Song · The Ruts
“Babylon's Burning” by The Ruts
From the album Grin and Bear It (1980)
“Babylon's Burning” by The Ruts appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1979 and 2002. It was first released in 1980 on the album Grin and Bear It. Its best result is #47 on the John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1979). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #6,563 alternative song of all time.
"Babylon's Burning" was the Ruts' first single for Richard Branson's Virgin Records, and it hit like a brick through a window: up to number 7 on the UK singles chart and onto Top of the Pops, before the band re-recorded it for their debut album, The Crack. It's a punk rock tear-up with, some critics say, a reggae pulse underneath, and bassist John "Segs" Jennings calls it rooted in reggae. The riff came out of a warmup: Jennings ran a scale, and guitarist Paul Fox turned it into the main hook.
Malcolm Owen wrote the words, charged with anxiety and pitched to get a crowd going at the gigs, and the writing credit is split between Owen, Fox, Jennings and Dave Ruffy. It's still reckoned one of the Ruts' signature songs, and it turned up again on Grin and Bear It in 1980.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 47 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1979) | 50 |
| 2002 | 1775 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
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