“Rock The Casbah” / “Long Time Jerk” (CBS A2479) June 1982
The Clash | Rock The Casbah | (CBS) 1982 | This contains (gasp) a claptrap. You can dance to it. Oh gawd. Clashipoos flirt with explosive Middle Eastern imagery – rages, shareefs, minnarets, Arabs and Jews – horribly dilletante lyric wise. Songwise, if you ignore any intended socio-political undertones, it’s alarmingly like the B52s.
Strummer sounds just like Fred at the end. Can’t you just picture Kate ‘n’ Cindy inbelly-dancing outfits yelling ‘catch that crazy casbah jive’ and ‘woops, there goes another dromedary’ in the background?
I hope it’ll be their smashingest hit, so don’t desert ’em, (groan). (Sounds, 12/06/82)
The Clash | Rock The Casbah | (CBS) 1982
The Clash’s faith in rock as (in this case corrupting) catalyst for social change is as unshakeable as the moslem faith they’ve inanely chosen to mock. Clash-bah! (NME, 12/06/82)
Adrian: The Clash go even further away from what I liked about them when I first saw them in ’76. Then they had energy, originality, power, COMMITMENT.
Joe Strummer’s still going on about something remotely important in there, but who’s listening? People who care about stuff like that aren’t gonna dance around the room, people who are interested in what Joe Strummer’s thinking aren’t gonna be interested in what the Clash are playing these days. And people who do end up dancing to the Clash? Well, it’s a very chic revolt isn’t it?
Graham: There were two moments for the Clash in my mind; obviously the first in ’76/’77 and then some of the interesting reggae-orientated tracks on “Sandinista”. This is the new American Clash still trying to break the American market . . .
Adrian: This is pure dance music – they used to play music you could dance to and more. (Melody Maker, 12/06/82)
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