Album: Long Live Rock 'n' Roll (1978)

License This Song 

Songfacts®:

• Like the rest of the Long Live Rock 'N' Roll album, "Gates Of Babylon" was recorded in an 18th-century French manor named Château d'Hérouville (Honky Château) where the composer Chopin had once lived - it was converted into a recording studio. David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, and other biggies have recorded there, as well, and many reported paranormal experiences. The experience Rainbow had, though, was on a whole other level.
  
  Rainbow frontman Ronnie James Dio claimed that a demonic presence kept interrupting the band's recording sessions, causing equipment failures. They had particular problems during "Gates Of Babylon," so much so that they couldn't complete the song. So the band, who had been dabbling in the occult for some time already, performed a séance. Through that, they learned that the demonic presence was named Baal.
  
  Making contact didn't dull the creature's destructive disposition. Issues escalated until the force took to throwing cutlery and furniture around and even making glasses pass completely through a table. A local priest refused to help them because he was already familiar with the malevolence in the house.
  
  The band finally managed to complete the song, but the worst was yet to come. As they were leaving the house, Dio's wife Wendy was shoved down a flight of stairs by an invisible force. A box of fine China in her arms broke the worst of her fall, and she suffered only minor injuries, but the experience was enough that Dio swore off summoning spirits and dallying with the occult for the rest of his days.
  
  The story is noted in the album's liner notes, which read, "Special thanks to E.H Reid, Colin Pearson, Pierre Calamel, Michel Laurent, Jean Claude, no thanks to Baal."
• Lead singer Ronnie James Dio wrote the lyrics and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore the music. David Stone, who played keyboards, is said to have written parts of it, although he was not credited on the album.

Comments: 2

• Someone Who Just Watched A Stream On Drugs, Mysticism, And The Modern WorldThese lyrics likely refer to the opium/hashish induced dreams (sleeping with the devil, visions, seeing in your mind) experienced by 19th century experimenters/authors/"spiritualists" who were obsessed with orientalism (Arabian nights imagery; magic carpet rides, genies, caravans, Babylon, saber dances, the veils of reality/the dancer [see also Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell]).
  
  In other words, 19th century potheads were using exotic oriental drugs and describing their trips using exotic oriental images, the anesthetic and dreamlike states produced by these drugs being conceived, in a gnostic sense as a mystical technique, a "key" to (the gates of sweet hell) Paradise or the "Ideal State" (a city of heavenly sin).
  
  The ambivalent language used in Gates of Babylon denotes at once the archaic gnostic/mystery cult seance importance placed on the psychedelic experience as a key (I think you're ready to see [by partaking of the "fruit" as Eve did]) to a "Paradise lost", yet it also touches on the addicting and disrupting effects (to trap you within, riding the endless caravan as a slave) of these drugs, thus not really endorsing them as such but rather treating them as the ambiguous, mysterious, and potentially dangerous substances/phenomenon that they are.
• AnonymousThis song is about the rich and how most of them go against Jesus because they have so much money despite its dark lyrics it actually has a very Christian meaning in the Bible it says a camel rope to go through the eye of a needle is more likely than a rich man to go to heaven. They say I can take you anywhere. Because Satan and his demons can get you rich but you will go to hell for this which is what the lines sleep with the devil and debt you must pay sleep with the devil the devil will take you away dio does not mean literally sleep with the devil he means if you trust the devil there will be literal hell to pay so to conclude this song is about the rich and how they will never make it to heaven

More Songfacts:

Do You Believe In Love?Huey Lewis & the News

The first Huey Lewis & the News hit, "Do You Believe In Love?," is a cover of a song Mutt Lange wrote three years earlier called "We Both Believe In Love."

Time After TimeCyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper came up with the title "Time After Time" when she saw it in TV Guide magazine. It's the name of a 1979 movie about a man who invents a time machine.

Personal JesusDepeche Mode

"Personal Jesus," a song about "being a Jesus for somebody else," was inspired by Elvis and Priscilla Presley.

Wanted Dead Or AliveBon Jovi

"Wanted Dead Or Alive" by Bon Jovi got the Unplugged craze going when Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora performed it with just their acoustic guitars at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards.

Stuck In The Middle With YouStealers Wheel

"Stuck In The Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel was the unlikely choice for a scene in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs where somebody loses an ear.

The Great PretenderThe Platters

The Pretenders are named after the 1956 song "The Great Pretender" by The Platters.

Editor's Picks

Cheerleaders In Music VideosSong Writing

It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.

Pete AndersonSongwriter Interviews

Pete produced Dwight Yoakam, Michelle Shocked, Meat Puppets, and a very memorable track for Roy Orbison.

Tom Keifer of CinderellaSongwriter Interviews

Tom talks about the evolution of Cinderella's songs through their first three albums, and how he writes as a solo artist.

Carol KayeSongwriter Interviews

A top session musician, Carol played on hundreds of hits by The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Frank Sinatra and many others.

Maxi PriestSongwriter Interviews

The British reggae legend tells the story of his #1 hit "Close To You," talks about his groundbreaking Shabba Ranks collaboration "Housecall," and discusses his latest project with Robin Trower.

Amanda PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Call us crazy, but we like it when an artist comes around who doesn't mesh with the status quo.