The Melodians : Rivers Of Babylon
[Purchase]
I was doing my all too rare church thing with my family when we read a very familiar sounding Psalm 137:
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, ...How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a strange land?
The psalm tells the story of Jewish people in exile following the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. Among Rastafarians, Babylon represents the unholy white political power that has been keeping black people down for centuries. The "river" may well be the Atlantic Ocean and "Zion" is Africa. In their song featured on the soundtrack to 1972's The Harder They Come, The Melodians also quote Psalm 19:
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight...
