Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/31/what-totos-africa-is-rea.html
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I saw another piece where Jeff Porcaro talked about how missionaries down there would spend all of their time blessing every single thing from the dirt to the winds to the rain.
My interpretation is that a church representative (woman) is flying down to retrieve an errant missionary who has fallen so in love with the land and the people that he has failed to return on time. Meanwhile the locals are telling him to stop daydreaming and procrastinating and go pick up his colleague at the airport, he’s already very late.
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On a related note (pun intended), here’s an excellent in-depth analysis of the actual music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfzV5Qe9rS4
You may have your favorite cover; this is mine:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLrC7e3vSv8
…because it’s two dudes in a pizza joint just crushing it.
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It could be like my parents act when asked about why they gave me my name.
I’ve heard half a dozen different reasons, and every time they argue about it.
What’s clear is: They don’t remember.
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I remember seeing something from David Paich about having been fiddling with the lyrics when he heard the keyboard riff and wrote the whole song on the spot, more or less, and was planning on using it as a solo track until the band decided to add it to their new album; he claimed that he had no idea the record company was going to put it out as a single and was utterly baffled that it was a hit, much less one with such staying power.
And yes, Low does the best cover.
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Bless the rains? All this time I seriously though he was singing miss the rains.
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I do believe that’s called colonialism.
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Love it or hate it, boing boing’s 2018 post about the soft rock mega-hit “Africa” is here to stay.
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Yeah, apparently IronEdithKidd and I are not the only ones who thought it was “miss” the rains:
https://tinyurl.com/ybfnljuc
Also, Olympus? I’ve heard this song a thousand times, and I coulda sworn Kilimanjaro rises like “an empress”?
Also, it STILL does not sound to me like “revved up like a deuce”.
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Mr. Kidd forever though the background singers in Modern Love were singing “garden man”.
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When I was little I thought the line Abba sang before “Take A Chance On Me” was “Set the oxen free”, which in retrospect sounds nothing like “Honey, I’m still free”. But still… in my mind it makes about as much sense.
FREE OXEN NOW!!!
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Since this is the 3rd or 4th thread on Toto in the last week, I’m not feeling very guilty about staying off topic.
…And since it just dawned on me who I’m talking to, I’ll take this opportunity to ask how Brianna’s election campaign is going?
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Oh! Thanks for asking! The campaign is going well! Raisin’ money, addin’ staff, makin’ speeches. Just tryin’ to spread the two messages: Brianna will fight for progressive causes - and Brianna will fight the hackers trying to steal your Soc Sec number! BriannaWu2018.com !!!
Thanks for asking!
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unless Jeff Porcaro has a quote saying it’s a white boy misremembering facts about Africa from BEFORE people noted the geographic impossibilities, what we have here is a white boy trying to excuse ignorance of geography.
Bono has a giant ego, but even he manages to admit that “early morning April 4” was just him screwing up the actual facts of King’s murder.
I keep getting this song mixed up with E-Type’s “Africa”, probably because I’m out of touch. Or maybe it’s just a better song.
You might even say I can’t stop myself cause it all went through my head.
I’m just gonna leave this here…
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Yay! With more like her in the legislature, I might be tempted to return from my Bavarian exile. I have been living as an expatriate now longer than I have in the States.
Oh yeah, I also thought it was “miss the rains”. Made more sense with the whole doughts on American TV and charities begging for money by showing starving Ethiopians.
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