When I consider my Top 5 list of Toto songs, “Drag Him to the Roof” is usually included. The song, co-written by Steve Lukather David Paich and Stan Lynch, is a deep cut which combines the best of older Toto songs with an unmistakable stamp of drummer Simon Phillips.
David Paich is credited with his only lead vocal on 1995’s Tambu. However, he’s mixed in with John James and Phillip Ingram, resulting in a powerful chant-like chorus. Lyrically, “Drag Him to the Roof” is a interesting tale of a man who thinks he’s escaped the long arm of the law only to discover that’s not quite the case.
Lukather and Mike Porcaro pour on the main theme, but it’s Simon Phillips whose high-hat work and octabons steeps out immediately in the mix. Phillips’ drumming is simply brilliant and very unlike anything his predecessors would play.
Before you know it, the song moves into a progressive rock mid-section where Lukather, Paich and Phillips square off in a dizzying display of musicianship which ends just as its getting started. Paich, in particular, gets to stretch out for the first time on the album.
What more could we want? Well, “Drag Him to the Roof” could be longer, but there’s an equally impressive (and extended) live version on Falling In Between Live, which features Greg Philliganes on keyboards and Bobby Kimball with Tony Spiner on vocals.
It’s actually a wonder “Drag Him to the Roof” made it on to Tambu, given the album’s theme. For that, we thank Toto. We’ll take it any way we can get it.
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