Jimmy Riley ... I just used to watch my mother and other ladies in the community and see their strength come from praying. - File

Jimmy Riley's Black Mother Pray is one of those enduring Jamaican songs that run counter to the ingrained tradition of importing slow jams from overseas, mostly the USA.

It is not, however, the kind of slow song which brings lovers together on the dance floor. As the title makes obvious, it is about a connection between the Almighty and that most venerated of Jamaican persona, the mother.

So, as Jimmy Riley tells The Sunday Gleaner, it is the kind of song that makes those black mothers stop and take a few minutes out of life.

"Women tell me that they are doing the house work and they stop what they are doing and listen when it comes on the radio," Riley said.

soothing feel

A quarter of a century after it was done at Channel One, Black Mother Pray was reworked by Sly and Robbie, who gave it what Riley describes as a 'dancehall-soul' feel for his 2008 album Sly and Robbie Presents Jimmy Riley, Pull Up Selector. The sound might have changed, but not the soothing feel of the song.

The production team on the original was Lloyd Parkes (bass guitar), Willie Lindo (guitar), Mikey Boo (drums) and Bubbler (keyboards). The words came from Riley, rooted in his childhood.

"I just used to watch my mother and other ladies in the community and see their strength come from praying," he says. "My mother used to sing this song, 'Why worry when you can pray'. Black women are always praying in times of tribulation."

So one night he wrote a song about black mothers in general taking their struggles to the Lord. Recording it, though, had to go through the earthly process, which included waiting on another song to be done.

"Babsy Grange (now Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports) came back with this song by ABBA, Like Old Friends Do, and she asked me to produce it. I said I had to do one for myself, I had to do an original," Riley said.

So after Carlene Davis had recorded Like Old Friends Do, "I sat around the piano and played it for Willie Lindo and asked what he thought. Willie got excited and said 'that song bad'." Black Mother Pray was promptly recorded and Riley took both songs to Orange label-owner, Grange.

She loved them and both were duly released. Riley points out, however, that although all the persons who heard Black Mother Pray liked it, "this is reggae country" and it took some time to really get going. Not only did Black Mother Pray take "a month or two" to hit the charts, when it did it went in at the very bottom of the top-30 countdown.

steady climber

From there, though, it was a steady climber, going up two places at a time until it hit number three "and sat there for about half a year".

And although Black Mother Pray has long fallen off the charts, it has remained a favourite of music lovers, on radio and especially when he has performed. "When I do it live is something else," Riley told The Sunday Gleaner. And, that goes for any audience, as Riley said, "I have done it a couple times on Rebel Salute. It is guaranteed to get a big forward."