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Gibb Sahib Origins: By the Waters (Floods, Rivers) of Babylon (17) RE: Origins: By the Waters (Floods, Rivers) of Babylon 21 Dec 13


The Melodians lyrics you posted are accurate, Q, thanks.

There is no Marley version (that I know of). Knuckleheads on the Internet have seemed to imagine Marley's anachronous (late 70s) face in conjunction with 'most anything Jamaican and musical, and they are confounding your/our searches!

Joe, no, nothing to do with the DJ! If "O Far I" is what they are singing (it seems most likely), it is simply the usual reference to Jah Rastafari (Ras Tafar I) - shortened. There is a lot of word-play in Rastafari (< the pedants' correct name of the faith, as opposed to Rastafarianism). "Rastafari" (the faith) and "Rasta" (a practitioner of the faith) are derived from Haile Selassie's name Ras (a title, like "prince," I think) Tafar (his actual name) I (the Roman numeral of "the First"), i.e. something like "Prince Tafar the First." The fact that that could be pronounced and broken down in so many ways speaks to the word-play. Of course, "I" (pronounced like the first person singular pronoun) is the most important of this word-play, hence "I and I", where one "I" is the self and the other is Jah. Some Rastas go so far as to replace the word "me" in their speech with "I", like "Give I a piece of pie"!

N.B. I have not fact-checked any of this. It is what I know only from personal experience.


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