Is it playing? Good. You're listening to the greatest song ever written or performed in the English language. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Why is it so good? JUST LISTEN. This intro is solid gold. The drumbeat, the keyboard, that weird little flute-y thing, I don't even know what instrument it is. It's perfect.
And then that first verse. David Paich's voice is so coarsely soothing, it's like taking a bath in a tub full of gravel. Finely ground gravel, but gravel nonetheless.
We've got some great lines in this verse, lines which in any other song would be show-stoppers but are par for the course in the four minutes and thirty-four seconds of excellence that is "Africa" by Toto.
But the first verse is only the appetizer. No – it's the amuse bouche! The real meat of "Africa" by Toto, and the reason it's the greatest song ever written is the chorus. GET READY.
"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 AAAAFRICA"
"GONNA TAKE SOME TIME TO DO THE THINGS WE NEVER HAAAA-AAAA-AAAAD"
Wasn't that great? I mean really, wow. OK, time for the second verse, which admittedly does not live up to the lyrical exceptionalism of the first but is STILL GOOD.
"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 AAAAFRICA"
"GONNA TAKE SOME TIME TO DO THE THINGS WE NEVER HAAA-AAAA-AAAD"
The rest of the song is a repeat of that chorus over and over, pounding the tune into your skull so that for the rest of your life, whenever you hear it, you will be forever compelled to sing the four greatest lines in musical history.
