Toto’s later-resequenced version of Mindfields solves the song-order issue raised in my review of the original opening song, “After You’ve Gone.” The All In box set could have gone a little further and edited the album.
Composed by Toto and Stan Lynch, “High Price of Hate” is packed with distorted Steve Lukather lead guitar, growling Hammond B-3-like organ from David Paich and slightly behind the back beat playing from Simon Phillips and Mike Porcaro. Bobby Kimball, not to be outdone, delivers a bluesy lead vocal totally fitting of the narrative. Indeed, the lyrics go beyond boy-loses-girl type blues cliches.
However, a third of the way into “High Price of Hate,” at the bridge, the song is basically over – or it should be, anyway. The fantastic finger-picked blues solo by Lukather and the end organ solo by Paich seem wasted on this overly long song.
A rearranged version of “High Price of Hate” could have saved some fantastic playing, but the song disrupts the flow of the album. There is a slightly shorter version available on the first reissue of Mindfields, but Toto’s slow-burning blues seems out of place among the rest of this project’s more AOR-focused material – even at the shortened length of 9:22. Instead, Toto should have realized that “High Price of Hate” is really only an interesting bonus track.
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