"Africa" is a song by rock band Toto. The song was included
on their 1982 album
Toto IV, and scored number one on the Billboard Hot 100
chart in February 1983 and number three on the UK Singles Chart
the same month. The song was written by the band's keyboardist
David Paich and drummer Jeff Porcaro. David Paich sings both
verses of the song. Bobby Kimball, Steve Lukather and Paich
sing the choruses.
One of Toto's most recognisable songs, "Africa" was almost
omitted from the
Toto IVrecord prior to its release. Having spent a great
amount of time producing the tune, the band became so tired of
the song that they didn’t want it on the album. The song itself
was very different from anything the band had done before, and
some members felt that it didn’t sound like Toto.
“I didn’t think it was very good,” said Steve Lukather
(Classic Rock Revisited, 2003). “That tells you what can happen
when we pick our own singles!”
David Paich, who co-wrote the song with Jeff Porcaro, said
that it “could have been the beginning of a solo project [for
me] because it was so different. I thought I’d save
it…[because] world music wasn’t around then.”
The initial idea for the song came from David Paich, playing
on his piano. Jeff explains the idea behind the song: "... a
white boy is trying to write a song on Africa, but since he's
never been there, he can only tell what he's seen on TV or
remembers in the past."
David Paich says the following: "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."
Musically the song took quite some time to assemble, as
David and Jeff explain:
"On 'Africa' you hear a combination of marimba with GS 1.
The kalimba is all done with the GS 1; it's six tracks of GS 1
playing different rhythms. I wrote the song on CS-80, so that
plays the main part of the entire tune."
Jeff Porcaro reminisces about how the song's drum track took
shape:
"I was about 11 when the New York's World Fair took place,
and I went to the African pavilion with my family. I saw the
real thing; I don't know what tribe, but there were these
drummers playing, and my mind was blown. The thing that blew my
mind was everybody was playing one part. As a little kid in
Connecticut, I would see these Puerto Rican and Cuban cats
jamming in the park. It was the first time I witnessed someone
playing one beat and not straying from it, like a religious
experience, where it gets loud, and everyone goes into a
trance. I have always dug those kind of orchestras, whether it
be a band or all drummers. But I just love a band of guys
saying one thing. That's why I loved marching band, and I said,
'Gee, someday there's going to be a little drum orchestra where
everybody plays one thing, and you don't stray from it. You do
it until you drop. You're banished from that land if you move
from that one part.'
"So when we were doing 'Africa', I set up a bass drum, snare
drum and a hi-hat, and Lenny Castro set up right in front of me
with a conga. We looked at each other and just started playing
the basic groove.... The backbeat is on 3, so it's a half-time
feel, and it's 16th notes on the hi-hat. Lenny started playing
a conga pattern. We played for five minutes on tape, no click,
no nothing. We just played. And I was singing the bass line for
'Africa' in my mind, so we had a relative tempo. Lenny and I
went into the booth and listened back to the five minutes of
that same boring pattern. We picked out the best two bars that
we thought were grooving, and we marked those two bars on tape.
We made another mark four bars before those two bars. Lenny and
I went back out; I had a cowbell, Lenny had a shaker. They gave
us two new tracks, and they gave us the cue when they saw the
first mark go by. Lenny and I started playing to get into the
groove, so by the time the that fifth bar came – which was the
first bar of the two bars we marked as the cool bars we liked –
we were locked, and we overdubbed shaker and cowbell.
"So there was bass drum, snare drum, hi-hat, two congas, a
cowbell, and a shaker. We went back in, cut the tape, and made
a one-bar tape loop that went 'round and 'round and 'round. The
Linn machine was available to us. Maybe it would have taken two
minutes to program that in the Linn, and it took about half an
hour to do this. But a Linn machine doesn't feel like that! So
we had an analog groove. We took that tape, transferred it onto
another 24-track for six minutes, and David Paich and I went
out in the studio. The song started, and I was sitting there
with a complete drumset, and Paich was playing. When he got to
the fill before the chorus, I started playing the chorus, and
when the verse or the intro came back, I stopped playing. Then
we had piano and drums on tape. You have to realize that there
are some odd bars in 'Africa', so when you have a one-bar loop
going, all of a sudden, sometimes Lenny's figure would turn
around. So Lenny went in and played the song again, but this
time he changed his pattern a little for the turn-arounds, for
the fills, for the bridge, for the solo. We kept the original
part and the new one. Then we had to do bongos, jingle sticks,
and big shakers doing quarter notes, maybe stacking two tracks
of sleigh bells, two tracks of big jingle sticks, and two
tracks of tambourine all down to one track. I was trying to get
the sounds I would hear Milt Holland or Emil Richards have, or
the sounds I would hear in a 'National Geographic' special, or
the ones I heard at the New York World's Fair."
"Africa" was played on all of Toto's tours from its release
until the band's breakup in 2008. It was sung by David Paich at
the 2009 Millennium Development Goals Awards Ceremony.
The music video was directed by Steve Barron. The story is
of a researcher in a library (portrayed by band member David
Paich), looking for clues to a book called
Africa. Many scenes include the band performing atop a
stack of hardcover books.
The song has been covered in 1982 by Key of Dreams,
Italo-disco style.
Singer-songwriters Howie Day and Virginia Coalition and
Umphrey's McGee perform versions of "Africa" in their live
shows, and the song has been a popular cover for a cappella
groups. Tukuleur, a group from Africa, recorded a
French-language hip hop version of the song titled Afrika.
SubAudible Hum covered this song for Triple J's Like a
Version.
Belgian-born Canadian singer Lara Fabian used this song on
her Nue Tour in 2001 as an interlude performance to her Nue
album track "Rio" with one of her backup singers singing lead
on the verses.
German band Pyogenesis covered their song in their full
length album, Mono, ... or will it ever be.
American guitarist Andy McKee has recorded an instrumental
version of the song on his
Dreamcatcheralbum.
Phonte Coleman, member of the rap group Little Brother
covered the song for his 80's cover album, Zo and Tigallo Love
the 80's.
Chris de Burgh covered it on his 2008 covers album
Footsteps.
Lowry recorded a cover of the song for Engine Room
Recordings' compilation album Guilt by Association Vol. 2,
which was released in November of 2008.
Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra recorded a cover
the song on their 2009 release, The Dreaming EP.
Olivia Lufkin did a slow cover of the song on her Sea Me
single.
Straight No Chaser did an A Capella cover of the song in the
late 1990's for a bonus track on their album, "Holiday
Spirits."
Slovenian a cappella choir Perpetuum Jazzile performed
Africa on many public appearances.
"Africa" has been used as a sample in several songs. These
include: