummer put his words to the instrumental Headon had already created, everything fell right into place. (Even if the lyrics weren’t Headon’s original idea.)

Although “Rock The Casbah” only performed moderately well in The Clash’s native United Kingdom, peaking at No. 30, it was a bona fide hit in the States. The song would become the band’s only Top 10 hit in the United States after it peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. If the band had stuck with Headon’s original idea of writing a love song, there’s no telling what would have become of this iconic cut.

Photo by Julian Yewdall/Getty Images

The post This 1982 Hit by The Clash Was Almost a “Soppy” Love Song, Then It Took a Hard Left Turn to West Asia appeared first on American Songwriter.