An interesting look at the recent "London Calling" terrorism scare has been published by popular left-leaning magazine, the Nation. The story looks at both the odd incident where a taxi passenger of Indian descent was detained for simply singing along to the classic song, but also looks at Joe Strummer and his political contributions.

Still, no one would be less surprised at Mann's detention than Joe Strummer. When I first met Strummer in 2002, one of the first things we discussed was the suppression of countervoices as the United States banged the drum for war, made the Patriot Act law and established the Department of Homeland Security. He understood that there was a very real--and frightening--possibility that music like his would not only be censored but held up as subversive or dangerous.

"After all," he said, "we had trouble with these songs then…you have to wonder what is wrong with singing about working people ["Clampdown"], racial unity ["Whiteman in Hammersmith Palais"] and censorship ["Rock the Casbah"]." It didn't stop the Clash, which disbanded in 1986, from becoming the biggest (and certainly most important) punk band. As musician Billy Bragg put it: "The Clash were the greatest rebel-rock band of all time." And it didn't stop Clear Channel Communications, which owns more than 1,900 radio stations, to place the Clash's "Rock the Casbah" on the list of songs not to be played on the air after 9/11 (the BBC did the same in the first Gulf War).

You can read the entire piece here.