"Iron Lion Zion" is a song written and recorded in April 1973 or 1974 by Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

n singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Bob Marley

Bob Marley

Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...

 and first released posthumously in May 1992 on the Songs of Freedom

Songs of Freedom

Songs of Freedom is a four-disc box set containing music by Bob Marley and the Wailers, from Marley's first song "Judge Not" recorded in 1961, to a live version of "Redemption Song", recorded in 1980 at his last concert....

box set, reaching number 5 in the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

, (tying with the 1984 re-release of "One Love

One Love (Bob Marley song)

"One Love/People Get Ready" is a reggae/rhythm and blues song by Bob Marley & The Wailers from their 1977 album Exodus. It was first recorded in a ska style by Marley's original group, The Wailers, on their 1965 debut album The Wailing Wailers, and a heavily reworked version was included on African...

"). A remixed version was released in 1995 on Natural Mystic: The Legend Lives On. The song is played as a post-victory song for the soccer team Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake is an American professional soccer club based in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The team competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. They currently play their home games at Rio Tinto Stadium. Real Salt Lake won...

.

Lyrics

The song's lyrics are directly related to Rastafarian

Rastafari movement

The Rastafari movement or Rasta is a new religious movement that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica, which at the time was a country with a predominantly Christian culture where 98% of the people were the black descendants of slaves. Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia , as God...

 beliefs. Zion

Zion

Zion is a place name often used as a synonym for Jerusalem. The word is first found in Samuel II, 5:7 dating to c.630-540 BCE...

 is "the promised land", in the song referring to Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. The lion refers to the Lion of Judah

Lion of Judah

The Lion of Judah was the symbol of the Israelite tribe of Judah in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible .-Lion of Judah and Judaism:...

, which appeared on the old royal Ethiopian flag, and represents Haile Selassie I, the former Ethiopian emperor whom Rastafarians regard as their Messiah.

Track listings

7" single

1. "Iron Lion Zion" — 3:21
2. "Smile Jamaica" (by Bob Marley & The Wailers) — 3:13

CD maxi

1. "Iron Lion Zion" (7" mix) — 3:21
2. "Smile Jamaica" (by Bob Marley & The Wailers) — 3:12
3. "Three Little Birds" (alternative mix) (by Bob Marley & The Wailers) — 2:55
4. "Iron Lion Zion" (12" mix) — 7:02

Peak positions

Chart (1992/93)	Peak position
Austrian Singles Chart	11
Dutch Top 40 Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting...	4
French SNEP Singles Chart	3
German Singles Chart	17
Irish IRMA Singles Chart	5
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	2
Swedish Singles Chart	2
Swiss Singles Chart	9
UK Singles Chart	5
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	11

End of year charts

End of year chart (1992)	Position
Dutch Top 40	36