Understatement of the year. This song went multi-platinum in 6 countries. US 8x, UK 4x, Italy 2x, Denmark 2x, Australia 12x. Lyrically, the song concerns a man torn between staying in Africa, a continent he is enamored with, and travelling to stay with a girl he is seeing back home. Part of the soundtrack of my youth. Freshman year in HS - 1981 or 1982.
Back in the day this song was so popular on the continent of Africa that at least three (Namibia, Ghana, and Senegal) were seriously considering making this song their national anthem. As it is, the song is currently playing, 24/7/365 at a special monument set up by Namibian artist Max Siedentopf, He used solar batteries to power an entire installation, which consists of plinths supporting six speakers attached to a single MP3 player that contains one track: Toto’s “Africa.”. Every four months, a team of repairmen go to the monument to clean it and replace anything that has been knocked over or has broken. The song has been playing continuously since the monument was set up in 2017 and if things go to plan, will be playing 24/7/365 for the rest of eternity.
Wait? There was someone on the planet that hadn't heard this song!? I'm shook. That dude with the epic beard on the bass guitar toured with Phil Collins for years. I see you've reacted to "in the air tonight" but you HAVE to check out the live version, you'll see epic beard bass dude and you will also be absolutely blown away by the performance! Another African themed song whose lyrics are great is the artist deadmau5 and his song "The Veldt".
Leland Sklar has a yt channel, kind of a tour diary mixed with anecdotes about musicians he accompanied, be it on tour or in record studios. Highly recommended!
Many of the musicians in the original Toto line up also played on Thriller by Michael Jackson and Steve Porcaro, one of the original keyboard players also wrote the song "Human Nature". They were studio musicians for many different artists like Steely Dan and Boz Scaggs. Original drummer Jeff Porcaro died in 1992 and one of the last albums he played on was "On every street" by Dire Straits. The members of Toto played on a total of more than 500 albums. One of their singers in the 80's was Joseph Williams who is the son of movie composer John Williams(Star Wars, E.T., Indiana Jones, Close encounters of the third kind and many more)
Toto is an amazing group made up of studio musicians. The original line up Steve Lukather, Jeff Parcaro, back in 1977 they put the band together have played on so many songs in the late 70 and through the 80s Steely Dan, Seals and Croft.. Jeff has since passed away but their songs still send chills down your spine specially live! Yep a band worthy of a live performance. Steve Lukather still fronts the band when they get together and is an amazing guitarist. "Till The End", "Rosanna", "Hold The Line", Pamala", "Georgy Porgy" and so many more Please react to Till the end next , the original video for that back in 1986 has a young chirographer named Paula Abdul in the video. Please stay safe and much love your way. Peace and older fan lol
Africa" is a song by American rock band Toto, appearing as the tenth and final track on their fourth studio album Toto IV (1982). It was released as a single in the US through Columbia Records in October 1982, the album's third single overall and second in Europe. The song was written by band members David Paich and Jeff Porcaro, produced by the band, and mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Elliot Scheiner. -Per Wikipedia This is one of my favorite songs from my childhood ❤
This is a textbook perfect reaction video. This is why I watch them. You like or even possibly love something. Someone else experiences the same thing and also likes/loves it. This was my serotonin hit for the day! Please tell me that you re-watched this on full blast immediately after recording this!
@jpace4608 me too in Stockton, CA. I completely agree with your assessment. Journey was too overproduced in a smaller indoor venue, causing too much distortion.
Really nice to witness your enjoyment,this song and "Hold the Line" were put of my growing up years,still today the music pricks up my ears,they're awesome.👍
This song was absolutely huge on the charts when it came out. Again, kind of shocked you hadn't heard it before. Maybe you were too young to have heard it on the radio, but it's been in a ton movie soundtracks. That lead vocalist sounds a bit off, maybe not the original vocalist. If you listen to the studio recording, I think you will hear the difference.
I've always taken in this song that Africa is a bit of prose about a woman they love and taking time to love her, in both the romantic sense and the Barry White sense. The line, "It's gonna take a lot to take me away from you/ There's nothing a hundred men or more could ever do" means to me that he's going to be right there to give her the lovin', both the deep nurturing and the physical, and there's nothing that can pull him from it, the line "I bless the rains down in Africa" I take as a double meaning, rain in the sense as being live-giving, cooling and refreshing, as in what she does for him, but also rain as in certain secretions that a woman produces when in a heightened state of arousal, the line "Going to take the time to do the things we never had" I take as meaning he's going to slow down and take the time with the woman he loves, making up for all the times he wasn't there. Weezer did a pretty good cover of this song with Weird Al. Leo from Frog Leap Studios did a great heavy metal cover of this song.
Now you need to check out Leo Marchello's version. its amazing. I dont normally like cover bands but he is a very talented muscian, several instruments, vocals, production.
I have Toto's 25th Anniversary Concert dvd (featuring all of the original members). A great show, to be sure. The original musicians (drums, bass, guitars, and keyboards) helped arrange and appeared on many of the tracks (5 of 9) from Michael Jackson's iconic Thriller album. The guitarist, Steve Lukather, is largely underrated due to his often more subtle and nuanced soloing but is also quite a shredder \m/ Edit: Here's a link to a video of 2 of the Toto guys regarding Thriller... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CeW89RzBG4U.htmlsi=izar2mKfHAKGl3ju
The album this is from and the even bigger single, “Rosanna,” swept the Grammys in 1983 with Album of the Year (Toto IV) and Record of the Year (“Rosanna.”) “”Africa” almost didn’t even make the cut to be on the album because the rest of the band (sans Paich) thought it was kinda cheesy. Turned out to be one of the most iconic tunes ever!
Drax project and Samsung NZ have a cool video called Toto in Reference to these guy . It was filmed in 7 days 27 locations in New Zealand and had over 400 people in it . Cool band Toto
I love the way you smile when you enjoy what you’re listening to... I still can’t believe that don’t know this song 😮 and I still wait for a reaction on "Je suis malade", the amazing Lara Fabian’s cover from the same live of Adagio "From Lara with love", a deep emotional moment (maybe with english subtitles because it’s a french song)... Love your channel ❤🇨🇵
@@NoCanDu I love Sklar's YT channel - I recommend it for young people to get rid of their fear of "getting old". That guy rocks even in his mid-seventies :)
Leland was called just a few weeks before the start of the second leg of this 2007 Toto tour to take the place of Bassist Mike Porcaro who was having muscle weakness issues, a short time later to be diagnosed as ALS, AKA, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. RIP to both Mike (2015) and co-founder and drummer of Toto, his older brother Jeff "The Fixer" Porcaro (1992).
I really like your reactions. You are the best of them all, you are really informative when you do your analysis. I loved Rage against the machine reactions. to good. Keep on doing what your doing, you going to get really big. Kind regards from Sweden - Martin
This is the most covered song in the world. It's a classic. Fan theory: This is about a guy trying to to find a cure for lycanthropy so he can be with his girl. Oh, and I also now know why there were vampires all over Europe that could be killed with holy water, but none across the Mediterranean. Someone blessed the rains down in Africa.
While this isn't the original version of it, or the right singer, not bad though to get you into the song! This is the orginal video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FTQbiNvZqaY.html
I swear there are times where I feel MRLBOYD was raised on a deserted island or a cave. How have you possibly never heard this song over the last 30 years? Do you not own a radio or go out in public spaces?
I love this channel. But I cannot get over you didn’t know this song. All the history you know, all the rap and yet THIS song has escaped your ears?? It’s in pop culture and been covered a million times over. Great song tho.
Don’t get it twisted, the black dude ain’t the original singer of this song. A little google search shows you who originally wrote and sang it. Thos is a cool live version but nothing compared to the studio version.
