TOTO "africa" classic or dud

Toto sucked but Africa is cool. it just needs to be remade by Devin Townsend

why is Kilimanjaro, which actually (I assume) rises above the Serengeti, being compared to Olympus, which does not?

Because it's a figurative, rather than a literal comparison: Kilimanjaro has such majesty that the author feels that it too could be a home to the gods. Still, it's a poorly constructed couplet. Because the Kilimajaro/Olympus analogy is nestled inside an emphatic statement of fact (Kilimanjaro overlooks the Serengeti), the casual listener can assume that the author's actual intent is to claim irrefutable similarities between Kilimanjaro and Olympus.

yeah, 'rises' is the wrong word to hang the comparison on really

also, this record is vile.

it's weird that no one has mentioned the harmonies on the word "africa" in the chorus, which as far as i can tell is the stroke of genius that lifts this song clear of all the other power ballad rabble it was contending with at the time, and the one thing that is really truly great about it.

man the drumming guy from stormy's choir video is one funky wite boy.

Classic, always. One of my v v favorite escapist singles from middle school.

"Solitary company" = a paradoxical desire. Wanting to be alone and in company at the same time. C'mon ppl you've felt this.

Tracer is OTM. I saw this done by some 20-man a cappela choir and it was fucking brilliant. This song is made for that shit.

Yeah it's cool how the backing harmony keeps insisting on that same half-tone interval while the lead does other things.

The lyrics are the worst kind of poesy. Too many syllables. They "sing' horribly. Perhaps the worst/best lines (it's hard to choose) are--

"I know I must do what's right / As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti"

That said, the hooks are kind of undeniable.

Classic. I really like the synth hooks.

there is some startrekman shit all over the wiki article if you so desire.

C

the key of dreams version w/ the vocoder is super-ace, too!!

― max, Thursday, December 20, 2007 6:24 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yep

there is some Idjut Boys-related remix of this as well

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vcA6xwHJPY

^^ that one sleeve?

yes, thanks to you on the late Leonardo thread!

I would like to add to the catalog of mishearings on the chorus: I always thought it was "I *miss* the rains down in Africa"

that edit is actually an edit of this i think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pSc2aNdWvM

Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

This line has always bothered me. Beyond that, probably Toto's best song, for whatever that's worth.

http://wayneandwax.com/?p=6273

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/totos-africa-by-ernest-hemingway

http://youtu.be/yjbpwlqp5Qw

i find it so weird that a guy (porcaro) capable of doing the amazing drum part on MJ's "rock with you" is in his own band and chooses to make music like "africa" (and this is a highlight in the Toto discography, of course).

?

Classic, of course!

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/toto-bassist-mike-porcaro-dead-at-59-20150315

I didn't know he had ALS. Rest in peace, sir.

this is one of the only songs that consistently shows up on my brother's playlists that aren't by young thug or travis scott

Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus?! I thought it was "rises like a lepress." Like, a female leopard.

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

In my head it was always "rises like a Memphis above the Serengeti," which makes no sense whatsoever.

I've always thought that verse specifically to be so convoluted and awkward in syntax that I could never figure out why they never gave it another pass. But hey, it was a hit, so what do I know. Still:

The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become

That's as head-scratcher wacky as "We Built This City," or, hmm:

And now it's all right, it's okay
And you may look the other way
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man

yeah kilimamjaro rising like another *much smaller* mountain has always been lol to me

olympus is like half the size!

I thought it was riding like an empress but I like lepress much better

Olympus is, at least, a mountain that does in fact rise above its surrounding plain. As Kilimanjaro rises above its surrounding plain.

This is tangential because synth flute = classic.

Also a female leopard is a leopardess.

A lepress would be a female leper.

I always thought it was "rises like an empress". Olympus sucks. Song ruined.

Imagine a rising lepress, body parts corroded and raining down on the unfortunate residents of the Serengeti

Never really noticed the oxymoronic "solitary company."

Wish I could find a clip of Zoey Deschanel and Nelson Franklin singing "Africa" on New Girl as a campfire singalong from this season.

https://sizemattersscience.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/mountains.png

on top of everything that has been mentioned, I just realized that "above the Serengeti" is an ambiguous modifier

the phrasing to make it fit is hilarious

above the seeeeeerengetiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

sure as Kiliman-jair-oooooooo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwJWPz1K-UY

^hint, Affiance - starting the verse up an octave tends to diminish the impact of the chorus

I remember when were teens, we always thought the chorus was "I guess the rain's down in Africa", I guess because it sounds a lot more natural than "I bless the rains". But as pointed out, this song is hardly the Kilimanjaro of naturalistic lyrics...

The rain in African stays mainly in the plafrica

I hear "lepress" too. Right or wrong, I love the image of a sort of elegant female leper that it evokes.

I get to sing the chorus of this song in a cover band bc I'm the one who can sing high. It's fun to sing. I'd still like to know why it's "Gonna take some time to do the things we never HAD" the fuck?

lol