OT: Toto's best song, Africa or Rosanna?
Ok. I've been in some serious debate with my close friends regarding the best Toto song. While I think Africa is a fantastic song, I'm squarely in the camp that Rosanna is better. I get that these are up to opinion, but I'm getting some serious push back from my friends who think Africa is clearly better. One friend goes so far as to say, "there are two people in this world: one who likes Africa, and one who likes Rosanna"
My general thought is that even though these two songs are off the same Toto album (Toto IV), they are vastly different in style and meaning. In my opinion, Rosanna sticks with Toto's roots as a progressive rock group that uses varying and unique degrees of tones and stanzas. For Africa, they simply injected a pop sensibility to the song that was meant to appeal to a wider range of audiences, and worked. Nothing wrong with that, but I just better like the basis in progressive rock that is true to song Rosanna, while Africa comes off as a "sell-out" to make money.
MgoBlog. What say you?
I liked their tribute to Barbara Feldon.
I get a feeling you are suiting up while reading off this post to one of your coworkers. He has a better font on his business card and its about to get ugly.
Flying Monkeys>>>>Toto
Hold the line.
Love isn't always on time.
Hold the line...
It's not in the way that you hold me
No, I'm sorry, this answer is incorrect. The two correct answers were either "love isn't always on time" or "whoa whoa whoaaaa."
this is true - I don't complete the couplet. But I really was trying to urge us all into the verse vs. the refrain. But I recognize that my multi-level failure remains a stain of shame
It's not in the way you say you care.
Well maybe love should just get its ass in gear and stick to the schedule.
It's this all day long and it's not even close. Those two songs the OP mentions are straight pop garbage.
Rosanna is by no means pop. Africa is though.
You like Huey Lewis and the News?
Their early work was a little too new wave for my taste. But when Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor.
In '87, Huey released Fore!, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "Hip To Be Square". A song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of trends. It's also a personal statement about the band itself.
Don’t bash my head in but I’ve been listening to the Huey Lewis station on amazon music. True story. I have pics to prove.
What does Paul Allen think of the song though?
came on to make this exact post
Did you know that Whitney Houston's debut LP, called simply "Whitney Houston," had four No. 1 singles on it?
Hey Paul!
Huge Huey fan. Saw him a couple years ago at House of Blues and couldn't stop smiling and singing along for every song.
Sports was the first cassette I ever bought in 1986 and although my tastes have migrated a bit since then, I always appreciated that he remained a low key and pretty cool guy you’d like to have a proverbial beer with. It sucks that his hearing has eroded to where he can’t really sing anymore.
Well done
whoa whoa whoa
they were my first concert and i've been wearing this as a badge of nerd pride all these years and now i find out everyone else thinks they're cool too?
i really misjudged my life.
I like Toto's version of While my Guitar Gently Weeps that was done in an Amsterdam concert in 2011 and became part of a Blu-Ray. Steve Lukather is a very good guitarist. For anyone curious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt94nXinWqs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8rVI7AMKiY
Good but nowhere near Harrison/Ringo with Eric Clapton.
Nah...Clapton is really good playing blues and rock-blues but I like Lukather’s guitar better in THIS song. Lukather’s fingers are flying in that song.
Prince with Tom Petty and Steve Winwood do a really good version of the song too.
I'll see you and raise you one Prince:
The last three minutes, with Prince's guitar weeping profusely, is a definite "must see and hear" if there ever was one!
Lukather is right up there with Tufnel. In fact, the first person I ever heard extolling the virtues of Lukather was one Nigel Tufnel.
My Guitar Gently Weeps is one of the precious few songs from the Beatles that I actually really enjoy... A lot of good music from them, but very few that I really like.
But Stevie Ray Vaughn's version is absolute fire!
None of above.
Hold the Line is their best song by far.
Hold the Line is their best song.
Africa. And the recent remake was sad
I hope you're not referring to the Weird Al/Wheezer cover. That one is epic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH9FyLsfDzw
This is a cool , metal cover of Africa, from a guy named Leo Moracchioli . He does many other cover songs , he plays all the instruments .
Epic fail. I like Weezer and Weird Al, but their cover is so boring
deleted; posted to wrong comment. Love Weird Al.
Your comments are spot on en totale, in my opinion.
Africa. Hands down
House Mother agrees with FauxMo...mark your calendars.
I'm with the clown. Africa.
Rosanna. If nothing else, for Jeff Porcaro's modified Purdy Shuffle beat. So good.
If anyone is interested, check out Rick Beato's analysis of the tune, you'll get to hear a bunch of the isolated individual tracks.
He's got a whole series of these, they're excellent.
I just started watching Rick Beato's channel. It's a great channel. Like him, I play guitar, so I naturally gravitate towards his analysis because it is somewhat guitar/rock focused.
Came here to say the same about Rosanna. That drum chart is funky.
Are you kidding me? Africa was so good they named a whole continent after it.
While Roseanna will meet you all the way.....that song does not lend itself to this
Africa.
Africa
africa, even though the video makes no sense whatsoever.
Agreed on the video. They could have done much better than what they did.