Old Enough to Forget

There are good albums, and then there's Toto IV. A near perfect rock album that had it all. Big guitars, the pounding drums, great vocals, and most importantly amazing songs. The band always had all of the ingredients at their disposal but the perfect combination had eluded the band when it came to pulling off an album's worth of unparalleled excellence. Over the years I've purchased this album four times. First when it came out, and then on CD, and then when they released the All In Box set a few years ago (so good), and then again just recently when I found the record and felt it should come home with me. I bought this album before I'd heard any of the songs on the radio. Apparently "Rosanna" came out as a teaser a month or so before the album dropped and I may have heard it, but honestly I don't remember. What I do remember is hearing "Afraid of Love" blaring on the stereo at one of the record stores in the mall, and it was around the break...

Turn Back is the forgotten gem in Toto's catalogue. It is probably my favourite album by the band. Oh, I have favourite songs from most of their albums - although I never did manage to gack down the four songs Jean-Michel Byron sang on their Past to Present collection. I did try ... man, I really tried - hence the most thing. At the time I had no idea how pivotal an album this would end up being despite being shoved into a corner by most people. After Hydra , an album I really liked, I was pretty stoked when a new album would drop. Half the fun would be reading the reviews that were often clipped and filed with the records. I have no idea why one of the stores I went to as a kid did this - not exactly a great selling feature but I didn't care. I figured the more hate the better the album. Back in 1980 when Journey dropped Discovery , Geoff Workman was the co-producer, and I happened to really like that album. Didn't hurt at all that Caddy Shack featured "Anyway You W...

Toto, the band people love to shit on. For me, I've been a fan since first hearing "Hold the Line" and I make no apologies for loving these guys. Heck I remember when Hydra was released and I eagerly went to the record store to get it. The store used to copy reviews and place them with albums as a sales tool. I guess clipping out a scathing review and taping it to the record seemed like a good idea to someone. Anyways, I getting ahead of myself. I can't remember if this is the same "review" but it's pretty close in tone: Max Bell , New Musical Express , 17 March 1979 WILL THESE people never learn? In the time-honoured Hollywood tradition of foisting ambitious super-sessioners upon that large portion of the American public bereft of a brain, taste or the ability to decide for itself comes Toto, a six piece composed of former Boz Scaggs and Steely Dan (you know the rest) side men. Admittedly I'm not...