Weezer covered "Africa" by toto

[countertext]

My 15-year-old son came home from an end-of-school-year event yesterday and said, “It was terrible, the so-called DJ played that stupid Toto song three times. IN A ROW. What is wrong with people!?”

I don’t know which PR agent is responsible for the revival of that fucking song, but I heard it several thousand times too many the first time around.

Related: an old bandmate of mine in Atlanta interviewed Lukather for the local rag a few years back, said he was hilarious and had a ton of great stories about doing sessions through the years, and he loved talking gear. He set my buddy up with VIP passes to the Toto show and all that. “How was the show?” “Are you kidding? I can’t handle a Toto show. I stayed home and watched Escape From New York.”

I’ve only been able to type all this because I’ve got a shitty Jackson Browne tune in my head shielding me from memories of Toto.

[Embenny]

Because this thread can never die, "enjoy"

If there was one thing that I would name that could make a live performance of this uninspired cover worse than the recording, it would be canned vocals. That's gotta be what, over 80% of the chorus vocals that are prerecorded? They buried the live mics so deep in the mix that you can only pick out Rivers when he throws in the extra "I bless the rains" lines toward the end.

[mackerelmint]

Where are the bags of piss? That drummer needs to be nailed by bags of piss.

Fuck Costa Rica, fuck Costa Rica supporters.

and fuck that drummer.

[shadowplay]

Toto's mulleted studio polish always looks shite next to everyone's favourite bin bag wearers Toto Coelo which were as infectious as small pox and surely the next whacky ironic song choice the internet generation.

This has been in my head all morning.

D

[SY6655321]

Where are the bags of piss? That drummer needs to be nailed by bags of piss.

Fuck Costa Rica, fuck Costa Rica supporters.

and fuck that drummer.

Really?

The original sucks.
Toto sucks.
Weezer has sucked post Pinkerton.
This cover sucks.

But there is no way in hell Pat Wilson is a ham fisted drummer who deserves bags of piss thrown at him. Piss in all the bags you want, but save them for Toto, the true culprit of this travesty.

[mackerelmint]

The bags of piss was a reference to the piss bag throwing talk in the world cup thread, which is why I added "Fuck Costa Rica, fuck Costa Rica supporters" since that's my mantra through the contest.

As for him being a ham fisted drummer, did you even listen to the track? The drumming had no relation to the drums in the original. Also, I'm fine with Toto. Buzz off. The drums in it sounded like shit, because they were played like shit and he didn't even bother to tighten the snare up. Go listen to their other Toto cover and then listen to this and tell the world he made an effort. He didn't. And he probably DOES deserve to have bags of piss thrown at him, by the rest of the band even because they pulled their weight and he coasted.

[scottT]

I actually like this "unironically" though that may not be the way Rivers Cuomo meant it. The vocals are probably the best part--especially that chorus where the power chords come in . There are actually parts that move me as much or more than the original. But what's with the weird sounding keyboard solo? It sounds like someone mistook the Serengeti with the Australian outback. Overall though, a surprisingly faithful rendition!

[shadowplay]

How did a thread about Weezer becoming the equivalent of a pub band playing to 50 on a Friday night in Basingstoke get to 3 pages?

I missed this...totally spot on. Every now and then one of those Internet phenomena tracks pops up here (slowed down, speeded up, supergroup, novelty cover, hiding behind lush video beard)...and it's always shite to the power ten.

The internet needs its ears syringed and a savage kick in the groin.

D

[Fiddy]

Weezer also covered Rossana..

[s_mcsleazy]

Sorry im late to the thread. Much like most memes, the africa meme will die out fairly soon. I am curious as to how africa became as big a meme as it did. But hey, memes tend to come in different flavours. Ironic love, stupid, offensive.... Ect. Ive said this before but i tend to think memes are an interesting thing to watch grow and evolve. Like the crash bandicoot "woah" meme. That started life as a joke in the oney plays series. Then it got remixed and evolved. Sadly it died out pretty quickly. As for the weezer cover, i think weezer are one of those bands who are almost afraid to piss off their fans so the play everything safe to the point where is a grey sludge to the earrs

[Jaguar018]

i think weezer are one of those bands who are almost afraid to piss off their fans so the play everything safe to the point where is a grey sludge to the earrs

What do you think Weezer would sound like if Rivers Cuomo could play whatever he wanted? My guess is that they'd still sound the same and the lyrics would just focus more on creepin' and masturbating.

[scottT]

If only for the Buddy Holly song and video it's all worth it. What's with these homies dissin' my girl? Why do they gotta front? Too much. I would love any song that references Mary Tyler Moore my long time crush.

I didn't know they were singing "I bless" the rains...now I'm singing it all the time again. Probably would have been best to have left it in the past as it got sooooo much airtime. I am imagining them working out how to vocalize "seeeer-en-get-eeeee. That has to be one of the weirdest lyrics ever.

I think what I miss are competent musicians and singers and professional production. Also the context in which that song was played, on the radio and MTV. In context, it was part of a big musical ecosystem which included a lot of other great songs similarly well produced that connected us...created a community of listeners through a commonality of share reference.

Music today is so fragmented and sub-categorized that it's no wonder that threads which are about bands and songs we know bring us together to comment in multi-page threads.