Toto’s “Selfish” is a mid-tempo bluesy song which, on the original release of the 1999 album Mindfields follows the blues epic “High Price of Hate.” Unlike the preceding track, “Selfish” succeeds because it gets to the musical point without wasting a note.
David Paich’s Wurlitzer piano gets things off to a rollicking start, then Simon Phillips enters with an appropriately restrained backbeat is accompanied by Mike Porcaro’s simple-yet-perfect bass patterns. Steve Lukather does double duty, with a tidy rhythm part and slinky slide licks and solos. While not my favorite Lukather slide solo (“The Bomber” from the Toto guitarist’s side project Los Lobotomys comes to mind), Lukather’s playing here is perfectly appropriate for the song.
Bobby Kimball’s lead vocal is raw yet powerful. Unfortunately, after reading Steve Lukather’s book, The Gospel According to Luke, I can’t help but wonder how many takes it took to get there with the prodding of Toto’s resident vocal taskmaster David Paich.
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