It would take a totally whacked musician to mess up a great classic, as they attempt to do a cover of a song that does not need introduction. So, if the musician in question has good enough vocals, and can afford some reasonable production on the market, they should manage to score a good sound, at the very least. The more original artisans already did all the hard work, the composition of the harmony, rhythm and rhyme, of the lyrics, decades ago.
Making a remix like this of Elly Wamala’s Viola, is simply like giving your Office 2000 software package, an upgrade, to Office 2010. The fellows who do the upgrade are not as worthy of praise, as the fellows who did the Office prototype, from which the upgrades are churned.
That is why I was slow to jumping to the bandwagon that was shouting about in ecstasy at Goesteady’s apt redo of the deceased’s song. He did a fine job of it, no doubt. He did not undo the song, which if you ask me, many a remixing artistes have done before. He did the perfect software upgrade. But that is not why he deserves praise. Let us praise Goesteady in 70 years’ time, when one of his original compositions is redone by the then new generation of musicians, to acclaim.
