Toto's Africa

When I came home from the hospital to recover from my paralysis, I was given a big prescription for some painkillers, as my neuropathy was screamingly bad. When I renewed it, there was a small screw-up with my local hospital and I wound up waiting for half a day to get it filled. I had never experienced any kind of withdrawal before (wait: smoking). While waiting for the hospital to call me with the OK to pick it up, I parked myself on the living room couch with my laptop. I spent a lot of time there the first year. To pass the time, I stumbled onto Toto's stuff and Steve Lukather. I think he's a great technical player, but not really my cup of tea. I liked reading his columns about session work, but his personality was too edgy for me in my condition that morning. But I couldn't stop delving into his work and Toto. I had a really sour take on the whole thing and my emotional state was unlike anything I've experienced before or since. Compounded with this was my reaction to their song, Africa. I have always loved, loved, loved that song. I didn't care for the performance much, and the video was atrocious. But, dang, that song gives me chills every time I hear it. I had every reason to despise that song, but music is a funny thing. If you strip away the drums, the synthesizer, the visuals of either the video or of them in performance, and the words, you are left with the beauty of pitch and rhythm. "I bless the rains down in Africa..." I get goosebumps.

Are there songs that don't gibe with your musical worldview, that give you every reason to gag when you hear them, but get goosebumps anyway?

Music is powerful, something I started to understand in 4th grade. Even without the radio, I could turn on music in my head when our family took long summer car trips and just zone out watching the fields zip by.

Not a big opera fan but Aretha doing Nessun Dorma at the grammy's blew me away. Still gives me chills to hear it.

Paralysis??? That doesn't sound good! I hope you're ok now. Was it something temporary?

To get to your topic, I think there are MANY mostly 80s songs that were actually very very very good but suffered from bad production (and 'bad' is an objective term here!!) and uninspired/cliche' lyrics. Moonlight Shadow just jumps to mind, but there are plenty more. And Moonlight Shadow could have been much much worse considering it came out in 1983.

Yeah, unwanted musical goosebumps. That happens :grin:

When I was a kid, we had a 45 of Tommy James & The Shondell's I Think We're Alone Now. B side was Hanky Panky. Which I HATED. But now, I love it. It probably was one of the first i-iv-v blues type tunes I'd ever heard. But the content was just way too silly for me, as a nine year old kid. As an adult, I can now appreciates the lyric's finer nuances :razz:

Copacabana also comes to mind. Universally hated, but just encounter it at a karaoke bar or wedding, well performed, and try not to smile and groove along.

There's gotta be a ton of tunes like that. I tend to embrace all of it; I've given up long ago about trying to be a purist. Since all kinds of music draws on all manner of influences. Many of which aren't readily apparent, or even make sense. If it's pure schlock and I enjoy it, what the hell, and why not.

Curiously I always loved the intro to Africa, that sort of vibe thing and of course the classy musicianship. But damn, those lyrics drive me up the wall. Not completely sure why, there's plenty worse. For me it's Rosanna, that drum intro and those rich OD chordings, that song gets me everytime.

Kristina

Here's a great version. A capella :shock: Toto's Africa by Perpetuum Jazzile, performed live at Vokal Xtravaganzza 2008 (October 2008) - arranger Tomaž Kozlevčar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbpwlqp5Qw

September: Earth Wind and Fire

Dan Fogleberg: Netherlands

Mozart: The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria

Wheeee, there for a minute, I thought my dog had bought Africa. I wasn't sure how I was gonna handle that.

There was an acoustic bootleg version of "Africa" floating around the internet 8 or 9 years ago that had somewhat bad quality but still had a great feel and energy to it. I just dont remember who did it. Im gonna go thru the ol Ipod and find out. Ill be right back...

Found It!
Its Howie Day. Here it is, the exact copy too.
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I saw Ringo's Allstar band last weekend.

Luke was front and center, he is a great player and performer.

Africa and Love doesn't always come on time stood out.

On the Twang Central forum merman does a sweet instrumental version of this pretty song.

Nothing embarassing about liking Toto - fantastic musicians!

As for their songs there are just a few that I really like: "Roseanna", "Africa", "Hold the Line", "I'll Be Over You" and "Love Isn't Always On Time" come to mind. Most of the rest I find a bit uninteresting as songs regarded, but always impressively executed!

In my humble opinion Lukather always had a killer lead sound and it's already in place in "Africa"

I once sat in at a jam session with some friends of mine and we played along to a Toto album we managed "Hold the line" but completely fell apart when trying "Africa" that groove is really something else.

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I was never a Toto fan, but "Africa" blows me away every time. Great song. I even bought a copy of the vinyl LP that contained it.

Here's a great version. A capella :shock: Toto's Africa by Perpetuum Jazzile, performed live at Vokal Xtravaganzza 2008 (October 2008) - arranger Tomaž Kozlevčar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbpwlqp5Qw

I love this version!


yjbpwlqp5Qw

Yuck!

/MLrC7e3vSv8

Toto was the first concert I ever saw. I remember that Hold The Line rocked, but I must admit that I didn't like Africa. I think I was turned off by the video. I will have to give it another listen. I'm finding after years a sentimental attraction to 80s songs that I thought were too soft soft, cheesy, or popular at the time.

I love the acapella crew doing a rain/thunder storm before the song....

that was the best part..... cool....

I was never a Toto fan, but "Africa" blows me away every time. Great song. I even bought a copy of the vinyl LP that contained it.

Yep. Same for me. And after I bought the vinyl album, I wore out the "Africa" track and bought a second album. After that, I bought the CD.

I love the song, but gave up on trying to understand the reason.

Too many words



Try this on, it mite fit

_ppAPO-DIHo

I love this version!


yjbpwlqp5Qw

That really is wonderful - thank you, Thornton!

I have to admit I've always liked that song, even though I can't stand the band.

"Africa" and "Hold The Line" are kinda cheesy, but great tracks nonetheless. The rhythm and vocal arrangement on the former, and Lukather's tone and power over that piano on the latter make 'em fly, IMO.

Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" has been played to death but it screams 70s London at me and I love it for that.

Musically, its hard to beat Toto. And Africa is up there as a musical composition. I love playing it. We're gonna try it at a buddy-n'bros jam, lets see what hilarity ensures.

I don't mind the lyrics either.

Gotta dig the ol Toto...Africa is a classic. This is my goosebump song...

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Nothing embarassing about liking Toto - fantastic musicians!

:lol:

Are there songs that don't gibe with your musical worldview, that give you every reason to gag when you hear them, but get goosebumps anyway?

John Denver-Country Roads
It's just...so...pretty. Or melancholy or something. Maybe it's just the placement of the minor chord. And the harmonies. Turns me to mush.

Motley Crüe-Kickstart My Heart
Putrid bad-boy L.A. glam ickiness. Gag-worthy on so many levels. But Kickstart, whew, that's a beast of a rock tune. Meaty riff and a steam-train drum track. I dig it. And crank it.

Black Stone Cherry-Like I Roll
Far to much fist-pumpin', hair-flippin' hard-rock "coolness" and pained sincerity from these guys on YouTube, BUT, this is a flat-out great song. Heard it the other day at work, and the hairs were standing up on my arms.

Martina McBride-Whatever You Say
It's like Coldplay's "Yellow". It just soars on the chorus. Glitzy, shiny, big-money Nashville country, something I profess to loathe, and when a good one comes along, my knees go out. With that in mind:
Alan Jackson-Drive
The final verse about the Jeep.........oh, man.......

I always liked "On the Street Where You Live" from My Fair Lady. Something about the melody. Yet I am about as far away from musicals as you can get in what I like to play. But when he hits that high note it does something to my brain that I have no control of. So that is about as outside as it gets, probably even more than world music stuff I like.

Toto does something to my brain as well but it is not a good thing.

I dunno..at the time that Toto's "Africa" came out...early-mid 80s... I was on an African music kick...started with Julaka-Johnny Clegg-Suvaka...which led me to the more authentic regional music...and in comparison, the Toto "Africa" sounded awfully pretentious and trite....like "we're cool, we're doing a song about "Africa""

Martina McBride..."Where I Used to Have a Heart"...I dislike most of her stuff...but that one song...goosebumps...

Around that time, I worked in an amusement arcade during the school holidays and weekends (we lived in a seaside town called Hornsea in the North of England). They had a bunch of cassettes that would be played over and over but there was one, a compilation tape that I would try to put on more than others (sometimes I would sneak in my own tapes and the punters would be treated to U2 or Bauhaus). This tape had Toto's Rosanna on it and even though it was cheesey MOR I secretly enjoyed listening to it, as a kind of guilty pleasure. Actually it is a pretty good song, with a nice chord sequence and a great guitar solo. Also on that tape were I Am, I'm Me by Twisted Sister and Our Lips Are Sealed by Funboy Three.