I'm very excited to finally turn my attention to the TOTO discography in my latest blog series. I realize they've never been a terribly fashionable band to like, but they cover so many styles so well and many of their records are a lot heavier than their soft-rock reputation would suggest. I'm hoping some of my fellow IMWANers will appreciate this series. In Part 1, I offer a brief background on the band and my history with their music, and I discuss their first three albums: Toto, Hydra and Turn Back. Here's a link to that post:

https://kamertunesblog.wordpress.com/20 ... s-on-time/

[For those of you who don't know me, I've been revisiting the complete catalogs of artists in my music collection and posting my thoughts on a few albums at a time for over 3 years. Instead of focusing on my favorites, I've been choosing artists whose catalogs I own but haven't played as frequently as I'd like. So far I've covered Van Morrison, Talking Heads, The Band, Roxy Music, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Television, David Bowie, Nick Drake, Black Sabbath, Big Star, Tom Waits, The Beach Boys, Foo Fighters, Uncle Tupelo, PJ Harvey, Neil Young, Alice Cooper, XTC, Metallica, The Jayhawks, The Kinks, The Stooges, Al Green, Syd Barrett, k.d. lang and Hall & Oates (plus "Compilation Or Catalog?" posts on The Commodores, Montrose, Jimmy Buffett, Echo & The Bunnymen and The Cure, as well as discussions of my favorite One And Done and Two And Through artists). If you'd like to know more about me and the reasons for starting the blog, check out the "About" page here]:
https://kamertunesblog.wordpress.com/about/

Edit on 1/21/15: Here's the link for Part 2: https://kamertunesblog.wordpress.com/20 ... serengeti/
Edit on 1/31/15: Here's the link for Part 3: https://kamertunesblog.wordpress.com/20 ... ng-points/
Edit on 2/8/15: Here's the link for Part 4: https://kamertunesblog.wordpress.com/20 ... ter-world/
Edit on 4/1/15: Here's the link for Part 5: https://kamertunesblog.wordpress.com/20 ... onclusion/

toto is kind of a rock and roll enigma.

their first 4 albums seemed as though they wanted to be a radio hit machine, ad with 'IV' they got that, and probably more than they bargained fro by getting it. after 'IV' everyone wanted 'rosanna' and 'africa' and nothing else, they were everywhere, and toto was musically much better than that. they had played with some of the biggest names in music up until that time and honed their chops with the best.

they just couldn't duplicate 'IV' and it was a slippery slope after that into the land of forgotten bands. from 'isolation' forward they made really good rock and roll records, but none of them could equal 'IV'and no one paid attention anymore.

I think that to really see the talent in toto, one needs to listen to the 'dune' soundtrack, those boys could play.

Renny, after spending a lot of time with the first three albums this past week, I'm not sure I agree about them trying to be a radio hit machine. That's especially true with "Hydra," most of which consists of longer songs with multiple sections. I've always liked the fact that they could do commercial pop, schmaltzy ballads, jazz-influenced rock a la Steely Dan and even prog/metal. In many ways they're similar to Ambrosia (other than the "metal" part).

I've never owned the "Dune" soundtrack but a friend of mine has it. If I can get a copy within the next week I'll include it with the next post. Thanks for the reminder.

Hydra and Turn Back were hardly commercial albums... and they're my favorites.

Hydra was the exact opposite of looking for a hit-it was Prog Rock/Hard Rock and Fusion with only a few nods to Pop.

Add in a pseudo-swords and sorcery concept and it was commercial suicide and one of their best albums (it did go Gold so it was not a "bomb").

Turn Back was Hard Rock and utilized some Queen-styled production and also was non-commercial.

As for the band themselves they are Hard Rock and have forever been mislabeled their entire career.

Lukather acknowledges the band name kills them, but there ya go.

And Falling In Between and Mindfields are two amazing albums I hold in very high regard.

Kym & Pete, it's heartwarming to know there are other passionate Toto fans here. They are definitely a misunderstood band. Not sure if it's the name that's held them back from mass acceptance. I think it's more the fact that they had some MOR pop hits (which are awesome) that kept rock fans from accepting them, and they've covered so much musical ground over the course of their career that they don't have an easily definable sound. None of that matters to us, of course, since we know how great they are. Pete, I agree with you about Mindfields and Falling In Between. I'm looking forward to revisiting them in a couple of weeks for this series.

I will be reading that blog for sure Rich and commenting on FB.

One of my very favorite bands and I think they also caught flack for not "roughing it". In other words, they didn't tour for years and struggle-they did sessions, formed did demos and got a deal. Not like they didn't earn it doing all those sessions-I mean c'mon! But they did catch crap for that as though they were cleverly put together in the studio. Nonsense says I.

I agree. In hindsight, the song selection on Hydra is surprising considering how successful their debut was...only one obvious radio-friendly track, "99". When I heard Toto XX, I thought tracks like "Tale of a Man", "Love is a Man's World", and "Mrs Johnson" would've made Hydra a more commercial album. But maybe they weren't interested in singles as much as making an album 'statement' at that time.

Thanks Pete. I look forward to your feedback since (a) I know you're a big Toto fan and (b) you never hold back on your opinions (I mean that as a compliment). That's a great point about their session work being their version of "paying dues." They also appeared on the scene at the tail end of the punk explosion, where proficiency on your instrument was frowned upon. No matter how many reasons people use to explain their dislike of Toto, those are usually the reasons why I love them. And yet there are plenty of albums I don't know that well, even though I've owned them for many years, which is why I'm writing this blog series.

I agree that they were trying to establish themselves as a legitimate rock band with Hydra, and even their one concession to pop radio ("99") isn't an obvious choice for a hit single. It was just commercial as compared to the rest of the album. I'm eager to revisit Toto XX, which I only played a couple of times after I bought it, since I expect there will be some killer songs waiting to be rediscovered.

In Part 2 of my blog series on Toto, I wrote about Toto IV, Isolation, Dune (Original Soundtrack Recording), Fahrenheit and The Seventh One. Here's a link to that post:

https://kamertunesblog.wordpress.com/20 ... serengeti/

In spite of lineup changes (including three different lead vocalists) and rising & falling commercial fortunes, there's a high percentage of great songs in this portion of their discography. Looking forward to finding out if others feel the same about these albums.

Good write-up on Toto, Rich. Pretty much spot on, too.

I've been a fan of these guys from the IV album on back to the first. I rediscovered them last year and bought all the Japan remasters (which sound absolutely killer). I still, after all these years, find IV to be the pinnacle of their prowess. The perfect album at the perfect time. But after buying up their whole Japanese pressings collection, I'm a bigger fan from Kingdom of Desire on up. Even the covers album Through the Looking Glass is a masterpiece. But Tambu is their hot disc. Some of the best musicianship and song writing ever.

Thanks for checking this out, Mark. Glad we agree about Toto IV being the perfect album at the perfect time. I think a lot of fans dismiss it simply because it was so popular, but the hits are still great and the lesser-known album tracks are just as strong. Not sure I agree about their covers album being a masterpiece, but I need to give it a few more listens. That'll be included in Part 4 of this series sometime next week. Later today I'll be posting Part 3 which includes Kingdom Of Desire and Tambu, both amazing and under-appreciated (kinda like the band themselves).

I completed Part 3 of this series today. In this post I discuss five releases from the '90s: Past To Present 1977-1990, Kingdom Of Desire, Absolutely Live, Tambu and Toto XX 1977-1997.

https://kamertunesblog.wordpress.com/20 ... ng-points/

I'm happy to know that some of my fellow IMWANers love this era. Looking forward to hearing from some of you about these albums.

Good write-up (again), Rich. You pretty well covered it.

Looking forward to the final installment. Maybe wait til the new disc comes out in March.

Have you seen the last Blu Ray they did in Poland? That performance blows away a lot of stuff out there. I have a ton of concert vids and that one is in my top 5. I have all the other Toto concert vids and they pale in comparison. Live in Amsterdam is damn good, especially because we get Mike Porcaro on there. He's fun to watch. But the Poland show is killer.

Thanks Mark. Glad we continue to be in agreement. I will put this series on hold after Part 4 so I can include the upcoming album in the final post, along with Falling In Between and a couple of live releases (including the one from Poland, which I only have on CD). The only concert DVD I own is Falling In Between Live. If I had more time to sit & watch concert vids I would probably pick up more Toto titles, with the Poland Blu-ray at the top of that list.

For the 4th part of this series I revisited four albums they released after the return of Bobby Kimball in 1999: Mindfields, Livefields, their collection of covers Through The Looking Glass and 25th Anniversary - Live In Amsterdam. Here's a link to that post:

https://kamertunesblog.wordpress.com/20 ... ter-world/

I will be putting this series on hold pending the release of their new album Toto XIV at the end of March. After I get that CD and spend enough time with it, I'll write Part 5 which will also include Falling In Between and two other live albums.

Once again, good write-up! Kudos!

Mindfields would've been a double album in the old days.

What an album.

The 9 minute Blues epic "High Price of Hate" and the Prog Rock epic "Better World (parts I, II, III)" are amazing.

I saw the Mindfields tour in '99 in Atlantic City (they only played a few US dates-maybe 5?) and it was heavy and intense. I've seen Toto live now 3 times and all the shows have been balls-out.

Thanks Mark. I'm glad you enjoyed it and I really appreciate you checking it out.

We're definitely on the same page, Pete. Not sure if you read my post but I mentioned the fact that it would have been a double album during the vinyl days, and the two songs I highlighted were "High Price Of Hate" and "Better World" (which provided the title for the post).

Didn't read it yet, but we are clearly on the same page!

I will read soon.