Audrey Hall

Audrey Hall (born c.1948, Kingston, Jamaica) is a reggae singer.

Biography

Hall began her career singing with Dandy Livingstone in the duo Dandy & Audrey. They recorded the song "Morning Side of the Mountain" in 1969, the success of which led to an album of the same name. They released a second album on the Trojan label, I Need You. Livingstone also produced Hall's early solo recordings for his Downtown label. Hall worked as a backing singer through much of the 1970s and early 1980s alongside her sister Pam, including on Jimmy Cliff's Give The People What They Want, and Peter Tosh's Mama Africa, but she made a comeback as a solo artist in 1985 with "One Dance Won't Do", an answer record to Beres Hammond's "What One Dance Can Do", produced by Donovan Germain, which took her into the UK top 20. This was followed up by "Smile" in 1986, which repeated her UK chart success and gave her her biggest hit, and "The Best Thing For Me". In 1986, she returned to recording duets, with "Heart Made of Stone" and the album Dynamic Duo, recorded with former Paragon Don Evans. She continued to work with Germain, recording for his Germain and Penthouse labels, and released the album Reggae Zones in 2001.

Rivers of Babylon

"Rivers of Babylon" is a Rastafarian 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 Bible. The Melodians' original version of the song appeared in the soundtrack album of the 1972 movie The Harder They Come, making it internationally known.

The song was 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 BCE: Previously the Kingdom of Israel, after being united under Kings David and Solomon, was split in two, with the Kingdom Of Israel in the north, conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE 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 Tribe of Levi, was free from foreign domination until the Babylonian conquest to which Rivers Of Babylon refers.

Rivers of Babylon (disambiguation)

"Rivers of Babylon" is a song by The Melodians, notably covered by Boney M.

Rivers of Babylon or Waters of Babylon may also refer to:

Babylon

Babylon (𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 Akkadian: Bābili or Babilim; Arabic: بابل‎, Bābil) was a significant city in ancient Mesopotamia, in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates and divided in equal parts along its left and right banks, with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BC.

The town attained independence as part of a small city state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BC. Claiming to be the successor of the more ancient Sumero-Akkadian city of Eridu, Babylon eclipsed Nippur as the "holy city" of Mesopotamia around the time Amorite king Hammurabi created the first short lived Babylonian Empire in the 18th century BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia.

The empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabi's death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rules of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid empires.

Backyard Babies

Backyard Babies are a rock band from Nässjö, Sweden. The band was formed in 1987 and over the years they have released six studio albums and won a Swedish Grammy. The band is now located in Stockholm, Sweden.

They are largely attributed with popularizing sleaze rock in Scandinavia and Sweden. Their single "Minus Celsius" appears as a playable bonus track in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and "Degenerated" is available as a downloadable song for Guitar Hero World Tour.

History

Formed in 1987, Backyard Babies originally consisted of singer/bassist Tobbe (Tobias Fischer), guitarist Dregen, guitarist Johan Blomqvist, and drummer Peder Carlsson. They were then called Tyrant and played several live shows in their local area and recorded a rough demo. Tobbe was soon replaced by frontman Nicke Borg on vocals and guitar, and Blomqvist switched to bass. Fischer went on to be a professional photographer and web designer in Stockholm, continuing to work occasionally with his old band mates .

Babylon (W.A.S.P. album)

Babylon is the fourteenth studio album by American heavy metal band W.A.S.P., released on November 9, 2009. The album was inspired by biblical visions of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse". The album contains covers of Deep Purple's Burn (originally recorded for W.A.S.P's previous album Dominator, but not used for unknown reasons) and Chuck Berry's Promised Land. Promised Land was also covered in 1973 by Elvis Presley, and it was Elvis' version that the band had in mind as demonstrated by the ending comment "How about one of them peanut butter & banana sandwiches."

Track listing

Personnel

Chart performance

Note: The UK chart position was recorded on the UK Independent releases chart, not the mainstream albums chart.

References