TOTO "africa" classic or dud

xp otm & otm

i'm not among them but many people still think (or once thought) "don't stop believin'" is a good song!

chop them in the throat

no that would hurt!
i am one of those people. i don't really like "don't stop believin'" much now but there was a time when i would enjoy it if it came on the radio. same for "africa"
when things become so laden with quasi-cultural meaning that they stop being enjoyable is a sad time really

"sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti"
^^prog rockers very much in character

^ I was thinking the same thing: "Africa" is the last mainstream hurrah of prog, along with maybe "Eye in the Sky." The next year, you've got "Owner of a Lonely Heart", popular progrock highly adulterated by new wave jolts.

What was ever prog about Toto?

first 2 albums iirc?

Seems like a reach, but ok.

Genesis were still having US top ten hits in the late 80s iirc xps

Yeah but they weren't ridiculously conceptual, like "Africa". Though that Mike and the Mechanics hit was about space travel or something right? Maybe that's the last hit of the prog impulse.

If "Africa" is conceptual in the prog sense, then so are other things like "Rock Me Amadeus" and "Bullet the Blue Sky."

Genesis' Tonight Tonight Tonight?

I've gotcher conceptual art rightcheer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9_WG7eXelo

"Africa" is the last mainstream hurrah of prog

Idg this at all. I'd sooner call Queensryche's "Silent Lucidity" prog than "Africa" and that hit the top 10 in 1991, even if we're not going to count Radiohead's European hits in the 00s.

I'm kind of enjoying the idea that "Georgy Porgy" is a prog rock classic, though.

If prog just means "radio-friendly mainstream rock perpetrated by people who have classical training, who have played technically complex music at various times in the past, and who are widely regarded as having 'chops' in the guitar-mag sense," then that is pretty meaningless.

The Toto dudes moved in a chops-centric world, and a lot of them made music that can safely be called prog at various points in their careers. But "Africa" is all in one even-numbered time signature, in a major key, not that many chords, the harmony is okay but nothing flashy. It was well suited to the radio of the day - I got a Walkman for my tenth birthday and I strongly suspect this was the first song to issue from it.

just to clarify I meant their prog roots/past ambitions showed in that ott line about something being as sure as THE KILIMANJARO RISES LIKE OLYMPUS

Fair enough, niels.

That said, one of these days I will have to start an S&D thread about misplaced syllabic emphasis. In all my thoughts about rock lyrics (as well as in my own lyric writing) I have generally disdained awkward, non-idiomatic, non-conversational stresses.

In my view, English has a big enough lexicon that you should be able to say interesting things without tortured backward syntax or misplaced stresses. Even otherwise great songs, by otherwise talented songwriters, suffer when this principle is ignored.

"NoBODy OF it is WORTH"

"If you FALL i will CATCH you i'll BE waiTIN'."

"SURE as KILimanJARo RISes like a MEMphis above the SERengetEEEEE."

(This last being my tweenage mis-hearing of "Olympus," and I am sticking to it.)

"serengeti" in this song is def one of the best examples of extremely tortured stresses

tell me about it, I'm singing these awkwardly stressed syllables in my community choir!

decent topic for a thread, 0wen P4llett had some otm points about the stress in the Get Lucky chorus in some column a while ago

I always thought lines like that were the lyrical equivalent of
https://plus.maths.org/content/sites/plus.maths.org/files/puzzle/2012/hammer.jpg

can anyone think of some examples of where that type of tortured syntax actually works?

i feel like it can be a useful and unexpected flourish if the lyrics actually work

can anyone think of some examples of where that type of tortured syntax actually works?

Yes at the end here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fxBZkC1vkw

the first one that came to my mind was xtc's "burning with optimism's flames," but since that comes at the end of the phrase during a musical rest, it's not the cleanest example.

the toiLET
starts flushING
Sets ME
Off aGAIN

"all the LONEly STARbuck's LOVers"

See pretty much any Stereolab song with English lyrics. Can be awkward, but I let it slide because ESL

The production on Jeff is like a blurry photograph. Still great

disagree, i love inappropriate syllabic emphasis on songs, makes them sound more musical

Guys don’t kid yourselves. Toto is in another league than journey. Though Steve Perry is all time in a way that no single personality in T is.

disagree, i love inappropriate syllabic emphasis on songs, makes them sound more musical

It gets your attention, which is why I think it's best used sparingly and not over and over like "unCONdiTIONalLY"

Eh weezer covered it

Did this get meme-ified? Because my 15 year old and his pals love it lately.

it's been a staple at classic hits radio for ages and probably gets played daily at most such stations now, some meme-y metal covers got a ton of views on youtube in the past year, it was the focal song of that 'playing in an empty shopping centre' video that inspired thinkpieces lol, + i guess the news about weezer fans demanding the band cover it eventually getting their wish?

i think i said this before but i strongly fear it's headed into "don't stop believin'" territory

(google trends seems to indicate steady increase in interest since summer of last year)

most pointless cover ever - note for note

it is kinda turning into a DSB tune but it doesn't get the white peeps turnt quite like DSB does

also Journey's own "Separate Ways" is turning into DSB almost

it definitely reached some sort of meme status last year, not really sure why, but the current wave of popularity is more comparable to smash mouth's all star than dsb

I will confirm that Weezer played this last night to a crowd of about 10,000 people (including me) and most of them fucking loved it and sang along with every word. I knew it was coming and knew pretty much how it would be, so I rolled my eyes and said "meh," but I will not begrudge the dumb fun pleasure felt by 9,999 drunk white middle-agers.

it definitely reached some sort of meme status last year, not really sure why, but the current wave of popularity is more comparable to smash mouth's all star than dsb

Well I do often credit the initial seeds of Africa's resurgence being that time 10 years ago, when I was in a car with Neil Cicierega during a midnight run to Walmart and we were all bobbing our heads to it on the radio.

if y'all haven't, you should read the past year or two of this thread. lots of good (imo) discussion re: why this song is either enduringly or newly popular, whether it's "good" or just a shitty meme, etc.

or at least i enjoyed the discussion. :)

most pointless cover ever - note for note

This would be a good thread in it's own right:
Defend the Indefensible: Note-for-Note Cover Versions

I often find myself liking these more than the original (Faith No More - Easy, for instance) even when I know I shouldn't.
So yeah, i'd probably be singing along with the 9,999 drink white middle-agers at the show when they played it.

Weezer's version of Rosanna was pretty fun too.

Cuomo also did an acoustic solo "Take on Me," which I don't think I enjoyed much but it seemed to serve as a nice communal moment.

I honest to god never used to mind this song - I'd never complain if I heard it on TV or radio. I'm fucking sick of hearing about it now, though.

total baconing

May fit into the meme-ification side of things, I guess... I did enjoy this though, it's impressively done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82nqsksBH7M

asshole millenial substitute DJ played this before my radio show yesterday, I wanted to kill him

Can someone summarize why this song is so popular/meme-ified at the moment? Much as I'd like to read the past year or two of this thread (as suggested above), I don't think I have the time...