rivers of Babylon

File:Chludov - Rivers of Babylon (cropped).jpg (9th century)]]

The song is based on the Biblical Psalm 137:1–4, a hymn expressing the lamentations of the Jewish people in exile following the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC:{{cite web|title=Psalms 137. The Holy Bible: King James Version |website=Bartleby.com |access-date=14 April 2013 |url= http://www.bartleby.com/108/19/137.html}} Previously the Kingdom of Israel, after being united under Kings David and Solomon, had been split in two, with the Kingdom of Israel in the north, conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC which caused the dispersion of 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel. The southern Kingdom of Judah (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.

{{bquote|By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion ... They carried us away in captivity requiring of us a song ... Now how shall we sing the {{LORD}}'s song in a strange land?}}

The namesake rivers of Babylon (in present-day Iraq) are the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The song also has words from {{bibleverse||Psalm|19:14|KJV}}:{{cite web|title= Psalms 19. The Holy Bible: King James Version |website= Bartleby.com |access-date= 14 April 2013 |url= https://www.bartleby.com/108/19/19.html}}

{{bquote|Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight...}}

It is one of a few pop songs whose lyrics come directly from the Bible (see also "Turn! Turn! Turn!" by Pete Seeger, "40" by U2, and "The Lord's Prayer" by Sister Janet Mead). The melody bears a strong resemblance to "How Dry I Am".{{OR?|date=November 2023}}

In the Rastafarian 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 (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 in captivity. Rastafarians also identify themselves as belonging to the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The original version specifically refers to Rastafarian belief in Haile Selassie, 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 is known as Queen Omega).{{cite journal |first= Nathaniel Samuel |last= Murrell |year= 2000 |title= Tuning Hebrew Psalms to Reggae Rhythms: Rastas' Revolutionary Lamentations for Social Change |journal= CrossCurrents |url= http://www.crosscurrents.org/murrell.htm |access-date= 29 January 2014 |archive-date= 23 November 2005 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20051123103254/http://www.crosscurrents.org/murrell.htm |url-status= dead }} 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.{{cite journal|first= David W. |last= Stowe |title= Babylon Revisited: Psalm 137 as American Protest Song |journal= Black Music Research Journal |date= Spring 2012 |volume= 32 |issue= 1 |pages= 95, 2008 |doi= 10.5406/blacmusiresej.32.1.0095 |s2cid= 154371943}}

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, 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".{{cite news|first= Dennis |last= McLellan |title= Perry Henzell, 70; his movie 'The Harder They Come' brought reggae to the world |newspaper= Los Angeles Times |date= 12 January 2006 |access-date= 13 April 2011 |url= https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-dec-02-me-henzell2-story.html}} The song was later used in the 1999 Nicolas Cage movie Bringing Out the Dead and the 2010 Philip Seymour Hoffman film Jack Goes Boating.The song is also featured in Season 3 - Episode 2 of the TV series Outer Banks.

{{Infobox song

| name = Rivers of Babylon

| cover = Boney M. - Rivers of Babylon (1978 single).jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Boney M.

| album = Nightflight to Venus

| B-side = Brown Girl in the Ring

| released = April 1978{{cite web|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1978/Music-Week-1978-04-08.pdf|title=Music Week|page=50}}

| recorded =

| studio =

| genre =

| length = 4:21

| label = {{unbulleted list|Hansa (FRG)|Sire (US)|Atlantic (UK/AUS)}}

| writer = {{hlist|Brent Dowe|Trevor McNaughton|Frank Farian|Reyam}}

| producer = Frank Farian

| prev_title = Belfast

| prev_year = 1977

| title =

| title2 = Brown Girl in the Ring

| next_title = Rasputin

| next_year = 1978

| misc = {{External music video|{{YouTube|Wt3-ASjBofE|"Rivers of Babylon" (TopPop, 1978)}}}}

}}

"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".

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'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; 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.

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 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". On RPM's 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.{{cite web|title= Malcolm's Locks |website= Lizmitchellfanclub.com |url= http://www.lizmitchellfanclub.com/malcolm.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 1 May 2003 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20030501110118/http://www.lizmitchellfanclub.com/malcolm.html}} The court case ran for more than 20 years in Germany.

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{{Certification Table Top|caption=Sales and certifications for "Rivers of Babylon"}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Australia|type=single|artist=Boney M.|title=Rivers of Babylon|relyear=1978|award=Gold|salesamount=50,000|salesref=|certref={{cite magazine|title= Boney M Grabs Gold and Top Spot in Aust |magazine= Cash Box |page= 46 |date= 29 July 1978 |access-date= 2 August 2020 |url= https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/70s/1978/CB-1978-07-29.pdf}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Austria|type=single|artist=Boney M.|title=Rivers of Babylon|nocert=true|salesamount=30,000|salesref={{cite magazine|first= Manfred |last= Schreiber |title= From the Music Capitals of the World > Vienna |magazine= Billboard |page= 100 |date= 13 June 1978 |access-date= 13 November 2019 |url= https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/70s/1978/Billboard%201978-06-03.pdf}}|relyear=1978}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Belgium|artist=Boney M.|title=Rivers of Babylon|nocert=yes|salesamount=200,000|salesref=}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=France|type=single|artist=Boney M.|title=Rivers of Babylon|award=Gold|certyear=1978|source=infodisc|salesamount=1,000,000|salesref={{cite web|url=http://www.top-france.fr/html/45tours/45t1978.htm|title=TOP – 1978|work=40 ans de tubes : 1960–2000 : les meilleures ventes de 45 tours & CD singles|author=Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP)|editor=Fabrice Ferment|access-date=30 August 2022|language=fr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210223175819/http://www.top-france.fr/html/45tours/45t1978.htm|archive-date=23 February 2021|via=Top-France.fr|oclc=469523661}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Germany|type=single|artist=Boney M|title=Rivers of Babylon|award=Platinum|relyear=1978|certyear=1978|salesamount=2,000,000|salesref={{cite magazine|title= Marketing the Music - Matthias Reim |magazine= Music & Media |date= 26 October 1991 |page= 30 |access-date= 30 August 2022 |url= http://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-and-Media/90s/1991/MM-1991-10-26.pdf}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Ireland|type=single|artist=Boney M.|title=Rivers of Babylon|nocert=true|salesamount=54,000|salesref={{cite magazine|title= Boney M's |magazine=Music Week |page= 1 |date= 9 December 1978 |access-date= 29 August 2022 |url= https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1978/Music-Week-1978-12-09.pdf}}|relyear=1978}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Mexico|type=single|artist=Boney M.|title=Rivers of Babylon|nocert=true|salesamount=1,000,000|salesref={{cite magazine|title= Latin American Disco Boom Opens Are To U.S. Artists |magazine=Cash Box |page= 40 |date= 19 May 1979 |access-date= 30 August 2022 |url= https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/70s/1979/CB-1979-05-19.pdf}}|relyear=1978}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Netherlands|artist=Boney M.|title=Rivers of Babylon|award=Gold|salesamount=300,000|certyear=1978|salesref={{cite magazine|title= The Biggest River in the World Just Got Bigger |magazine= Radio & Records |date= 23 June 1978 |page= 6 |access-date= 21 September 2022 |url= http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1970s/1978/RR-1978-06-23.pdf}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=New Zealand|type=single|artist=Boney M.|title=Rivers of Babylon|award=Platinum|certyear=2024|source=radioscope|access-date=19 January 2025}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Switzerland|type=single|artist=Boney M.|title=Rivers of Babylon|nocert=true|salesamount=128,000|salesref={{cite magazine|first= Pierre |last= Haesler |title= Ventriloquist LP Topping Swiss Charts |magazine= Billboard |page= 104 |date= 20 January 1979 |access-date= 28 July 2019 |url= https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/70s/1979/Billboard%201979-01-20.pdf}}|relyear=1978}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|type=single|artist=Boney M|title=Rivers of Babylon|award=Platinum|certyear=1978|id=5547-1996-1|access-date=29 March 2012|salesamount=2,032,656|salesref={{cite web|first= Rob |last= Copsey |title= The UK's Official Chart 'millionaires' revealed |publisher= Official Charts Company |date= 19 September 2017 |access-date= 1 May 2019 |url= https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-uks-official-chart-millionaires-revealed__20459/}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United States|type=single|artist=Boney M|title=Rivers of Babylon|nocert=true|salesamount=150,000|salesref={{cite magazine|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/70s/1978/CB-1978-11-18.pdf|title=Successful U.S. Acts Abroad May Face Problems At Home|magazine=Cash Box|date=18 November 1978|page=48|access-date=20 July 2023}} }}

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{{Certification Table Entry|region=Europe|type=single|artist=Boney M|title=Rivers of Babylon|relyear=1978|nocert=true|salesamount=7,000,000|salesref={{cite magazine|title= «Boney M.» è un'esclusiva|magazine= la Stampa |page= 100 |date= 20 March 1993 |access-date= 30 August 2022 |url= http://www.archiviolastampa.it/component/option,com_lastampa/task,search/mod,libera/action,viewer/Itemid,3/page,38/articleid,0779_01_1993_0078_0100_11036832/}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Latin America|type=single|artist=Boney M|title=Rivers of Babylon|relyear=1978|nocert=true|salesamount=2,500,000|salesref={{cite magazine|title= Nuestro Rincon |magazine= Record World |page= 85 |date= 24 March 1979 |access-date= 5 January 2021 |url= https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Record-World-IDX/IDX/70s/79/RW-1979-03-24-OCR-Page-0081.pdf}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Worldwide|nocert=true|salesamount=10,000,000|salesref={{cite web|title= Boney M. ist Stargast in Nordenham|date= 6 June 2015 |url= http://www.nwzonline.de/wesermarsch/kultur/boney-m-kommt-zur-strandparty-boney-m-ist-stargast-in-nordenham_a_29,0,606861803.html |language=de|publisher=Nordwest-Zeitung|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150609005831/http://www.nwzonline.de/wesermarsch/kultur/boney-m-kommt-zur-strandparty-boney-m-ist-stargast-in-nordenham_a_29,0,606861803.html|archive-date= 9 June 2015|url-status= dead }}}}

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{{Infobox song

| name = Rivers of Babylon (Remix)"/"Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord (Remix)

| cover = Boney M. - Rivers Of Babylon - Remix '88 (1988 single).jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Boney M.

| album = Greatest Hits of All Times – Remix '88

| A-side = "Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord (Remix)"

| released = 1988

| recorded =

| studio =

| genre =

| length =

| label = Hansa (FRG)

| composer =

| lyricist =

| producer = Frank Farian

| prev_title = Bang Bang Lulu

| prev_year = 1986

| title = Rivers of Babylon (Remix)

| title2 = Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord (Remix)

| next_title = Megamix

| next_year = 1988

}}

"Rivers of Babylon"/"Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord" is a 1988 remix single that was issued to launch the group's reunion. (Boney M. had split up in 1986, their 10th anniversary.) The double A-side single contained new mixes of both songs. Although the remix album from which both sides of the single were taken sold well, the single failed to chart.

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.{{cite web | url=https://hitparade.ch/song/Bruce-Low/Die-Legende-von-Babylon-14821 | title=Bruce Low - die Legende von Babylon }}

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.{{cite web|title= Barron Knights |publisher= Official Charts Company |access-date= 9 May 2015 |url= http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/11192/BARRON%20KNIGHTS/}}

The song was also parodied by an Australian Folk Musical Group Redgum, titled "Fabulon" in the album Caught in the Act.{{cite web|title= Fabulon Lyrics |publisher= Genius|access-date= 19 May 2022 |url=https://genius.com/Redgum-fabulon-lyrics/}}

• "Va, pensiero", story of Jewish exiles from Judea
• List of best-selling singles in Germany
• List of best-selling singles by year in the United Kingdom
• List of Dutch Top 40 number-one singles of 1978
• List of European number-one hits of 1978
• List of number-one hits of 1978 (Germany)
• List of number-one singles in Australia during the 1970s
• List of number-one singles of 1978 (France)
• List of number-one singles of 1978 (Ireland)
• List of number-one hits of 1978 (Mexico)
• List of number-one singles in 1978 (New Zealand)
• List of number-one singles from 1968 to 1979 (Switzerland)
• List of number-one singles and albums in Sweden
• List of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 1970s
• VG-lista 1964 to 1994

{{Reflist}}

{{Hymns and songs based on Psalms}}

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{{UK best-selling singles (by year) 1970–1989}}

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