TOTO "africa" classic or dud

It was never unfamiliar to me but tbf I don't remember it being THIS huge before the millennial revival: it has more than twice as many Spotify plays as "More Than a Feeling" or "Dream On", over 10 times as many as The Cars' "Just What I Needed". I would have pegged it as less big than at least the first two of those songs in the 90s. I probably heard "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" nearly as often.

i'm sure i heard it before this, but the first time i ever heard the song knowing it was "africa" by toto was in an episode of Chuck

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

The implications of your murder would be far reaching indeed - no Thriller as we know it, for one!

nor any silk degrees which would be a huge absence for me personally

imo you can't fuck with the band that played "lowdown"

well technically, we still could've had the even numbered thriller tracks, plus wanna be startin' somethin'

i think that's why "as we know it" was in there

right. anyway, sleeve please don't murder porcaro before he has the chance to play on Katy Lied

even that Chuck performance is passable because this song is unimpeachably perfect.

Can someone summarize why this song is so popular/meme-ified at the moment?

A. random churn of pop nostalgia
B. Weezer cover
C. incessant news cycle thrives on memes
D. all of the above

i remember the song being on a fast food commercial. towards the end of me regularly watching on air TV there were all these retro 80s commercials where they would play a one hit wonder like this and that would be the gag.

honestly it is just a well recorded song. the synth is my favorite part, the were futuristic robotic waterfall arpeggio after the 7 main notes doooo-dooo-dooo-do-do-d-dooooooo
dingdingindingdillidindingdingdiddlingdingdingdingding

weezer cover is the end result of it being memeified, it happened due to someone on twitter campaigning for them to cover it as a joke

my contribution to this meme was substantially completed in 2007 following my post-"Yacht Rock" flirtation with Toto fandom. it was never released, made no impact whatsoever, and the current version from 2010 has multiple passages where i got disgusted with corny/crowd-pleasing verse samples and ripped them out leaving nothing behind. take that, meme sheeple!!

xp along with their focus group to pick songs for their album, I wonder if Weezer makes any moves today that are not suggested by their fans

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.

― enochroot

the way mike patton says "eww" right before the solo sells the hell out of it

the version with the spoken-word intro is ass, though, the "songs to make love to" version is the fucking one

also, like, fuck it. can we just talk about popol vuh instead? they're really good.

there's popol that a hundred men or more could ever vuh

Everyone in my family except me went to see Sir Ringo Starr & his big band last year. They played "Africa". The keyboard player was from Toto which somehow made it a reasonable thing to do at a Ringo Starr gig.

"africa" by toto is a great song

― 21st savagery fox (m bison), Wednesday, May 9, 2018 7:34 PM (two months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree, "africa" by toto is a great song

I don't know where we landed on this, but my 2 cents:

Africa was popular when it came out in the 80s and is popular again now.

DSB never stopped being popular, it's a classic rock staple, although it did get an additional boost from Sopranos.

to counter sleeve

the extended mix of this song is indeed great, and annihilates the overplayed original

this song definitely inspired tornado wallace and possibly dawn richard 86, though that last one might be a stretch

but in fairness to sleeve i would never dj this myself unless at home with buddies, it is way too visible

dawn richard "86" is better than this song

No one else seems to have expressed this viewpoint, so...

Weezer cover is awesome and, in part, precisely because it's note for note (the other part being that "Africa" by Toto is a good song).

^ so much this
The Weezer version came on the local AAA radio station during my commute yesterday, and I had that exact thought sequence.
The underlying song is so good that a note-perfect cover version is exactly the right way to play it.

then why play it at all

Yeah, this feels a bit like when Shakin' Stevens shows up on early 80's TOTP and I just wonder "did they not have Elvis records back then?"

I get it, weezer trying to make money, but shit, this is bottom feeder behavior

then why play it at all
― calstars, Tuesday, July 31, 2018 8:45 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Probably because that twitter campaign to get them to cover it went viral, and they decided to be good sports about it.

Here's an interview with the Weezer bassist:

Q: Would you have believed it, if someone told you a few years ago that you're going to have your biggest hit of the decade, but the bad news is, it's going to be Toto's "Africa"?

A: It's a great story how it started, with a fan reaching out, and us tweeting back. Then we released (a cover of Toto's) "Rosanna," that really confused everyone. I guess we were just kind of doing it for us, because it was fun, having no idea it was such a good story.

Q: "Africa" is all over the internet. There's even dancing dog memes. What is it about that song?

A: Obviously, it's a world class hit song, so there's that, and it's just kind of globally relatable, somehow. I don't know, it's a massive song. Wasn't it in Season 2 of "Stranger Things"? It started with that, and a lot of younger people became aware of it.

Q: Does part of you wonder if you'll be tied to Toto's "Africa" forever, and have to play it all the time?

A: Yeah, I think Rivers said as much: "OK, now we get to play this for the rest of our career. Ready? Go." How can you be mad? The whole amphitheatre lights up and sings along. No matter what I think about a particular song, to see everyone have such a great time, you can't help but have fun.

No matter what I think about a particular song, to see everyone have such a great time, you can't help but have fun.
the opposite of a board description

Toto returns the favor

This is going to be a split 7" for RSD next year, isn't it?

I get it, weezer trying to make money, but shit, this is bottom feeder behavior

i know this band and this song are both big jokes to the cool kids, but Weezer is doing just fine without covering Africa. they might've done it to feel loved, but they didn't do it for the money.

we are living in hell

Can't wait for Toto to do "Tired of Having Sex"

we are living in hell

This is going to be a split 7" for RSD next year, isn't it?

i think Weezer already put out their own 7"

we are living in hell

nah. ive made my peace w Weezer, they are just old dudes trying to stay relevant at this point. going back and listening to their first ever hit, "Buddy Holly", that cool/uncool opening line "What's with these homies dissing my girl?", etc. kind of makes you realize they've always been like this, it's just the mid-late 90s was the right time right place, they were a younger band back then, and past the mask has been slipping ever since.

Their schtick was always so calculated; can't fault them for whatever measures they may be taking to shore things up in the present day. They're pure careerists (not that there's anything wrong with that, etc.).

nah. ive made my peace w Weezer, they are just old dudes trying to stay relevant at this point. going back and listening to their first ever hit, "Buddy Holly", that cool/uncool opening line "What's with these homies dissing my girl?", etc. kind of makes you realize they've always been like this, it's just the mid-late 90s was the right time right place, they were a younger band back then, and past the mask has been slipping ever since.

― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, July 31, 2018 1:17 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i had the opportunity through a work friend who went to school with Pat the drummer to be at a BBQ of Buffalo expats and talked to him a bunch, this was on the tour right as the Green Album came out (they were at a low ebb, playing clubs again), anyway, we talked about Dio and he said that even then he didn't care about the band and it was just a paycheck, so like almost 20 years ago they were phoning it in

I've never had any love for Weezer. I only went to their concert because HEY PIXIES, and because my wife is a 90s creature and loved Pinkerton.

But I will confirm what the bass guy sez: they played Africa and thousands of middle-aged white people sang along ecstatically.

IIRC Cuomo was like a conservatory guy, like Berklee or whatever? In his youth he thought that because he could shred inna technically demanding stylee, his band was better than other bands. The harder the music is to play, the more popular it should be. I commend his reversal on this very wrong point. However, I still don't like or need their music in my life.

I dislike "Africa" but it's better than anything on pinkerton

one thing these covers have proved without a doubt is that pat wilson is no porcoro

I dislike "Africa" but it's better than anything on pinkerton

― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Tuesday, July 31, 2018 3:25 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

p convenient that "africa" can be replaced w just about anything

lol

Cuomo was like a conservatory guy, like Berklee or whatever?

yes. there was a podcast somewhere where he demonstrated one of his formulas for writing a song, it was this spreadsheet with chord progressions and shit. just crapping out songs on auto-pilot.

Cuomo was a shredder that was hella into hair metal. He claimedche took lessons from Jim Matheos once too.

yes. there was a podcast somewhere where he demonstrated one of his formulas for writing a song, it was this spreadsheet with chord progressions and shit. just crapping out songs on auto-pilot.

C'mon, guys... if Devo did this, they'd be hailed as geniuses!

dyl, no question the dawn song is better yeah

I honestly can't remember a time when I didn't think Weezer were phoning it in and yes that includes their first album

I heard GG Allin crapped out some masterpieces in his day.

Ask a chef though, if your masterpiece goes right into someone's mouth you don't get proper recognition

Touché

speaking of resurgences in popularity, found this quote at the top of the wiki article on "My Baby Just Cares for Me":

A stylized version of the song by Nina Simone,[2] recorded in 1958, was a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom after it was used in a 1987 perfume commercial and resulted in a renaissance for Simone.[3]

there should be a list of artists that were for a long time criminally overlooked but who are now so canonized that it's hard to imagine they were ever missing from the canon