On Monday 15th, 2013, I went with my son Max then aged 11, my daughter Scarlet who was 16 and my father who was visiting from London, to watch the Boston marathon runners run past my road in Wellesley.
The third Monday of April is one of my favorite days of the year - it marks the real start of spring for me. The blossoms are just coming out, and we see neighbors and friends, eat BBQ food and cheer the spirit of thousands of runners.
Of course the 2013 Boston marathon will be remembered for something else, namely the twin bombings near the finish line that killed three people and wounded more than 170.
This is a song written for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. The lyrics were inspired by the moving speech given by President Obama at the interfaith healing service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2013.
I hope schools will sing this, and that we can help the OneFund onefundboston.org raise funds for the victims. At the very least, let's show that communities of good people are stronger than the few evil ones who grab the headlines.
In the words of the youngest fatality, 8-year-old Martin Richard, holding a poster he made after the shooting of Trayvon Martin, “No more hurting people. Peace.”
Let's help sustain a message of strength and confidence long after the headlines about the Boston Marathon bombings subside.
Thanks, Stephen
UPDATE 14th JUNE 2013
I'd like to thank the Boston Art Academy including, Duncan Remage-Healey, Tyrone Sutton the Director of Boston Arts Spirituals Ensemble, Anne Clark, Gregory Holt, David Jamrog, Akshata Kadagathur, Rick Tagliaferri and the singers of The Boston Arts Academy Sprituals Ensemble (listed below) for adding their beautiful voices to the song.
Thanks to Dr. Kevin J. McDonald, Director of Choral Music
Wellesley High School, Chad Weirick for arranging the choral parts and all the Keynote singers (listed below) who were amazing to listen to as they learned and added their fine voices to the track.
Thanks to the wonderful Sacha Pfeiffer and her team At All Things Considered for taking the time to interview me about this project and repost the track. That interview and links are here: www.wbur.org/2013/05/03/wellesl…athon-healing-song
Thank you SoundCloud for posting the song to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr and @soundcloudheroes for reposting the track.
Thanks to numerous other folk for helping to prod and nudge things along.
Last, but certainly not least, a big thank you to the passionate SoundCloud community of writers, musicians and singers who continue to encourage me and especially the brave SoundClouders who submitted vocals to join mine, with a special mention for Scarlet Delemeny who, apart from being my daughter and an excellent songwriter and singer, had the inspired idea of putting the chorus at the front of the song and then wowed us all with her beautiful ad libs.
THE WELLESLEY HIGH SCHOOL KEYNOTE CHOIR:
Alex Abrahams, Caroline Allieri, Claire Barre, Tessa Broholm, Charles Coleman, Lauren Cuddy, Samantha Derderian, Julian Dusset, Matt Eldridge, Caroline Eldridge, Jalen Eugene, Ashley Freeman, Alison Furneaux, Theo Golob, Taeghan Hagood, Michelle Hansen, Drew Hawkinson, Julia Hockett, Alex Hu, Gwen Ivey, Weston Jacoby
, Allison Kannam, Brian Kelley, Elizabeth Kennedy, Hannah Kwawu, Erika Madrian, Matthew Matejka, Anna Mayersohn, Jared Melanson, Brendan Milway, Peter Palladino, Katie Pedersen, Marlin Rooks, Olivia Sanabria, Mingo Sanchez, Chris Scammell, Katie Scholl, James Scott, Elizabeth Serunjogi, Nic Shepard, Mark Sibold, Ian Speers, John Su, Andrew Tarbox, Jewels Tambone, Sara Taylor, Maddie Tishman, Elise Vasko, Julia Wall
BOSTON ARTS ACADEMY SPIRITUALS ENSEMBLE:
Abel Alcorn-Harris, D'Mitry Bolden, Juliette Costa, Mahamma Germain, Kayana Guity-Moore, Andreanna Haynes, Fedrice Isidore, Melissa Israel, Gracia Lei, Jasiah Lewis, Shakeima Lewis, Molly Martin, Amaiya Mitchell, Adrian Pizzaro, Piper Rollins, Esther Valbrun, Stephan Wallace
THE SOUNDCLOUD COLLAB CHOIR:
Scarlet Delemeny (Boston, MA, USA), Doug Faigel (Scottsdale, AZ, USA), Phil McWalter (London, UK), Simone Provenzano (Cosenza, Italy), Marie-Aimee Pupat (Lyon, France), Bethany Sky Whitman, (Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA)
WE WILL RUN AGAIN
Words and Music Stephen Randall
CHORUS
We will stand
And we will walk
And we will run again
On Patriot's Day
We lined the streets
To cheer our heroes
Running to their dreams
We waved them on
From Hopkinton
Through Wellesley Hills
Then Newton straight to Boston
As they reached Heartbreak Hill
They didn't know that they’d face
A greater heartbreak still
A greater heartbreak
CHORUS
We will stand
And we will walk
And we will run again
We come together
To reclaim
This state of grace
Our spirit will remain
And when we cross
The finish line
We show the world
That we can take the pain
And on that toughest mile,
When we think we've hit a wall,
Someone will be there
To pick us up if we fall
CHORUS
We will stand
And we will walk
And we will run again
We will stand
And we will walk
And we will run again
© & Ⓟ 2013 Stephen Randall
