Deep Cuts: Toto "All Us Boys" (1979)

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In June of last year Steve Lukather folded in Toto’s tent, declaring that “If there isn’t Paich or at least one Porcaro how can we even call it Toto?” Thirty years of recording, touring, enduring tragedy (drummer Jeff Porcaro’s death in 1992) and a revolving door of band members were all the guitarist and last remaining surviving founding member there for the distance could stand.

But Toto didn’t pack it in without many triumphs along the way, including their last studio album Falling In Between (2006). This band of polished studio session players defied ridicule and scorn from many high-falootin’ critics to sell a lot of records, chart several hits, rack up awards and create legions of fans (especially overseas after around the mid-eighties). I can’t call myself a fan of every one of their releases, but I can point to several times where they were able to channel their vast musicianship and flair for writing compelling songs into mainstream bliss without sounding so compromised.

The place I’d point to most strenuously is their second album Hydra. I really need to do a review on the entire album to set the record straight, so to speak, on this largely forgotten gem that I regard as their best. But since today is One Track Mind day, I’ll shout out hosannas for just one of the tunes on it: “All Us Boys.”

In a band that was serious about its craft, especially on Hydra, “Boys” always got a smile out of me because it was a tune where they let their hair down and just be a fun-loving garage band. And were pretty damned good at it.

[ONE TRACK MIND: Toto’s Steve Lukather discusses key songs from his career, including “I Won’t Hold You Back,” “99” and “I’ll Be Over You,” and the time that Miles Davis tried to lure him away.]

A relatively stripped-down, straight-ahead rocker with David Paich on piano, Steve Porcaro on organ, his brother Jeff on drums, Luke on guitar, David Hungate on bass, and Bobby Kimball on backing vocals, Paich takes a lead vocal that sounds a little British, a little rowdy and a lot boastful:

All us boys like to drink and smoke
Pull off a joke
Blow your minds and leave
Hot tires behind

All us boys like to fight and kick
Carry a stick
We’re getting older
And acting bolder

Even the brief, slowed down “Mothers tell your daughters to stay away from rock ‘n’ roll” interlude is just a windup for more of that punk attitude. Everyone is playing loud and proud, but no more so than Jeff Porcaro, who is crashing cymbals and spraying fills all over the song. Right at the end of the breakdown part of the song is a particularly killer fill.

“All Us Boys” didn’t light up the charts like the single right before it “99” did, but it should have laid to rest any notion that these boys couldn’t rock ‘n’ roll. After all, they were just boys in first-call studio musicians’ bodies.

Then again, maybe it was that charming, campy video they did for the song that endeared me to it…

S. Victor Aaron