"Rivers of Babylon" is a

Rastafari Rastafari is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion. There is no central authori ...

song written and recorded by Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton of the

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

group

the Melodians The Melodians are a rocksteady band formed in the Greenwich Town area of Kingston, Jamaica, in 1963, by Tony Brevett (born 1949, nephew of The Skatalites bassist, Lloyd Brevett), Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton.

in 1970. The lyrics are adapted from the texts of

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

19 and 137 in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' The Harder They Come'', which made it internationally known. The song was re-popularized in Europe by the 1978 Boney M. cover version, which was awarded a

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

disc and is one of the top-ten, all-time best-selling singles in the UK. The B-side of the single, " Brown Girl in the Ring", also became a hit.

Background

Biblical psalms

The song is based on the

Biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

Psalm 137:1–4, a hymn expressing the lamentations of the Jewish people in exile following the Babylonian conquest of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

in 586 BC: Previously the Kingdom of Israel, after being united under Kings

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

and

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

, had been split in two, with the Kingdom of Israel in the north, conquered by the

Assyrians Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesopotamia. While they are distinct from ot ...

in 722 BC which caused the dispersion of 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel. The southern

Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelites, Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea, the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries ...

(hence the name Jews), home of the tribe of Judah and part of the tribes of Levi and Benjamin, was free from foreign domination until the Babylonian conquest to which Rivers of Babylon refers. The namesake rivers of

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

(in present-day

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

) are the

Tigris The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...

and

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

rivers. The song also has words from : It is one of a few pop songs whose lyrics come directly from the Bible (see also " Turn! Turn! Turn!" by

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...

, " 40" by U2, and "

The Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...

" by Sister Janet Mead). The melody bears a strong resemblance to " How Dry I Am".

Rastafari

In the

an faith, the term "Babylon" is used for any political system which is either oppressive or unjust. Rastafarians also use "Babylon" to refer to the police, often seen as a source of oppression because they arrest members for the use of

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

(which is sacramental for Rastafarians). Therefore, "By the rivers of Babylon" refers to living in a repressive society and the longing for freedom, just like the

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

in captivity. Rastafarians also identify themselves as belonging to the

Twelve Tribes of Israel The Twelve Tribes of Israel ( , ) are described in the Hebrew Bible as being the descendants of Jacob, a Patriarchs (Bible), Hebrew patriarch who was a son of Isaac and thereby a grandson of Abraham. Jacob, later known as Israel (name), Israel, ...

. The original version specifically refers to Rastafarian belief in

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I (born Tafari Makonnen or ''Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles#Lij, Lij'' Tafari; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles, Rege ...

, by changing references to "the Lord" in the Biblical text to "Far-I" (a shortened form of his name before he was crowned, ''Ras Täfari'') and "King Alpha". Both terms refer to Selassie (Selassie's wife

Menen Asfaw Menen Asfaw (baptismal name: Walatta Giyorgis; 25 March 1889 – 15 February 1962) was Empress of Ethiopia as the wife of Emperor Haile Selassie. Family Menen Asfaw was born in Ambassel, located in Wollo Province of Ethiopian Empire on 25 Ma ...

is known as ''Queen Omega''). In addition, the term "the wicked" replaces the neutral "they" of Psalm 137 in the line "they that carried us away captive required of us a song...". According to David Stowe,

Brent Dowe, the lead singer of the Melodians, told Kenneth Bilby that he had adapted Psalm 137 to the new reggae style because he wanted to increase the public's consciousness of the growing Rastafarian movement and its calls for black liberation and social justice. Like the Afro-Protestant Revival services, traditional Rastafarian worship often included psalm singing and hymn singing, and Rastas typically modified the words to fit their own spiritual conceptions; Psalm 137 was among their sacred chants.

Melodians version

After its release in 1970, the song quickly became well known in Jamaica. According to Brent Dowe, the song was initially banned by the Jamaican government because "its overt Rastafarian references ('King Alpha' and 'O Far-I') were considered subversive and potentially inflammatory".

Leslie Kong Leslie Kong (20 December 1933 – 9 August 1971) was a Jamaican reggae producer. Early life Kong was born into a Chinese-Jamaican family. He had a "relatively comfortable upbringing" and attended St. George's College in Kingston. Career ...

, the group's producer, attacked the government for banning a song with words taken almost entirely from the Bible, stating that the Psalms had been "sung by Jamaican Christians since time immemorial". The government lifted the ban. After that, it took only three weeks to become a number-one hit in the Jamaican charts. It reached an international audience thanks to the soundtrack album of the 1972 film '' The Harder They Come'', which is credited with having "brought reggae to the world". The song was later used in the 1999 Nicolas Cage movie ''

Bringing Out the Dead ''Bringing Out the Dead'' is a 1999 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, based on the 1998 novel by Joe Connelly. It stars Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, and Tom Sizemore. ...

'' and the 2010

Philip Seymour Hoffman Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character actor, character roles—eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical productio ...

film '' Jack Goes Boating''.The song is also featured in Season 3 - Episode 2 of the TV series ''

Outer Banks The Outer Banks (frequently abbreviated OBX) are a string of barrier islands and spits off the coast of North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, on the east coast of the United States. They line most of the North Carolina coastline, separatin ...

''.

Boney M. version

"Rivers of Babylon" was covered in 1978 by Germany-based disco band Boney M. The single stayed at the no. 1 position in the UK for five weeks and was also the group's only significant US chart entry, peaking at no. 30 in the Pop charts. Boney M.'s version of the song remains one of the top ten all-time best-selling singles in the UK, where it is one of only seven songs to have sold over 2 million copies. In Canada, the song was a top 25 hit on the ''RPM'' magazine's Top 100 singles chart and reached no. 9 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The song also reached No. 1 on the South African Springbok chart, where it remained for a total of 11 weeks, making it the No. 1 song on that country's year end charts. The song was the first single from the band's equally successful 1978 album, '' Nightflight to Venus''. Some controversy arose when the first single pressings only credited Frank Farian and Reyam (aka Hans-Jörg Mayer) of Boney M.; after an agreement with Dowe and McNaughton, these two were also credited on later pressings. The Rastafarian language was excised from the lyrics for the Boney M. version. Although the group performed an early mix of the song on a German TV show and sang "How can we sing King Alpha's song" as in the Melodians version, it was changed to "the Lord's song", restoring the original, biblical words, in the versions that were to be released. To fit the meter, "O Far-I" became "here tonight" rather than the original, biblical "O Lord".

Different versions

Along with " Ma Baker", "Rivers of Babylon" helped establish what was to become a habit of Boney M. singles – namely that the original pressings featured an early version that was soon replaced by a more widely available mix. The initial single mix of "Rivers of Babylon" is most notable for lead singer

Liz Mitchell Elizabeth Rebecca Pemberton-Mitchell (born 12 July 1952) is a British singer, best known as one of the original singers of the 1970s disco and reggae band Boney M. Mitchell now lives in Reading, UK. Early life Mitchell was born in the paris ...

's ad-libs ("Dark tears of Babylon, you got to sing a song, sing a song of love, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah") between the two verses. On subsequent single pressings, only the 'yeah's were retained. However, the full ad-libs re-emerged in the US-only 12" version, and the original earlier fade-out point is kept in the album version. The single mix differs from the album version by having Liz Mitchell singing all of the verse "''Let the words of our mouth ...''" with

Frank Farian Franz Reuther (18 July 1941 – 23 January 2024), known professionally as Frank Farian, was a German record producer and singer who founded the 1970s disco-pop group Boney M., the pop band No Mercy, and the pop band Milli Vanilli. He frequent ...

; on the LP, Farian sings the first half of this as a solo part. Additionally, it edits out the instrumental passage before the last "humming" part and fades out a little later ("''Oooooh, have the power... yeah yeah yeah yeah"'' can only be heard in full in the single mix) despite being slightly shorter overall.

"Brown Girl in the Ring"

The single's B-side, " Brown Girl in the Ring", was a traditional Caribbean nursery rhyme. When "Rivers of Babylon" had slipped to no. 20 in the UK charts, radio stations suddenly flipped the single, causing "Brown Girl in the Ring" to go all the way to no. 2 and become a hit in its own right. Early single pressings feature the full-length, 4:18 version, whose final chorus has a section that was later edited out. The single mix is also slightly different from the album version in that the latter features steel drums on the outro riff of the song, while the single mix doesn't. "Brown Girl in the Ring" was also issued separately in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

as an A-side in the summer of 1979. It reached no. 8 on the Canadian AC chart in July 1979, becoming the third Boney M. song to reach the top 10 on that chart after "Rivers of Babylon" and "

Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin ( – ) was a Russian mystic and faith healer. He is best known for having befriended the imperial family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, through whom he gained considerable influence in the final ye ...

". On ''RPMs Top 100 singles chart, the song stalled at no. 79. Liz Mitchell had previously recorded "Brown Girl in the Ring" in 1975 with the group Malcolm's Locks, which had her ex-boyfriend Malcolm Magaron as the lead singer. Arranger Peter Herbolzheimer accused Frank Farian of stealing his arrangement for the song. The court case ran for more than 20 years in Germany.

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Sales and certifications

1988 remix

"Rivers of Babylon"/" Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord" is a 1988

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

single that was issued to launch the group's reunion. (Boney M. had split up in 1986, their 10th anniversary.) The

double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

single contained new mixes of both songs. Although the

remix album A remix album is an album consisting of remixes or rerecorded versions of an artist's earlier released material. The first act who employed the format was American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson ('' Aerial Pandemonium Ballet'', 1971). As of 200 ...

from which both sides of the single were taken sold well, the single failed to chart.

German version

In 1978, "Die Legende von Babylon" ("The Legend of Babylon") was published by Ariola, featuring Bruce Low singing in German language at the same tune. The lyrics however didn't refer to the Babylonian captivity but to the tower of Babel in the book of Genesis.

Parodies

The song was parodied by the Barron Knights in their UK comedy hit " A Taste of Aggro" (1978), in which the lyrics are changed to "There's a dentist in Birmingham, he fixed my crown / And as I slept, he filled my mouth with iron." The song was their biggest hit, reaching no. 3 in the UK charts. The song was also parodied by an Australian Folk Musical Group

Redgum Redgum were an Australian bush band, folk and political music group formed in Adelaide in 1975 by singer-songwriters John Schumann and Michael Atkinson (composer), Michael Atkinson on guitars/vocals, and Verity Truman on flute/vocals; they were ...

, titled "Fabulon" in the album Caught in the Act.

References