The Shareef Don't Like What?

Well Good Morning! You're About to Call In Sick!

I'm jamming away to my iTunes playlist of "happy" songs here in my window-less office in Cary and enjoying myself quite a abit. It's a day of feel-good songs here in Sloandom, which also means it's a day full of lyrics you can't really understand. I know you know what I mean. There are tons of those songs we love and we'd love to sing along with if only we could tell what the crap they were saying in the lyrics. For example, as my brother Nathan recently pointed out to me (followed shortly by that commercial that it's in but I can't remember what for now), "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash. Yes, "casbah".
Dictionary.com defines "casbah" in the following way: "noun-an older or native quarter of many cities in northern Africa; the quarter in which the citadel is located."

It's a great song...one of those songs you just can't help but bob your head to if you're in the car driving along in the middle of your workday. And being a child of the 80's, it's near and dear to my heart. But what in the world are they saying? Well here you go:

"Rock the Casbah" by The Clash:

Now the king told the boogie men
You have to let that raga drop
The oil down the desert way
Has been shakin to the top
The sheik he drove his cadillac
He went a cruisnin down the ville
The muezzin was a standing
On the radiator grille

Chorus:
The shareef dont like it
Rockin the casbah
Rock the casbah
The shareef dont like it
Rockin the casbah
Rock the casbah

By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that crazy casbah sound
But the bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the shareef
Had cleared the square
They began to wail

Chorus

Now over at the temple
Oh! they really pack em in
The in crowd say its cool
To dig this chanting thing
But as the wind changed direction
The temple band took five
The crowd caught a wiff
Of that crazy casbah jive

Chorus

The king called up his jet fighters
He said you better earn your pay
Drop your bombs between the minarets
Down the casbah way

As soon as the shareef was
Chauffeured outta there
The jet pilots tuned to
The cockpit radio blare

As soon as the shareef was
Outta their hair
The jet pilots wailed

Chorus

He thinks its not kosher
Fundamentally he cant take it.
You know he really hates it.



Thank you, The Clash. Heh.

Now, what does all that stuff mean? I have no idea. And what exactly is a "raga"? No clue. If you know, please enlighten me via polite comment. Polite!!

Another favorite song, the lyrics of which I don't understand, is "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" by R.E.M. I first heard this song at a Raleigh Ice Caps ice hockey game when I was about 12 years old and even then, amid flying pucks and obscenities, I knew I was hearing a song that'd go down in my Life's Soundtrack Archives of Greatness. I have since rocked out to this song on countless occasions and it's made its way onto more than one mix tape and cd of my creation but once again I can't help but wonder...what the crap IS the frequency, Kenneth? And who is Kenneth anyway? What is the song ABOUT?? To keep you from further suspense:

"What's the Frequency Kenneth?" by R.E.M.

"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" is your Benzedrine, uh-huh
I was brain-dead, locked out, numb, not up to speed
I thought I'd pegged you an idiot's dream
Tunnel vision from the outsider's screen
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
You wore our expectations like an armored suit, uh-huh

I'd studied your cartoons, radio, music, TV, movies, magazines
Richard said, "Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy"
A smile like the cartoon, tooth for a tooth
You said that irony was the shackles of youth
You wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh

"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" is your Benzedrine, uh-huh
Butterfly decal, rear-view mirror, dogging the scene
You smile like the cartoon, tooth for a tooth
You said that irony was the shackles of youth
You wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
You wore our expectations like an armored suit, uh-huh
I couldn't understand
You said that irony was the shackles of youth, uh-huh
I couldn't understand
You wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh
I couldn't understand
I never understood, don't f*** with me, uh-huh



Yes, R.E.M. said the actual "f-word", but we're a family-friendly blog. Okay, fine, so not that many families read my blog but I just can't bring myself to type it. I'm not a potty-mouth and as I just discovered, I'm apparently not a potty-fingers either. Sigh. Anyway.

So there you have it. The lyrics to two great songs that, even though I've now typed the lyrics out, I still can't really understand any better than I did before. Nonetheless, I can sing those enigmatic words along with my car stereo with a relish that completely disregards the fact that I have no idea what the words I'm singing actually mean. No matter. I'm happy, I know it, and when I'm not driving, I may actually be clapping my hands.

You're welcome.