Out of Africa and into Cork's Live at the Marquee
Toto will play their classic mega-hit, and plenty more hits from their impressive repertoire, at the Marquee in Cork, writes .
A countdown of the greatest rock songs of all time must of course include Africa by Toto. Not only does the 1982 soft-pop masterpiece display boundary-breaking chutzpah with lyrics that rhyme “company” and “Serengeti”. With its monsoon of synths and a cloud-bumping chorus, Africa is also the perfect synthesis of art and cheese, vision and kitsch, pop and profundity.
Once regarded as a guilty pleasure, in recent years the near five-minute odyssey has correctly assumed its place in the pantheon of rock classics. It is adored by hipsters and old school rockers alike. And, should you care to make the trip, it is to be heard blasting in perpetuity in Namibia’s Namib desert in a sound installation by artist by Max Siedentopf (he “wanted to pay… the ultimate homage and physically exhibit ‘Africa’ in Africa”).
Such is Africa’s exalted status today that the assumption is that it came together in a thunderclap of inspiration. Toto were in fact torn about the track, which they had hurriedly tacked on towards the end of the tempestuous 1981 recording sessions for their Toto IV album, explains the band’s Steve Porcaro.
“At the time, let’s be honest, I didn’t really like the song,” says the keyboard player and vocalist, who co-wrote ‘Africa’ with bandmate David Paich and is thus responsible for that famous synth twinkle at the start of the song. “But I didn’t let my personal feelings stop me from putting all I had into it.”
HANDS ON
Toto will play Africa and all of their other hits when they return to Ireland for a date at Cork’s Live at the Marquee on June 15. One song less likely to feature is Porcaro’s ‘Human Nature’, a huge hit for Michael Jackson, and composed as the group were still in the studio applying the final touches to Africa.
He’d written ‘Human Nature’ with Toto in mind. It was inspired by his daughter who had come home crying from school when a boy pushed her off a slide. Porcaro sat her down and explained that the boy’s aggression was just “human nature”. Sadly, the rest of the group were lukewarm on it. Then an LA producer of Porcaro’s acquaintance heard a demo and claimed ‘Human Nature’ for an LP he was working on – Thriller.
“I wrote it for the band,” Porcaro remembers. “They weren’t thrilled about it. Quincy Jones heard it by accident. A lot of my songs are all about atmosphere. That’s what attracted Quincy — the vibe.”
Porcaro shortly afterwards found himself behind mixing desk with Jones and Jackson.
“He [Jackson] always had a lot of clout in the studio,” Porcaro recollects. “He was very hands on. He and Quincy would bump heads. Michael knew what he wanted. He wanted to take things home and work on them. Quincy didn’t do that sort of thing. He liked to have control over everything. Thriller was the perfect storm. Just as Toto Iv was the perfect storm.”
Toto were very the opposite of a scrappy rock band. The original line-up had cut their teeth as LA studio players, contributing to records by Steely Dan, Sonny and Cher and others. One rumour is that Toto came from the Latin “In Toto” — referring to the many hit albums the musicians had played on.
But despite their virtuosity the journey to Toto IV and Africa (and the LP’s other big hit, Rosanna) wasn’t straightforward. The band had burst from the traps with a 1978 debut that contained smashes ‘Hold the Line’ and ‘I’ll Supply The Love’. But, in the heyday of punk, their ornate studio rock fell from favour and the two records that followed, Hydra and Turn Back, flopped.
The pressure was thus on — the chances of being dropped by their label, Columbia, very real — as they convened in early 1981 at Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, where Prince recorded Purple Rain and the Rolling Stones Exile On Main Street. Toto IV would either be the band’s biggest hit – or their swan-song.
“We were totally up against the wall,” recalls Porcaro of the Toto IV sessions. “The first thing we did was ‘Rosanna’. We felt very confident about that – about the musicianship, the hooks. But our record company management didn’t like ‘Rosanna’. They didn’t think it was a single. And then it became a hit right out of the box. It went to number two which is respectable.”
ELDER STATESMEN
Toto are today correctly feted as soft-rock elder statesman. Late last year put out a remastered box set of their entire catalogue (13 studio records across 17 vinyl LPs). They also had a viral internet moment when the band Weezer covered ‘Africa’ and ‘Rosanna’. By way of returning the compliment, Toto recorded a version Weezer’s ‘Hash Pipe’.
“A fan on the internet asked Weezer to do Africa,” recalls Porcaro. “In return they did ‘Rosanna’. But the fan kept at it so they did Africa. It was such a big deal. I was sitting at home when the idea [of covering ‘Hash Pipe’] popped into my head. “
Toto IV is justly perceived as a classic. Yet when he looks back Porcaro isn’t proud so much as regretful that Toto didn’t go on to match that album’s achievements. Instead, they temporarily changed lead singers and in 1984 put out another under-achieving LP, Isolation. That isn’t how it should have been.
“For someone like myself I can’t help but reflect on the lost opportunities,” he says. “We should have done three more like that — there should be three more albums out in the world like Toto IV. We were running on all cylinders — the chemistry was just right. But chemistry can be a very delicate thing in a band and it can get out of balance.
“Perhaps one person gets too much clout — or someone else doesn’t get enough clout. Or there’s a new management at the record company — a guy who was never a Toto fan and preferred Elvis Costello. You never know what a band is dealing with behind the scenes.”
