Toto - Hydra
Critics pretty much flip-flopped for every album they made, because critics are just making it up as they go. The band thought it was funny, because they were too. Toto isn't subjectable to standard critical analysis. You have to take them at face value as a group of guys who made whatever music their brains produced without any larger plan or ulterior motive.
I resurrected their second album Hydra from the moldy catacombs of doom, but this essay is more about an underlying web of connections that's been lurking in my reviews for a long time, finally breaking the surface and demanding confrontation.
Everyone has this bizarre notion that the music industry is a big complicated network of complicated things that are too hard to explain. It's not. Music business is just business. The things you think are deplorable about the music industry are exactly the same as every other industry. Albums, toasters, interest rate swaps, pork futures, cars, content marketing, life coaching, medical research. If you think that musicians get ripped off by the system, then surely you can't be dumb enough to believe that cashiers, or garbage men, or truck drivers, or construction workers, or programmers, or any other "job" performers are somehow in a better situation. "Business" isn't complicated. Creating the lies and hiding the nasty parts is complicated. Getting people to step back, really look at the world, and change their selfish behavior is practically impossible, so you just find the best compromise between making money for someone else and personal integrity and keep on spinning.
But enough of my midlife crisis fighting the giant water monster, we're here to talk about Toto. Everyone in the band is important, but it's really David Paich's band. How did they get to make albums in the first place? Well, the core members were the studio band for Steely Dan/Boz Skaggs/Michael Jackson/etc., David Paich co-wrote "Lido Shuffle." He's also the son of Marty Paich, whom you might have noticed i like quite a bit ;) .
Good or bad, these guys were born inside the matrix. They didn't have to be their own band, they didn't have to scramble for work, they were already set. Critics liked to pretend they didn't have a unique sound of their own, but that's because you already know Toto. You start to think "this sounds like such-and-such" because it's literally them.
Instead of just being corporate douchebags (which they could have easily been), they used that status to do what they wanted to do regardless of what anybody thought. They wrote obscure stuff about dragons and sci-fi movies and foriegn places and being in love and whatever other fantasy world stuff crossed their minds. Best of all, even critics who were determined to hate them had to admit that they are really talented, and none of this stuff is a joke. Because it's not. It's not cheesy or embarrasing or trendy or cliche. If you don't like Toto it's your own fault.
I think there's a very real reason why everything Marty Paich touched is magic, including his son's band. I think it's because he thought creating actual music was the only legitimate part of the whole charade, and it rubbed off on everyone around him. It didn't matter if it was a hit or popular or critically acclaimed or won awards, it didn't matter whose name was on the album, all that mattered was taking it serious and doing a good job.
A "business" is nothing more than a paycheck. An "industry" is nothing more than a millionaire devising creative ways to never actually give up control of that money; even if you tear it down, you won't actually get that money back. Luckily, the work is your own, and they can't have it unless they pay for it.
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