Africa

This week's video features a song that's played as much today on soft rock stations as it was on top 40s stations 25 years ago.  It's an earworm that everyone wants to sing along with, but nobody knows the lyrics to.  Toto's classic hit, Africa.

First of all, you've got balls when you name yourself after the little dog from The Wizard of Oz.  It's like they knew they were going to take the decade by storm, no matter what they were named, and went for the most absurd thing they could imagine.  You know.  To handicap them.  Or else it would all be too easy.  Well the handicap worked, and though the band still survives today, Toto is for the most part forgotten.

I like to imagine what went through the mind of the video director when they planned out a video.  Sometimes you can't fathom what they were thinking or what drugs they were on, but in other cases, like this one, it's all too obvious:  "Okay, the song is about Africa, but it would be WAY too expensive to actually go and film there.  Kilimanjaro?  Not gonna happen."  So instead, they set their video in the most exotic place they can afford:  A library.  As a bonus, the nice sexy librarian lets them use the globe in the video, and shows the band how to look up books about Africa.  Almost as good as being there!  Reading is Great!

 Well maybe that's not exactly what happened, but I bet I'm pretty close.  I'm guessing they spent more on editing than set dressing, and that was a wise decision.  For how simple this video is, it looks really really good.  You can hardly see the shoestring budget that's holding the whole thing together.  Most of all, I would like to congratulate the director for not choosing the easy way out and simply cobbling together a bunch of cheap footage of Africa.  A lesser fellow would have filled the video with stock footage of lions, zebras, and shit.  Our good friend here kept the focus on the band and the song, and should be commended for that.

Speaking of directorial masterpieces, Toto has claimed a special place in my heart not because of their pop hits, but because they composed and performed the soundtrack for one of the greatest films if the 1980s:  David Lynch's Alan Smithee's DUNE.  Yes, they scored the entire film.  And they did an excellent job, too.  I tried to find a clip online that demonstrated their skill, but I came up short.  So instead, this week's bonus video is the trailer for Dune.

Love it or hate it, that movie was certainly something, uh, special.  Plus, it had Sting:

So yeah, there's always that.

Now back to this week's featured video.  Great song, no questions about that.  Had plenty of focus on the band without becoming a worthless performance video.  Established a theme and stuck with it until the end.  In fact, they even managed to squeeze in a bit of story, mystery, and even romance, if you'll call it that.  So good show in all.  Here's my breakdown:

Style: 3
Execution:4
Nostalgia: 4
Afrocentricity:  2

FINAL SCORE (not an average):  3.5

NEXT WEEK:  Debbie Gibson