Song of the Day: September 23rd, 2021

Song: Rock the Casbah (1982)
Artist: The Clash
Album: Combat Rock

​With today officially marking the final week of September, it'll soon be time to move on from the Clear Channel memo and paying homage to a 20-year-old list that I find incredibly compelling. On the bright side, I'll be able to open the DOL airways to whatever floats my boat, or in this case, doesn't knock down my building. I think that means it's time to finally bring my baby out of Development Hell to finally start making a name for myself on this fucking internet thing.


***Seamless transition towards that idea***


While The Clash is anything but a One Hit Wonder with their success, legacy, and influence, from a technical standpoint, "Rock the Casbah" is one of only two Clash songs to chart on the Hot 100 (and their highest-charting U.S. single peaking at #8). I know it's a politically focused song, but if I had to guess why it made the list, it probably had to do with all the foreign words referenced throughout the song. Tragically, ignorance and anger after 9/11 led to the rise of hate crimes against total innocent Muslims and even non-Muslim people (there's a famous example of a Sikh man being killed for wearing a Turban) in the wake of the attacks. So if people who had nothing to do with 9/11 were getting killed, of course, some radio idiots would ban a song with a couple of Arabic lyrics.


As a punky-new wavish band, only two Hot 100 Hits for The Clash might've not been the most shocking news, but I was kinda surprised to see they even had two to begin with. What do you think was the other song to chart?

​The correct answer is "Train in Vain" off of London Calling (whose title track actually peaked at #30 on the U.S. Dance Charts); it peaked at #23 in 1980.