Rivers of Babylon (Song)

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"Rivers of Babylon" is a Rastafari song written and recorded by Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton of the Jamaican reggae group The Melodians in 1970. The lyrics are adapted from the texts of Psalms 19, and 137 in the Hebrew Bible. The Melodians' original version of the song appeared on the soundtrack album for the 1972 movie 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 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 Psalm 137:1-4, a hymn expressing the lamentations of the Jewish people in exile following the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC: 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.

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 Psalm 19:14:

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".

Rastafari

In the Rastafarian faith, the term "Babylon" is used for any governmental 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" and "King Alpha". Both terms refer to Selassie (Selassie's wife Menen Asfaw 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, 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

and the 2010 Philip Seymour Hoffman film Jack Goes Boating.

Boney M. version

"Rivers of Babylon" was covered in 1978 by Germany-based disco band Boney M., with a version that was released as a single. Boney M.'s release 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'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.

"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 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. The court case ran for more than 20 years in Germany.

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

ear-end charts

Sales and certifications

1988 Remix

"Rivers of Babylon" / "Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord" was a 1988 remix single 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 the band's two most successful single releases ever. Although the remix album from which both sides of the single were taken sold well, the single failed to chart.

Parody

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

Other notable versions

Linda Ronstadt covered the song on her 1976 album Hasten Down the Wind.

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 first place on Svensktoppen where it stayed for 10 weeks.

Bob Marley and the Wailers had a hit with the song.

Sublime had a minor hit with the song.

Rivers of Babylon - Boney M - instrumental cover by Dave Monk

Pradogrande Rivers of Babylon

The Jamacian Shadows - Rivers of Babylon

Rivers of Babylon- Line Dance

In popular culture

On 30 September 1979, "Rivers of Babylon" was sung by an estimated crowd of 280,000 people attending the papal visit of John Paul II in Galway, Ireland.

The song features prominently in the 2009 Kazakh film Tulpan.

The Harder They Come (film)

The Harder They Come is a 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell and co-written by Trevor D. Rhone, and starring Jimmy Cliff. The film is most famous for its reggae soundtrack that is said to have "brought reggae to the world".

Enormously successful in Jamaica, the film also reached the international market and has been described as "possibly the most influential of Jamaican films and one of the most important films from the Caribbean".

Plot

Ivanhoe "Ivan" Martin is a poor Jamaican man in desperate search of work. He leaves his rural home after his grandmother dies to live with his impoverished wastrel mother in Kingston, but is rebuffed. Before he can even locate her he has all his possessions stolen in a con by a street vendor he naively trusted. He later meets José, who takes him to see Django, a Spaghetti Western. Excited by urban life, he tries to get a job but repeatedly fails.

He finally drifts into the circle of a Christian preacher. There he finds menial work, and in his spare time he turns an abandoned bicycle frame into a working bicycle, then uses it to run errands for his new boss. He gets into trouble with the preacher after he shows sexual interest in the Preacher's young virginal female ward, Elsa, then with her assistance uses his church for rehearsing secular songs he intends to record.

After being brusquely run off by the preacher (for his using the church space as a rehearsal venue) he returns to the church compound to collect his bicycle, but finds an older, much bigger former colleague has appropriated it. Challenged to take it back, Ivan does so, avoiding a broken bottle his opponent wields before slashing the man with a knife, for which he is sentenced by the local authorities to a violent whipping.

Ivan interests a prominent record producer in a song that he writes and performs, "The Harder They Come", but in spite of trying to wrangle more only gets the standard exploitative $20 offer for it. He dreams of stardom upon its release, but the stranglehold which the producer maintains on the local music industry through payola condemns Ivan to obscurity. He takes up with his lover, who has been violently driven away in a jealous rage by the preacher for "fornication".

Eventually José offers Ivan an opportunity to make a modest living running marijuana, moving the drug from the country to the city on a motorbike as part of a large police-protected network. When Ivan complains about the poor pay and what he obtusely believes is high risk, being oblivious to the collusion with the authorities that makes the thriving enterprise possible, José sets up a take-down for him with the corrupt local police official running the protection racket, Detective Jones. On Ivan's next trip he is flagged down by a policeman who routinely had waved him by; Ivan panics, and shoots the officer, who dies from his wounds and crashing his motorcycle.

Next, Ivan has a tryst with José's girlfriend. While he is in bed with her, the police surround the room and try to capture him. He shoots his way out, killing three officers. On the run, he returns to shoot and wound the girl, believing she and José betrayed him. He then finds José and pursues him, shooting at him but missing.

Ivan returns to the countryside. He is again betrayed and the police catch up with him, leading to another shootout and escape. Ivan seeks support from his closest drug-dealer friend, Pedro, who helps him hide out. Detective Jones, tasked with rounding Ivan up, temporarily shuts down his lucrative protection racket in order to starve the entire community thereby pressuring the network to hand Ivan over to the police.

Meanwhile, the record mogul releases Ivan's song in order to capitalize on his notoriety, which becomes a hit and fans his fame as a charismatic rebel. Enamoured of this image, Ivan has staged photographs of himself posing as a flagrant two-gun outlaw. He sends them to the press, which is resistant to print them. He then steals a flashy car from a resort hotel and drives it aimlessly around the countryside in a reverie.

Pedro then advises Ivan to escape to Cuba. A rendezvous with a vessel bound there is arranged, but Ivan is ambushed by a police assault team while seeking to approach it and is unable to drag himself up a boarding ladder thrown over its stern. He passes out from his wound and finds himself beached ashore. The police approach, armed with automatic rifles; he comes out, holding his two guns, and is shot. The film ends with a woman's torso gyrating to the sound of Ivan's song over the credits.

Cast

• Jimmy Cliff as Ivanhoe "Ivan" Martin
• Janet Bartley as Elsa
• Carl Bradshaw as Jose
• Ras Daniel Heartman as Pedro
• Basil Keane as The Preacher
• Elijah Chambers as Longa
• Bob Charlton as Hilton
• Volier Johnson as Pushcart Boy
• Winston Stona as Detective Ray Jones
• Lucia White as Mother
• Leslie Kong as Recording Engineer
• Prince Buster as DJ at Dance^[8]
• Beverly Anderson as Housewife
• Clover Lewis as Market Woman
• Ed "Bim" Lewis as Photographer
• Bobby Loban as Fitz
• Joanne Dunn as Barmaid
• Adrian Robinson as Editor
• Don Topping as DJ
• Karl Leslie as Freddie
• Sandra Redwood as Girl
• Aston "Bam" Wynter as Drunk
• Alton Ellis as Ivan's Double
• Ulla Fraser and Carol Lawes as Elsa's Friends

Production

The film stars reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, who plays Ivanhoe Martin, a character based upon a real-life Jamaican criminal of that name, better known as Rhyging, who achieved fame in the 1940s. Prior to filming, the project had a working title of Rhygin. This then changed to Hard Road to Travel before finally being changed to The Harder They Come, prompting Cliff to write the song of the same name. The story very loosely follows the real Martin/Rhyging's life updated to the 1970s, though the historical Rhyging was neither a musician nor drug dealer.

Cliff's previous acting experience had come from school productions. Other major roles in the film were played by Janet Bartley (Elsa), Basil Keane (Preacher), Ras Daniel Hartman (Pedro), Beverly Anderson (Upper St. Andrew Housewife), eventually married to Michael Manley who became the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bob Charlton (Hilton), Volair Johnson (Pushcart Boy), and well known comedians Bim and Bam: Ed "Bim" Lewis (Photographer), and Aston "Bam" Wynter (drunken husband). Legendary ska musician Prince Buster (DJ at Dance) makes a cameo in the movie, telling the audience to sit tight and listen keenly!

Production began in 1970, but "dragged [for the next two years] due to inadequate funding".

Release

The film was a sensation in Jamaica due to its naturalistic portrayal of black Jamaicans in real locations and its use of Jamaican Patois, the local creole. According to Henzell, "Black people seeing themselves on the screen for the first time created an unbelievable audience reaction".

The film premiered at the Carib Theatre in Kingston, Jamaica on June 5, 1972, and was then released in February 1973 in New York City by Roger Corman's New World Pictures to little attention. It became more popular when it was played to midnight audiences nationwide the following April. However, the popularity of the movie was limited outside of Jamaica because the local Patois spoken by the characters was so thick that it required subtitles, making it possibly "the first English language movie in history to require subtitles in the United States".

The soundtrack to the film is considered a breakthrough for reggae in the United States.

Critical reception

The film received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 90% score based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 1/2 stars out of 4, writing that the "movie’s ending is an exercise in plot; its beginning and its music deserve better than that". The staff of Variety magazine wrote that the film "has a sharp and racy rhythm, in keeping with the syncopated music of the isle, plus an underlying social theme in the guise of a familiar tale".

Music

Main article: The Harder They Come (soundtrack)

Music credits listed at the end of the film:

"The Harder They Come" recorded at Dynamic Sounds, Kingston

"You Can Get It if You Really Want" performed by Jimmy Cliff, composed by Jimmy Cliff

"Hold Your Brakes" performed by Scotty, composed by D. Harriot and D. Scott

"Pressure Drop" performed by The Maytals, composed by Frederick "Toots" Hibbert

"Many Rivers to Cross" performed by Jimmy Cliff, composed by Jimmy Cliff

"Johnny Too Bad" performed by The Slickers, composed by D. Crooks, R. Beckford, W. Bailey, T. Wilson

"007 Shanty Town" performed by Desmond Dekker, composed by D. Dares

"Sweet and Dandy" performed by The Maytals, composed by Frederick "Toots" Hibbert

"The Harder They Come" performed by Jimmy Cliff, composed by Jimmy Cliff

"Rivers of Babylon" performed by The Melodians, composed by B. Dowe

"Sitting Here in Limbo" performed by Jimmy Cliff, composed by Jimmy Cliff

Legacy

Novelization

In 1980, Jamaican-American author Michael Thelwell published a novel based on the film, using the same title. Thelwell inserted many Jamaican proverbs into the novel that were unused in the film.

Digital restoration

In 2006, Prasad Corporation digitally restored the film, recapturing its original look by cleaning it frame by frame to remove dirt, tears, scratches, and other artifacts.

Stage play

In 2005, The Harder They Come was adapted into a stage musical by the Theatre Royal Stratford East and UK Arts International in the UK, with a script overseen by Henzell. The show opened on 25 March 2006, boasting the original soundtrack as well as a couple of additions, including "The Ganja Song", written by Geraldine Connor, featuring Rolan Bell as Ivan. The production later moved to the Playhouse Theatre, and was performed in Toronto and Miami.

The Harder They Come, Suzan-Lori Parks' musical adaptation of the 1972 film was scheduled to be staged at New York's Public Theater in early 2023.

Music

Punk band The Clash reference lead character Ivan in the hit song "Guns of Brixton".

Watch the movie