# Sound in "Rock the Casbah" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 15, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609 "2003-10-15T18:11:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![voxnihili](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@voxnihili](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voxnihili)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/1 "2003-10-15T18:11:12Z")
Around the middle (1 minute 55 seconds in) of the song “Rock the Casbah” by the Clash, there’s this odd noise that sounds like a cell phone or a watch beeping; what is this? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/2 "2003-10-15T18:24:42Z")
Is it during the lyric “The local guitar picker got his guitar picking thumb”? If so, then it sounds like a middle-eastern instrument, like sitar perhaps. This is about 1:21 into the song on my MP3 of it. ---
**Author:** ![jormundgondir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@jormundgondir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jormundgondir)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/3 "2003-10-15T18:28:38Z")
Ooh! That noise always cracks me up; I am almost certain that it is the sound made at the beginning of a game on a Pacman wristwatch from the very early 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/4 "2003-10-15T20:34:01Z")
I believe it’s the first few bars of “Dixie”, probably from a video game but I never knew which one. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/5 "2003-10-15T20:50:47Z")
I think it’s the sound that came on when you turned on Mattel Electronics Football. ---
**Author:** ![Semp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Semp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Semp)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/6 "2003-10-16T00:09:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jormundgondir \* > \*\*Ooh! That noise always cracks me up; I am almost certain that it is the sound made at the beginning of a game on a Pacman wristwatch from the very early 80s. \*\* Close. It was a Pac-Man hand held game. A big, yellow thing, much larger than the Mattel hand held football or baseball games, though. Trust me on this one. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/7 "2003-10-16T00:16:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Captain Lance Murdoch \* > \*\*I think it’s the sound that came on when you turned on Mattel Electronics Football. \*\* A related bit of Trivia: Mattell Electronics Football game’s “turn over on downs” noise can be heard in what Classic Rock song from the 70’s? ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/8 "2003-10-16T02:12:37Z")
That’s exactly what I thought of when reading this thread. Isn’t it something by Supertramp? ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/9 "2003-10-16T18:28:42Z")
You are correct **Cardinal**. It’s in _The Logical Song_. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/10 "2003-10-16T18:40:30Z")
Ahh, the sign of too much straight-rock radio listening. Especially since Supertramp is one of the bands I for some reason really don’t like. But I sure recognized that sound. I had that game, and beat it a lot in 4th and 5th grade. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/11 "2003-10-16T19:04:33Z")
I played it constantly. That and the hockey one. (But I didn’t ever get the football one where you could pass). The money play in the original non-passing football game was getting it to be 4th down at the goal line so you could push two buttons and have it play the “turnover on downs” double-beep followed immediately by the touchdown “do-re-mi la-sol-la” sound. 🙂 I wish I still had that game… ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/12 "2003-10-16T20:46:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Semp \* > \*\*Close. It was a Pac-Man hand held game. A big, yellow thing, much larger than the Mattel hand held football or baseball games, though. Trust me on this one. \*\* This one by Tomy? [http://users2.ev1.net/~rik1138/Tomy/PacMan.htm](http://users2.ev1.net/~rik1138/Tomy/PacMan.htm) I had this game, though I never noticed the sample in Rock the Casbah. Oh, how it probably drove my parents nuts! It had no volume controls or mute button! ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sound-in-rock-the-casbah/207609/13 "2003-10-16T22:14:26Z")
That sound is a musical watch playing “Dixie.” I had the Dukes of Hazzard digital watch that played it. Unlike the General Lee, though, thw watch played the whole tune.