Next Sunday! Linking Legacies concert at UUCC on March 12th
Be sure to join us in the UUCC Sanctuary at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 12th for Linking Legacies, a free concert celebrating the music of Black composers and performers with a connection to Northeast Ohio. Click here for more information about this very special musical event!
Music Notes – Sunday, March 5th:
This week’s musician is UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley
Opening Hymn: #121 We’ll Build a Land – McDade and Zanotti
“We’ll Build a Land” (Singing the Living Tradition #121) is one of the best-known and most beloved UU Hymns. The song was written by Carolyn McDade (b. 1935), a self-described songwriter, spiritual feminist, and social activist, who is also the composer of other UU favorites like “Spirit of Life”, “Come, Sing a Song with Me”, and “Rising Green”. The words, written by Barbara Zanotti, are paraphrased from the Old Testament books of Amos and Isaiah.
Centering Music: Build – Heaton and Cullimore
“Build” is a song written by a pair of British musician/songwriters Paul Heaton (b. 1962) and Stan Cullimore (b. 1962) for their band The Housemartins. The Housemartins were an indie pop group who had some commercial success in Great Britain during the late 1980s, with hits such as “Happy Hour”, “Five Get Over Excited”, and “Caravan of Love”, which made it to #1 on the UK charts in 1986. “Build” was the third single released from The Housemartins’ 1987 album The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death and became a top 20 hit in the UK.
Offertory: He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother – Scott and Russell
One of the best-known anthems of the 1960s, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” was written in 1969 by professional songwriters Bobby Scott (1937-1990) and Bob Russell (1914-1970). The song was first recorded by little-known American singer-songwriter Kelly Gordon (1932-1981), but then achieved wide success when recorded later in 1969 by the British band The Hollies, whose version of “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” (which included then-studio musician Elton John on the piano) became a top ten hit in the U.S., the U.K., and several other countries.
Closing Hymn: #1017 Building a New Way – Sandefer
Martha Sandefer (b. 1952) is an American vocalist and composer who is currently involved with the Work o’ the Weavers project. She wrote “Building a New Way” in 1986 and her song was later arranged by Jim Scott (b. 1946) and included as #1017 in our Singing the Journey hymnbook.
Postlude: With a Little Help from my Friends – Lennon and McCartney
“With a Little Help from My Friends” was written in March of 1967 and first released later that year as part of the historic Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Ringo Starr (b. 1940) sang lead vocals on the original recording, but the song was co-written by John Lennon (1940-1980) and Paul McCartney (b. 1942), making this song an exception to the rule of Beatles’ songs typically being performed by their primary songwriter. Starr’s only contribution to the writing of this song was changing the opening line, which originally was “What would you think if I sang out of tune? Would you throw ripe tomatoes at me?” Ringo changed the line because he was concerned about fans taking the lyrical advice literally when the song was performed live. “With a Little Help from My Friends” has been covered over 50 times by other artists, most famously by Joe Cocker (1944-2014), whose 1968 version went to #1 in the U.K. and rose to further prominence after Cocker’s iconic live performance of the song at Woodstock in 1969. The song appears in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and Ringo Starr still regularly closes his live performances with a solo rendition of “With a Little Help from My Friends”.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director
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