Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.
Growing up, I remember seeing the “Rock the Casbah” video air incessantly on MTV. I didn’t fully appreciate The Clash sound back then. It just wasn’t my cup of tea, but I couldn’t pull myself away from the video. The song’s story went over this elementary school kid’s head. Looking back, I wonder if I was listening to it over and over again to try to understand what the hell Strummer was singing about. Maybe I really liked the unusual word “casbah”. Or maybe I just dug the melody.
Years later, I understood “Rock the Casbah” as a narrative about an Arab king trying to ban rock music among his population. But the people rebelled and played the music even louder. At its root, it seems the song was the essence of punk: hard-edged, anti-establishment. But in true Clash fashion, they opted against a stripped-down sound, adding an iconic piano jam, a variety of percussion sounds and synth samples. “Rock the Casbah” was just one more prime example of a band willing to push punk rock further ahead.
