Rivers of Babylon

"Rivers of Babylon"
Single by Boney M from the album Nightflight to Venus
Released	1978
Format	7" single, 12" single
Recorded	1977
Genre	Pop, Disco
Length	4:18
Label	Hansa Records (FRG) Sire Records (USA) Atlantic Records (AUS) (SWE)
Writer	Frank Farian, Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton
Producer	Frank Farian
Boney M singles chronology
"Belfast" (1977) "Rivers of Babylon" (1978) "Rasputin" (1978)

"Rivers of Babylon" is a spiritual song penned by the late Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton of the Melodians. It is based on the Biblical hymn Psalm 137 (from the King James Version). Psalm 137 is a hymn expressing the yearnings of the Jewish people in exile following the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The rivers of Babylon are the Euphrates river, its tributaries, and the Chebar river. The song also has words from Psalm 19:14. NFTY, the youth group of the Union for Reform Judaism, uses the song in its songbook and sometimes even in youth group services. The Unitarian Universalist Association has included the song in their supplemental hymnal Singing the Journey (Hymn #1042) [1]. The most popular version of the song is by Boney M in 1978, which was released as a single and stayed at the #1 position in the UK for 5 weeks. In the UK, that version sold over 1,985,000 copies, making the single officially 3x platinum. Other popular versions have been performed by the Melodians, Dennis Brown, Sublime, Snuff, Steve Earle, Daniel O'Donnell, Yabby You and Sweet Honey in the Rock. On 19 November 1978, a cover version with lyrics in Swedish, Kommer du ihåg Babylon? (Do you remember Babylon?), performed by Swedish dansband Schytts entered the 1st place on Svensktoppen. In 1992 the Croatian group Vatrogasci (Firefighters) made a parody of this song, translating it in croatian language (naming "Joj što volim") and making it in turbofolk arrangement. The Neville Brothers has a version of the song on their "Walkin' in the Shadow of Life" CD released on October 19, 2004 on the Chordant label. Sinéad O'Connor also recorded it for her 2007 album, Theology. Don McLean and Linda Ronstadt also both recorded versions of this song. A Polish Christian rock group 2Tm2,3 performed the acoustic version of "Rivers of Babylon" based on the Boney M.

Trivia

• King Alpha is referred to in the line "How can we sing King Alpha's song in a strange land?". King Alpha refers to Haile Selassie. Selassie's wife Menen Asfaw is known as Queen Omega aka The Queen. [2] When Jewish groups sing the song, "King Alpha" is changed to "the Lord's" or "Adonai's".

Sources

External links

• Lyrics to Rivers of Babylon