FEATURE:
Groovelines
Toto - Africa
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A song that went to number one…
PHOTO CREDIT: Scott Richie
in the U.S., and was a hit around the world, Toto’s Africa is perhaps the best-known song from the group. Taken from the Los Angeles band’s fourth (and best) album, Toto IV, Africa closes the album. There is some brilliant sequencing on that album. Opening with another huge hit, Rosanna, we work our way to Africa. Released in the U.S. through Columbia Records in October 1982, it was Toto IV’s third single overall and second in Europe. Written by band members David Paich and Jeff Porcaro, Africa became Toto’s only Billboard number one. It has endured and taken on a life of its own. At this time (27th February), it has amassed 1,371,925,932 streams on Spotify and over 846 million views on YouTube! It is this colossus that has grown and grown. I want to combine a couple of features about this massive track. Classic Rock wrote a feature on Africa at the end of last year. It was a song that David Paich suggested to the band, and they sort of indulged him. Just about fitting to the end of Toto IV, who knows what would have been if the band had let the song get away:
“Travel broadens the mind. But vicarious travel can bless you with a hit song that's eternal. Or at least one that's still in heavy rotation forty years on.
That's the message behind one of rock's most unexpected long-term success stories, that of Toto's lovable, but cheesy 1983 single, Africa.
Recalling the initial inspiration for what he calls his “little oddball song,” keyboardist David Paich told The Guardian(opens in new tab), “As a kid, I'd always been fascinated by Africa. I loved movies about Dr. Livingstone and missionaries. I went to an all-boys Catholic school and a lot of the teachers had done missionary work in Africa. They told me how they would bless the villagers, their Bibles, their books, their crops and when it rained, they'd bless the rain. That's where the hook line – 'I bless the rains down in Africa' - came from.”
It was the early '80s TV commercials for UNICEF, showing impoverished African children, that put Paich back in the frame of mind to write about his fascination for the Mother Continent. His songwriting instincts knew that a mere travelogue wouldn't be enough. So he added the romantic drama of an old flame into the mix.
“My teachers had said that loneliness and celibacy were the hardest things about life out there,” Paich said. “Some of them never made it into the priesthood because they needed companionship. So I wrote about a person flying in to meet a lonely missionary. It's a romanticised love story about Africa, based on how I'd always imagined it.”
For musical colour, Paich used his Yamaha synthesiser to replicate a kalimba, a metal-and-wood thumb piano that's indigenous to Zimbabwe. Acting as a kind of imprint for all things African, it's the sound behind the catchy, percussive riff in the intro and turnarounds. “It was a fertile time to make music with new sounds, and that kind of defined the song,” Paich said.
Despite feeling that his new tune was touched by magic and God, Paich initially found that most of his bandmates didn't share his enthusiasm. He told Grantland(opens in new tab), “When someone writes a song that doesn't really fit into the Toto mold, the joke is, everybody says, 'Save that for your solo album.' So the band kind of indulged me and let me start working on this track for it. This one barely made it; it just got on the end of the album. It's the one that didn't get away.”
Toto's late drum wizard Jeff Porcaro saw the song's potential and responded to the groove. Inspired by his memories of hearing the “trance-inducing” beats of African pavilion drummers at the 1964 World's Fair, and National Geographic TV specials, Porcaro constructed an intricate network of drums, congas and, with his help from his jazz musician dad Joe, tape loops consisting of bottle caps and marimbas. That attention to percussive detail earned Porcaro a co-writing credit on the song.
Africa was released in October 1982, as the third single from Toto IV, accompanied by a video that almost certainly wouldn't get past the storyboard stage today. Four months later, it was number one in the U.S. and Canada (it rose to #3 in the U.K., and made the Top 10 in several other countries). A staple of oldies radio for many years, the song began its pop culture resurgence in the early 2000s, when it was included in the video game for Grand Theft Auto, then started popping up in TV shows like Family Guy, Chuck and South Park”.
I want to finish with an article from Stereogum that actually looks inside Africa and breaks down its composition and vocal. Focusing on the anatomy of the song gives you greater insight into a classic. There are a few parts of the feature that I wanted to bring in and highlight:
“In 1982, Los Angeles-based supergroup Toto released their 4th studio album, fittingly named Toto IV. This month marks the 40th anniversary of the US release of the second single off the album, and the band’s best-known song, “Africa.” It’s a tune widely loved for its smooth melody and indelible hooks, but also variously reviled—for factors usually having nothing to do with music. In recent years, this pop jam has managed to reach mega-meme status, and at present it is approaching 1.3 billion streams on Spotify (making it one of the most played songs of the 20th Century). In fact, today the song may be more popular than it was in 1983 when it hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. For all the cultural baggage it carries, “Africa” is a truly innovative, masterfully crafted piece of music (which is saying something given that it’s not even the best song on the album!). Yet we so often see the song reduced to droll memes, or dismissed simply as a superficially dramatic (albeit catchy) pop tune. As famous as the song has become, it seems most people really don’t appreciate the brilliance of its musical architecture. But make no mistake: It is brilliant. Let’s check it out.
What’s In A Pocket?
Returning to the drums: Jeff Porcaro, who died tragically in 1992, had an uncanny ability to create grooves that feel assertive, yet laid back. You could spend years studying the thousands of records he played on to try to crack the code — and I’ve tried. A crucial component of Jeff’s pocket groove involves the way he throttled the tempo from moment to moment within a given bar of music, while keeping a steady pulse across the bar line.
When a drummer “pushes,” it means they’re playing slightly ahead to drive the pulse forward. “Pulling” means they’re playing ever so slightly behind, or late, to build tension. (Note: This is not exactly the same as “rushing” and “dragging,” which relate to increasing or decreasing the overall tempo — usually in an undesirable way.) Famously, Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones tended to play his kick drum slightly ahead (pushing), while his snare backbeat was slightly behind (pulling), resulting in a confident groove with an incredibly slinky feel. Every drummer has a signature time feel — a tendency — that’s as distinctive to them as the shape of their face. There’s no mistaking John Bonham’s signature time feel for James Gadson’s, or Bernard Purdie’s time feel for Stewart Copeland’s. Josh Freese, Sheila E., Ringo Starr, Elvin Jones… they’re each instantly recognizable by their respective time feels — i.e., by where they choose to place beats, either slightly ahead, or slightly behind, or right on top.
One of Jeff Porcaro’s hallmarks was the time accuracy with which he chose to place notes during his fills. In Steely Dan’s “Night By Night” (off of Pretzel Logic) Jeff played 32nd notes in early parts of his fills slightly ahead of the beat (pushing), which infuses energy into the phrase, and then he slowed down slightly at the middle of each phrase (pulling), which instills a sense of weightiness (sometimes pushing again at the end). In Toto’s “Africa,” he used the inverse approach: In the early part of a given measure, he placed notes much later than you might expect, and then he made up time just before landing exactly on the downbeat.
Harmonized Melody
The part of the song most people remember is the bit where David Paich blesses the rains down in Africa. Sure, the lyrics are a little goofy (more on that later), but the interweaving vocals make for a gorgeous hook. Paich enlisted main Toto vocalist Bobby Kimball (high vocal), Timothy B. Schmit (probably best known for playing bass with the Eagles), and Steve Lukather (Toto co-founder, legendary guitarist, and musician par excellence) to stack the vocals with him in the chorus.
In big-band jazz arranging, one of the central features is the “soli” (plural for “solo”). Most often, you’ll hear a soli in the saxophone section, with the 1st alto sax playing the melody and the four other saxes (2nd alto, 1st tenor, 2nd tenor, and baritone) filling out the chord underneath, all moving together in “block voicing.” It’s an unmistakable, magnificent sound”.
An incredible song that must rank alongside the all-time best, there is something infectious and timeless about Africa. Even though it came out in June 1982, it has found generations of new fans. Over forty years since its release, there is no sign of people forgetting this track! So instantly recognisable and singalong, Africa popped into my head recently, and I realised I have not covered it for Groovelines. A band that are perhaps defined by a few songs, Toto are worth exploring in more depth and detail. There is no doubting Africa is their masterpiece and a fan favourite. As soon as that chorus kicks in…
YOU can hear why!