What’s deep inside, frightened of this thing that I’ve become~ Toto
Remember when I suggested there might be room for an embarrassing admission in my list of five? Yeah, this’d be it.
This one is all about the rhythm and the melody. The drums and marimba echo through my head. When I was a teenager I loved this song so much that whenever my parents would leave the house, I would crank the cassette player to full volume and listen to Toto IV over and over again. I remember one night being totally overwhelmed and lying around on the floor in the dark sobbing while I listened to Africa repeatedly for about an hour. God knows why.
Because really, though melody is crucial, it is usually the lyrics that reel me in. And the lyrics to this song are variously silly, strange, and nonsensical. That being said, it still causes something to rise up in me and grab me by the base of the throat when I hear it, and even more so when I sing along.
And that gets at the very core of how a song becomes a “favorite” of mine. It’s ability to grip me, consistently, every time I hear it, all the way down through the years and changes and time.
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