Africa

Album

And That Reminds Me

Label

Columbia Records

Genre

Yacht Rock

Composer(s)

David Paich,;Jeff Porcaro

Entered Chart

Oct 30, 1982

Peak Date

Feb 5, 1983

Released

June 25, 1982 (U.K.)[1] October 1982 (U.S.)

Recorded

June 1981 Studio Sunset Sound (Hollywood)

Catalog #

Columbia 38-03335

B-Side

Good For You

The music video used the radio edit and was directed by Steve Barron.[29] It features Mike Porcaro on bass, replacing David Hungate, who had already left the band before the video was made. Lenny Castro is also featured in the video on percussion. On June 4, 2024, the music video broke the one billion view milestone on YouTube.[30] In the video, a researcher in a library (portrayed by band member David Paich) tries to match a scrap of a picture of a shield to the book from which it was torn out. As he continues his search, a female librarian (portrayed by Jenny Douglas-McRae) working at a nearby desk takes occasional notice of him, while an African man carrying a shield that matches the picture begins to close in on the library from the surrounding jungle. When the researcher finds a book titled Africa, the man throws a spear at a bookshelf, toppling stacks of books. Africa falls open to the page from which the scrap was torn, but a lantern lands on it and sets it on fire, after which the librarian's eyeglasses are shown falling to the floor. The scenes are intercut with shots of a globe and the band performing atop a stack of giant hardcover books, in which Africa is the topmost.[30] The video has been criticized for its portrayal of African culture, with Sheffield calling it "mind-blowingly racist".[9] Breihan described it as "almost shockingly racist", but nonetheless found that it "succeeds at its goal of making Toto seem visually compelling and translating the over-the-top drama of "Africa" into something cinematic

This song tells the story of a man who comes to Africa and must make a decision about the girl who comes to see him. He is enamored with the continent, but must leave if he is going to be with her. Toto keyboard player David Paich wrote the song and explained in the liner notes of Toto's Best Ballads compilation: "At the beginning of the '80s I watched a late night documentary on TV about all the terrible death and suffering of the people in Africa. It both moved and appalled me and the pictures just wouldn't leave my head. I tried to imagine how I'd feel about if I was there and what I'd do." Paich had never been to Africa when he wrote it. With introspective lyrics like, "I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become," we wondered if this song involved a bit of personal reflection. Turns out, it did. In a Songfacts interview with David Paich, he explained: "There's a little metaphor involved here, because I was at the age where I was so immersed in my work, 24/7, that at times I felt like I was becoming just a victim of my work. There was a little bit of autobiographical information in there: being consumed by my work, not having time to go out and pursue getting married and raising a family and doing all the things that other people do that were my age at the time." In an article in Time magazine, an unidentified group member said they were looking for a song just to close off the album and did not think "Africa" would do as well as it did. They also mentioned that if you listen closely during the lyrics "catch some waves," you can hear some of them singing "catch some rays." Toto IV won a Grammy for Album of the Year, but voters didn't nominate "Africa" for either Record of the Year or Song of the Year; they preferred "Rosanna," which was nominated in both categories and won for Record of the Year. This is probably Toto's most famous song, but their guitarist Steve Lukather would like you to know there is much more to the band: Toto were top studio musicians before forming the group, and known as some of the best in the business. Lukather told Rock's Backpages: "A lot of people categorize us as 'that 'Africa' or 'Rosanna' band,' and I hate that s--t. We have a lot more substance than that. Don't get me wrong - those songs have been great to us, but you really don't understand the depth of the band if that's all you know. We could be the most misunderstood band in rock history. We consist of some of the most recorded musicians in the business. And yet we take hits for that. [laughs] Ashlee Simpson and all these phony-baloney singers sell millions of records, but everybody knows that's bogus. Some folks go on the road, and they might as well be miming. My son toured with Lindsay Lohan four years ago. The whole band was playing live, she was lipsynching. She couldn't sing a lick. Some poor guy had to Pro Tools that every night." The video was directed by Steve Barron, who also did "Rosanna" and many other early MTV favorites. Toto was one of the few American bands that was making videos even before MTV, and after the network launched in 1981, their Barron-directed clips earned them lots of exposure. "Africa" is a very stylized, conceptual video with memorable imagery and an abstract storyline. It finds David Paich in an African library trying to find the book that matches a torn clipping he carries. There is a cute librarian, taxidermy, a burning spear and a globe. What's going on is clearly open to interpretation. In the UK, this was issued as a limited-edition picture disc shaped like the continent of Africa. The gimmick helped send the song to #3, making it their biggest hit in Britain. Bobby Kimball handled most of the lead vocals for Toto, but the song's writer, David Paich, sang the verses for "Africa." This is because the verse lyrics are packed tight with lines like "as sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti," which Kimball had a hard time wrangling. With Kimball on the chorus, the song has a lot of vocal dynamics. Guitarist Steve Lukather and singer Bobby Kimball told Rock Eyez that this song nearly didn't make the album and it "was a guy named Al Keller, who was over at CBS" who convinced them to put it on the disc. Lukather added: "I thought it was the worst song on the album. It didn't fit, the lyrics made no sense and I swore that if it was a hit record, I'd run naked down Hollywood Boulevard! That's how good I am at picking singles! (Laughs) I mean I love the song now but, to be honest with you, at the time I thought it was really the odd ball song on the album. It almost didn't make the record and it was a #1 worldwide single and still gets played everywhere today. No matter where I go in the world, people know that song… it's bizarre! For a song that Dave (Hungate) and I wrote in his living room, people know it in Indonesia!" This appeared in an episode of the TV show Scrubs in 2004. The episode was a tribute to the movie The Wizard Of Oz, so Toto fit the theme. In the late '90s, the Indiana University a cappella group Straight No Chaser started performing "Africa," and it quickly became their signature song. Hoping to highlight other parts of their repertoire, they dropped it from their setlist during a 1998 Christmas concert on campus, but did incorporate it into their version of "Twelve Days of Christmas," using the melody to support various Christmas songs ("I decked the halls down in Africa..."). This was an in-joke to their fans, who cheered wildly when they heard it out of nowhere in the middle of a Christmas song. In 2006, one of the group members posted this performance on YouTube, which launched just a year earlier. It became one of the first viral videos and earned them a record deal with Atlantic, which convinced the group to re-form. This performance made its way to many perennial Christmas playlists, giving "Africa" a place in the holiday music canon. This is used in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and also in commercials for the South African Castle Lager. >> In the HBO comedy film Tour de Pharmacy, Mike Tyson talks about this song. "You ever seen the dues in the band Toto?" he asks. "Those dudes shouldn't be singing about Africa." In December 2017, a Twitter account launched dedicated to getting Weezer to cover this song. Using the hashtag #WeezerCoverAfrica, the account, run by a 14-year-old girl, posted a series of Tweets along the lines of, "May your day be as blessed as the rains down in Africa!" On May 29, 2018, the band complied, releasing their version of "Africa." Weezer's rendition of "Africa" gave the band their first Hot 100 entry since "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To," which reached #81 in November 2009. The video for Weezer's version stars Weird Al Yankovic as the band's frontman Rivers Cuomo, plus a load of doppelgangers. It's a near-exact replica of the visual for Weezer's 1994 track "Undone - The Sweater Song." After Weezer covered "Africa," Toto covered Weezer's "Hash Pipe" as a response. This was used on the season 1 Stranger Things episode "The Vanishing Of Will Byers." It plays while Steve and Nancy make out in Nancy's bedroom. This was memorably featured in the 2009 Chuck episode "Chuck Versus The Best Friend." Jeff and Lester stage an audition at the Buy More to convince Ellie and Devon to allow their band, Jeffster!, to play at their wedding. They perform this song and - not surprisingly - don't land the gig. Olivia Lufkin and Howie Day have both recorded "Africa." The song has also been sampled by JoJo and Nas.

I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in, 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (ooh, ooh)

The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (ooh, ooh)

Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
(I bless the rain)
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa (gonna take the time)
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had (ooh, ooh)