A minor · Camelot 8A · 168 BPM
Babylon's Burning
by The Ruts
- 168
- BPM
- A minor
- Key
- 8A
- Camelot
- 31
- Danceability
- 1
- Acousticness
Bassist John "Segs" Jennings used to play a scale during warmups, and guitarist Paul Fox turned one of those warmup exercises into the main riff of "Babylon's Burning". The Ruts released the song as their debut single for Richard Branson's Virgin Records in 1979, and it climbed to number 7 on the UK singles chart, earning the band a spot on Top of the Pops. Jennings later described the song as rooted in reggae, even though journalists mostly heard it as punk rock first.
Malcolm Owen wrote the lyrics, which dealt with unrest and strife in British urban centres and drew on the Southall riots of April 1979 and the killing of anti-fascist protestor Blair Peach. Jennings recalled that Owen wrote the line "with anxiety" specifically to excite live crowds, who would sing along with it. The single sold around 230,000 copies by Jennings' recollection, falling about 20,000 short of silver certification. It spent 11 weeks on the chart, making it the band's longest-charting release and their only top ten hit.
Later in 1979 the band re-recorded the song for their debut album, The Crack, opening that version with a blaring alarm over police car sirens, neither of which appeared on the single. Owen died of a heroin overdose in 1980, cutting short the band's success, though the remaining members carried on as Ruts D.C.
Babylon's Burning runs at 168 BPM, the tempo of footwork, gabber and fast metal. In classical terms it sits in vivace territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.43 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 357 ms. It is in A minor, Camelot 8A, which shares its notes with C major and mixes cleanly with D minor and E minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.