Yet another day of stifling heat, but this time with rising humidity too! Time for a break.
Here's a tremendous cover of the great Clash song Rocking the Casbah, by Algerian rocker Rachid Taha. Except that probably Taha and his band of Algerian outcast rockers inspired it…see below.
From The Guardian (in 2007):
The French-Algerian singer Rachid Taha has a story about the first time he met the Clash. It was September 1981, and Taha bumped into all four members of the band just before they were due to play at the Théâtre Mogador in Paris. Taha gave them a copy of a demo tape by his band, Carte de Séjour (Residence Permit), an outfit from Lyon who combined Algerian rai with funk and punk rock. "They looked interested," remembers Taha, "but when they didn't get in touch, I thought nothing of it. Then, a few months later, I heard Rock the Casbah." He cackles mischievously. "Maybe they did hear it after all."
The incident has since gone down in French rock legend. Taha has recorded his own Arabised version of the song, entitled Rock el Kasbah, something he's since performed live with the Clash's Mick Jones. Jones only vaguely remembers meeting Taha in 1981, but both he and Joe Strummer did eventually get heavily into Taha's music. "Joe heard some Rachid tracks on Andy Kershaw's radio show some time in the 1990s," says Jones. "He used to ring me up and tell me about this fantastic Algerian guy that I should listen to. In fact, Joe and Rachid were going to meet up, but then Joe went and died. I'm not sure he knew that he'd actually met him at the Mogador all those years ago."
Rachid Taha wasn't the only musician to be inspired by the Clash on that seven-night residency. Just as the Sex Pistols show at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976 served as the catalyst for Morrissey, Ian Curtis, Mark E Smith and Mick Hucknall, the Clash's run at the Théâtre Mogador five years later was witnessed by a veritable who's who of French rock. Manu Chao was in the audience with friends who would later form Mano Negra, as was Helno and his ramshackle world music combo les Négresses Vertes, gypsy rockers Lo'Jo, members of anarchist punk collective Bérurier Noir, and Kortatu, the Basque ska-punk band formed by Fermin Muguruza.
That was the Clash at their best: stirring it up, making shit happen.
Via Vanessa Place.
Kit Stolz 