Poll of the Day > Africa by Toto is a bad song.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Not really, but I don't understand its recent resurgence in popularity and I'm tired of hearing it.
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No, you were right the first time. It fucking blows.
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Go directly to jail
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ301QEoo9Y" data-time="
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Aged millennials are remembering this misspent youth playing Vice City, and Gen Z are trying to relate to a bad song.
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It's kind of... I don't know the word for it. Corny/cheesy? Not quite, but something like that. Like it's not a genuinely terrible song but it's almost perfectly in-between where I can't tell if people like it legitimately or it's an ironic/guilty pleasure type of thing

Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

Aged millennials are remembering this misspent youth playing Vice City, and Gen Z are trying to relate to a bad song.

It's the power ballad that was playing while a lot of us were being made.

minervo posted...

Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

Aged millennials are remembering this misspent youth playing Vice City, and Gen Z are trying to relate to a bad song.

It's the power ballad that was playing while a lot of us were being made.

Well considering
I was raised during the 80's aand listened to it on the radio during that time you are possibly right.
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minervo posted...

Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

Aged millennials are remembering this misspent youth playing Vice City, and Gen Z are trying to relate to a bad song.

It's the power ballad that was playing while a lot of us were being made.

Imagine being conceived to Toto? How dreadful. At least get conceived to Roxy Music.
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Yeah why is it becoming so popular again? The opening of the song is legit good tho. I can't describe it, there's just such an energy to it
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It's enjoyable. Not everything has to be great.
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Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

Imagine being conceived to Toto? How dreadful. At least get conceived to Roxy Music.

Why would you want to trade down to a worse band?


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My local station is playing the Weezer cover of it a ton lately. I dont mind it but I come across it more now than I do current top 40 stuff lol
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Its a decent song kinda catchy. I dont hate it but like you i dont get it

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

Imagine being conceived to Toto? How dreadful. At least get conceived to Roxy Music.

Why would you want to trade down to a worse band?

You can't get much worse then a band named after the dog from The Wizard of Oz.
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fucking christ why won't it stop showing up on my youtube suggested shit.

@EvilMegas
@UltraIchi
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The guitarist in Toto is incredibly talented.

Mead posted...

Go directly to jail

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The real question is why do some people think he says "I miss the rains" when it sounds nothing like that?

Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

You can't get much worse then a band named after the dog from The Wizard of Oz.

And yet you managed to suggest one, so congrats!


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SkynyrdRocker posted...

The real question is why do some people think he says "I miss the rains" when it sounds nothing like that?

probably cause theyre atheist
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I like the original one better than the Weezer cover. That being said, I genuinely like it, but its kind of an embarrassing song to listen to today, especially with the surge in popularity. Its on my personal list of songs that get white people turnt up.
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I've heard it too much now and it annoys me. I used to really like the song.
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I like the original but that Weezer version is awful.
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agree with topic
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I don't get it either. It's a mediocre 80's power ballad, there's dozens of them, if not hundreds. Yet people act like it's some amazing work of songwriting?
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yeah i don't really. get it eirI BLESS THE RAAAAAINS DOWN IN AAAAAFRICAAAA
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I don't understand the point of the cover, that song already exists and they have no reason to recreate it in its same form. I get playing it at a concert but not recording a 1 for 1 recreation

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

You can't get much worse then a band named after the dog from The Wizard of Oz.

And yet you managed to suggest one, so congrats!

Nah.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfzV5Qe9rS4&vl=en
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I've always personally hated it. Very cheesy. I think I got sick of it when it was sampled in a big radio hit back around 2010. Was it by K'Naan? It's not an objectively awful song, just my opinion. It really displays Weezer's lack of creative force these days, covering an oldie in such a straightforward way. I appreciate when a band gets creative with a cover, the way CAKE might.

I mean, props if you like it. I'm just not a big fan - same with other 80s anthems like "Don't Stop Believing".
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Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

Aged millennials are remembering this misspent youth playing Vice City, and Gen Z are trying to relate to a bad song.

When I think of Vice City I think more of Flock of Seagulls than Toto, but thats just me.
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Far-Queue posted...

I like the original but that Weezer version is awful.

I listened to the cover a while back and was disappointed that they didnt bother to deviate from the original song. Weezer did the same thing with Paranoid Android but at least that is a good track to begin with.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr9h8mamAWM" data-time="

Weezer covering songs without "weezering" them is their thing.
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Hold the Line is better.
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jramirez23 posted...

I like the original one better than the Weezer cover. That being said, I genuinely like it, but its kind of an embarrassing song to listen to today, especially with the surge in popularity. Its on my personal list of songs that get white people turnt up.

Lol post the playlist.

ReturnOfFa posted...

I appreciate when a band gets creative with a cover

Same. Sometimes even a stripped down, simplified cover can completely transform a song. Like Gary Jules Mad World or Ryan Adam's Wonderwall.

On the opposite end, I love a lot of Mike Patton's covers. Like the one he did with Fantmas for the Marc Bolan tribute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INzvwgEaupo" data-time="
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Far-Queue posted...

ReturnOfFa posted...

I appreciate when a band gets creative with a cover

Same. Sometimes even a stripped down, simplified cover can completely transform a song. Like Gary Jules Mad World or Ryan Adam's Wonderwall.

On the opposite end, I love a lot of Mike Patton's covers. Like the one he did with Fantmas for the Marc Bolan tribute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INzvwgEaupo" data-time="

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP5XtNBw_Vk" data-time="

Do a concert with a bunch of noise, and finish with a 80s hit.
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Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

Far-Queue posted...

ReturnOfFa posted...

I appreciate when a band gets creative with a cover

Same. Sometimes even a stripped down, simplified cover can completely transform a song. Like Gary Jules Mad World or Ryan Adam's Wonderwall.

On the opposite end, I love a lot of Mike Patton's covers. Like the one he did with Fantmas for the Marc Bolan tribute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INzvwgEaupo" data-time="

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP5XtNBw_Vk" data-time="

Do a concert with a bunch of noise, and finish with a 80s hit.

Thank you guys, I already loved the Mr. Bungle - Working For the Weekend cover, and hadn't heard the other song posted! That's the thing...I can appreciate direct covers in certain circumstances.

Like this one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKMVzmoYnLU" data-time="
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It's honestly a pretty great well written song but the internet is ruining it

Since we're on the topic of covers now, here's Postmodern Jukebox. They do modern pop (and sometimes other stuff) songs in classic styles such as jazz. I like it.

https://www.youtube.com/user/ScottBradleeLovesYa/videos
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SkynyrdRocker posted...

The real question is why do some people think he says "I miss the rains" when it sounds nothing like that?

Isn't it "I left my brains down in Africa"?

I thought it was, "I huffed some paint"

I've led some raids down in Africa.
Spread some AIDS down in Africa
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I just found there is a meme about Toto from Oz, and this song

https://i.imgflip.com/1abacy.jpg

https://i.imgflip.com/207v1u.jpg

https://imgur.com/xlPpb7B

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSZoVN-rNrY35x0UvVqz1u6VEvVuevW0hT2XA800ONXF3Ra-MryTQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N9OM1nxdYc" data-time="
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Weezer's cover was 100 times better

It doesn't help that family guy helped repopularize it
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Chewster posted...

It's kind of... I don't know the word for it. Corny/cheesy? Not quite, but something like that. Like it's not a genuinely terrible song but it's almost perfectly in-between where I can't tell if people like it legitimately or it's an ironic/guilty pleasure type of thing

Toto was a a pop-rock group conceived solely as an outlet for the (extremely talented) musicians that formed it by writing the same kind of corny music they were used to playing as a living. So that's not far off. Especially since they did actively want to make their own name for themselves instead of standing on their portfolios working in the industry, and pop is an easy way to do that since you can throw literally anything into it (Toto is supposedly a reference to their eclectic session work -- "in toto").

Jeff, Paich and to a lesser extent Lukather are all amazing in terms of both technical ability and musicianship (i.e. an "ear" for it). No matter what I think of of their lame writing, that will always be true. I always thought "Africa" itself is was exactly the kind of dumbed-down tune fishing for easy radio play via it's angle --supposedly ethnic or whatever-- but that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable. Its hook is very powerful and that's literally all you need for a pop song. It's just when compare it to other their other hits like say, "Hold the Line," you can see those other examples have more in common with their contemporary acts (Journey, Foreigner, Boston, although the latter 2 are more rock oriented). And as a drummer, the song is disappointing unless Simon Phillips was playing it live, because Jeff (and Lenny) specifically toned it down for "Africa" despite being the beast he was.

Dunno about the millennial resurgence in its popularity though. "Rosanna" is better anyway, so I don't know why latch onto "Africa." Blame the usual suspects, the cancerous meme culture of children on the internet?

DrunkCaveman posted...

I don't understand the point of the cover, that song already exists and they have no reason to recreate it in its same form. I get playing it at a concert but not recording a 1 for 1 recreation

because Weezer's fanbase asked them to? Or was that Rosanna? Personally don't like it, but I'm not a fan of "covers" that make the song quite different either. That's called an alternate rendition. They (sometimes) aren't bad but they aren't one and the same. Smooth Criminal by MJ and AAF have two completely different appeals and might as well be completely different compositions, for example. Look at how badly Sheryl Crow mangled GnR's "Sweet Child o' Mine," etc. Some people should be shot for what they do to other group's hits. And she earned a grammy for that shit.
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Speaking as someone who doesn't really care for music, never understands lyrics unless they are super clearly articulated (all I know about this song's lyrics is that the word "Africa" is in there), and only really cares about a catchy tune/melody/beat:

It's alright.