Song Lyrics – By The Rivers of Babylon – Boney M
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down;
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down;
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.
When the wicked
Carried us away in captivity
Require from us a song –
Now how shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?
When 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?
Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts
be acceptable in Thy sight here tonight
Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts
be acceptable in Thy sight here tonight
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down;
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down
ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion.
By the rivers of Babylon (the waters of Babylon)
there we sat down (You got to sing a song)
ye-eah we wept, (Sing a song of love)
when we remember Zion. (Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah)
By the rivers of Babylon (by the rivers of Babylon)
there we sat down (You hear the people cry)
ye-eah we wept, (They need their God)
when we remember Zion. (Ooh, got the power)
By the rivers of Babylon, (oh yeah yeah)
where we sat down (yeah yeah)
Ye-eah we wept………
Enjoy This Video Presentation of By the Rivers of Babylon
FACTS ABOUT “BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON”
“Rivers of Babylon” is a song written and recorded by Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton of The Melodians in 1972, and popularized mainly by the 1978 Boney M. cover version. The Melodians’ original versions of the song appeared in the sound track to the 1972 movie The Harder They Come.
The song is based on the Biblical hymn Psalm 137, a hymn expressing the yearnings of the Jewish people in exile following the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The namesake rivers of Babylon are the Euphrates river, its tributaries, and the Chebar river. The song also has words from Psalm 19:14
Rivers of Babylon was covered in 1978 by German disco band Boney M, with a version that was released as a single. Boney M.’s release stayed at the #1 position in the UK for five weeks and was also the group’s only significant US chart entry, peaking at #30 in the Pop charts. In the UK Boney M. sold more than 1,985,000 copies of the song, making the single officially 3x platinum and one of the all-time best-selling singles in the UK. 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.
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.
