Boney M. performed an early mix of the song in a German TV-show singing "How can we sing King Alpha's song" although it was changed to "the Lord's song" (as in the biblical quote) in the released versions. King Alpha refers to Haile Selassie. Selassie's wife Menen Asfaw is known as Queen Omega aka The Queen.
Rivers of Babylon
Boney M. Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Yeah, we wept, when we remembered Zion
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
Yeah, we wept, when we remembered Zion
There the wicked
Carried us away in captivity
Required from us a song
There the wicked
Carried us away in captivity
Requiring of us a song
Now how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart
Be acceptable in thy sight here tonight
Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts
Be acceptable in thy sight here tonight
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
Yeah, we wept, when we remembered Zion
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
Yeah, we wept, when we remembered Zion
By the rivers of Babylon (dark tears of Babylon)
There we sat down (you got to sing a song)
Yeah, we wept (sing a song of love)
When we remembered Zion (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
By the rivers of Babylon (rough bits of Babylon)
There we sat down (you hear the people cry)
Yeah, we wept (they need their God)
When we remembered Zion (ooh, have the power)
By the rivers of Babylon (oh yeah yeah), there we sat down (yeah, yeah)
The song "Rivers of Babylon" by Boney M. is a tribute to Psalm 137 from the Bible. The lyrics describe the sorrowful experience of the Jews who were exiled from their homeland of Zion and taken to Babylon as captives. They wept as they remembered their lost homeland and struggled to find a way to sing songs of their God in a foreign land. The song is both a lament for a lost home and a prayer for acceptance and forgiveness.
The song is also significant because it represents a cultural fusion of Jamaican reggae music and African-American gospel music. Boney M. was a popular German-based disco group of the 1970s and 80s, but the roots of the song go back much further. The original melody for "Rivers of Babylon" comes from a Jamaican ska song called "Rivers of Babylon" by the Melodians, which was released in 1970. The lyrics to the song were adapted from Psalm 137 by Jamaican Rastafarians who saw parallels between the Babylonian exile of the Jews and their own experience of being taken as slaves from Africa to the Caribbean.
Line by Line Meaning
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
We sat down by the rivers of Babylon
Yeah, we wept, when we remembered Zion
When we remembered Zion, we wept
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
We sat down by the rivers of Babylon
Yeah, we wept, when we remembered Zion
When we remembered Zion, we wept
There the wicked Carried us away in captivity
The wicked took us captive
Required from us a song
They demanded that we sing a song
Now how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
But how can we sing the Lord's song in this foreign land?
There the wicked Carried us away in captivity
The wicked took us captive
Requiring of us a song
They demanded that we sing a song
Now how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
But how can we sing the Lord's song in this foreign land?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
(repeated chorus)
Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable in thy sight here tonight
May the words we speak and the thoughts we meditate upon be pleasing to you tonight
Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight here tonight
May the words we speak and the thoughts we meditate upon be pleasing to you tonight
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
We sat down by the rivers of Babylon
Yeah, we wept, when we remembered Zion
When we remembered Zion, we wept
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
We sat down by the rivers of Babylon
Yeah, we wept, when we remembered Zion
When we remembered Zion, we wept
By the rivers of Babylon (dark tears of Babylon)
We shed tears while by the rivers of Babylon
There we sat down (you got to sing a song)
We sat down and sang a song
Yeah, we wept (sing a song of love)
We wept while singing a song of love
When we remembered Zion (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
And remembered Zion the whole time
By the rivers of Babylon (rough bits of Babylon)
We were stuck in the difficult parts of Babylon
There we sat down (you hear the people cry)
We sat down and listened to the cries of the people
Yeah, we wept (they need their God)
We wept as the people needed their God
When we remembered Zion (ooh, have the power)
And thought of Zion's power
By the rivers of Babylon (oh yeah yeah), there we sat down (yeah, yeah)
Once again, we sat by the rivers of Babylon
Lyrics © TuneCore Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: James Agustus Mcnaughton, Frank Farian, George Reyam, Brent Gayford Dowe
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@marinastephen379
2023 anybody who is listening this?
@andr4uswanndr4us
Yes
@Ovidius1969
❤
@lucmatos4843
🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
@frisalrandy7027
Me
@GonahlaribizniIsaMasihAlgan
Я. Эт я
@hotpeppa1823
A lot of blessings for the person reading this message and listening this beautiful song in 2024
@eliuthgomezmiranda3239
Igualmente bendiciones 🙏
@bakary333
May Allah guide us all ameen. Please read the Quran
@callumfreebairn8082
thanks