Trivia corner: Emanuel Lambert goes by the performing name of Da’ Truth Jeremy Lubbock is a hugely experienced arranger who has also worked with Barbra Streisand, Joni Mitchell and Whitney Houston. Those same sites tell me the names of the nine singers in 1NC, that Franklin himself played piano, other keyboards and programmed the song, and that the arrangement was by Jeremy Lubbock.
They have certainly very cleverly given the melody and 1NC’s performance a very African feel. I had assumed that Franklin had based Be Like Him on a pre-existing traditional African gospel song, but on the various lyrics websites out there the composer credits are always: Kirk Franklin, Emanuel Lambert. It appeared on his 2000 album, Kirk Franklin Presents 1NC – that’s an abbreviation for One Nation Crew, a multi-cultural choir with whom he toured around America and made just the one album. The most famous and, it seems, the original version of Be Like Him is by the American gospel star Kirk Franklin.
It’s easy to find the lyrics, and there are countless online versions, but the song’s background or origins? That’s much harder. While last month’s Story Of A Song – Steal Away – was quite easy to research, Kwabona Kala, as we know it, or Be Like Him, as it is more frequently called, is a little trickier. Peter Bacon (tenor) investigates our repertoire.
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