Me quedé descuadrado cuando este videoclip de Keedz apareció en un canal musical francés. Por ser sincero, su versión a lo Justice, no me hizo la más mínima gracia, supongo que por el hecho de que les da exactamente lo mismo el material original que samplean. No en el sentido que le pierdan el respeto y trabajen con él como materia prima musical, sino en el que uno sabe que cualquier otra canción con un piano y voces les hubiera servido para hacer lo mismo y con la misma intencionalidad comercial. Tim Lawrence cuenta algo de la historia de este tema en sus notas para un recopilatorio de mixes de Walter Gibbons:

During this period Gibbons amassed a collection of approximately five thousand gospel records, many of which were signed copies purchased directly from church congregations in New York. "He thought gospel was the pure message of God and that something was wrong with you if you didn't get it," says Krivit, an occasional customer. "Every time he opened his mouth he would preach at you. It seemed to a lot of people he was just history, especially as there was less of a nostalgia thing going on at the time."

Yet ever since Bobby "DJ" Guttadaro, Francis Grasso and David Mancuso started to push Dorothy Morrison's "Rain" at the turn of the 1970s, gospel had demonstrated its ability to heighten the celebratory mood of the dance floor, and Gibbons continued to unearth the occasional treasure, including "Stand On The Word", which was recorded live in the First Baptist Church in Crown Heights in 1982.

"'Stand On The Word' was Walter's biggest record at the time," says Gate, who visited the church in order to track down the origins of the song. "The record was recorded in his local church — the Jus Born studios were only a couple of blocks away. Walter played this record after the church pressed up a couple of hundred copies for the congregation." The song soon became a Garage, Loft and Zanzibar classic, and Tony Humphries went on to remix the record — which was attributed to the Joubert Singers, after Phyllis McKoy Joubert, who penned the song for the Celestial Choir — for Next Plateau. For many, Gibbons had lost his way but not his ear.

En fin, gracias a este grupo por hacerme recuperar argumentos rockistas que me hacen parecer un señor aún más mayor, hablando del “aura” del original, la “magia” de la grabación, el “júbilo” de las voces y ese final de una canción que nunca verán en las listas de las mejores de la historia.