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View Full Version : Toto's "Africa" - "Guess" or "Bless" the rains?

RickJay
11-03-2006, 01:27 PM
The other day "Africa" by Toto came on the radio. Very good song. It occurred to me that I didn't know wha tthe hell they were singing in the third line ("She's coming in twelve-thirty flight" as it turns out) so I looked up the lyrics. I was absolutely flabbergasted to read that the chorus goes,
I bless the rains down in Africa...
I've heard this song like a hundred times and I was absolutely certain it's "I guess the rain's down in Africa."

So I queue up the song on my iPod and... well, it still sounds to me like "guess," not "bless." All the lyrics sites I checked (okay, three of them) say "Bless" but they all steal from each other anyway so that doesn't mean a lot.

Is it "bless" or "guess"?
MovieMogul
11-03-2006, 01:33 PM
"Bless" makes sense if you look at the song in a quasi-mystical way (which seems supported by the natural exoticism employed in the rest of the lyrics).

"Guess" doesn't make any sense, unless the song was about a guy who approached you on the street, asking, "Tell me, is there rain down in Africa?" and you had to provide a non-authoritative, non-committal reply.
CalMeacham
11-03-2006, 01:42 PM
"Guess" doesn't make any sense, unless the song was about a guy who approached you on the street, asking, "Tell me, is there rain down in Africa?" and you had to provide a non-authoritative, non-committal reply.


But I understand that the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
SkipMagic
11-03-2006, 01:43 PM
It's "bless" according to Toto's web site (http://www.toto99.com/lyrics/ivlyrics.shtml).
Anaamika
11-03-2006, 01:45 PM
Oh, I thought it was "I miss the rains..." all this time, which makes more sense to me than blessing them!
Zebra
11-03-2006, 01:46 PM
I guess mess is right out.
Anaamika
11-03-2006, 01:49 PM
I guess mess is right out.
Golden Showers? :D
Caricci
11-03-2006, 01:51 PM
I don't know, but just yesterday, as I was driving home, I realized they were making 3 syllables out of Serengeti. Ser'ngeti,if you will.
Captain Lance Murdoch
11-03-2006, 02:32 PM
This song came on the music system the other day while I was at a restaurant with Mrs. M. and I wondered aloud just what the hell they were saying. I may have also offered a few unkind words as to the quality of the piece and to the musical merits of Toto in general.

Anyway, it sounds to me like "guess" too. I don't think "bless" really makes much sense either. What kind of men-gods are these Toto people who bless the rain?

I like to think they they say "I flushed the drain," "I messed with pain" or "I lost my brain."
Rube E. Tewesday
11-03-2006, 02:37 PM
And I always thought they were singing "I've felt the rains down in Africa".

In my defence, I had a really crappy sound system when the song was popular.
Anaamika
11-03-2006, 02:50 PM
Lance Murdoch??? Murdoch from the A-Team posts on our boards? Or is there another Murdoch?

Anyway, I really do like the song and the sound of it. I rather like Toto, too. *shrug*
Suburban Plankton
11-03-2006, 04:04 PM
I've always heard it as "bless".

But the real reason I posted here was to say that this is, in fact, the Greatest Song Ever Written, by virtue of the fact that it manages to use "Serengeti", "Olympus", and "Kiliminjaro" within the span of four measures.
gigi
11-03-2006, 04:11 PM
I don't know, but just yesterday, as I was driving home, I realized they were making 3 syllables out of Serengeti. Ser'ngeti,if you will.
...Kiliminjaro rises above the Seeeer-en-get-i (4) is what I hear.

And "bless".
you with the face
11-03-2006, 04:14 PM
I thought it was "miss" too.
pravnik
11-03-2006, 04:34 PM
"Guess" doesn't make any sense, unless the song was about a guy who approached you on the street, asking, "Tell me, is there rain down in Africa?" and you had to provide a non-authoritative, non-committal reply.The proper response in that circumstance is "the eagle flies on Friday." Then he hands you the top secret submarine schematics.
Kizarvexius
11-03-2006, 04:54 PM
Y'all were closer than I was by about a light year. I thought the line was "I passed the reins". You know, as in "I yielded up control".

Never mind.
Dr. Rieux
11-03-2006, 07:25 PM
Golden Showers? :D
...fill your eyes
Smiles await you when you rise... :D
BlueKangaroo
11-03-2006, 09:29 PM
I'm with Anamika and you with the face. I've always heard "miss".
tanstaafl
11-03-2006, 10:03 PM
I'll join in to add that I too always heard it as "I'll miss the rains..."

I'll also say I always heard the other line as "sure as Kilamanjaro rises like an empress above the Serengeti". Which almost makes sense but I guess "Olympus" makes more...
Rilchiam
11-04-2006, 01:06 AM
I'll also say I always heard the other line as "sure as Kilamanjaro rises like an empress above the Serengeti". Which almost makes sense but I guess "Olympus" makes more...

To the extent that it can make sense, since Kilimanjaro is not on the Serengeti.
running piglet cheese
11-04-2006, 05:54 AM
I'll add my misheard lyrics. "I left the rains". It really has a good beat and I can dance to it.
Martini Enfield
11-04-2006, 06:01 AM
You know, for years I thought the lyrics were "I bought the rains down in Africa- ie, the singer is some kind of Rain God, or else trying to help the country prosper by bringing rain to end the droughts etc.

Maybe I need to get my hearing checked...
11811
11-04-2006, 06:08 AM
The proper response in that circumstance is "the eagle flies on Friday." Then he hands you the top secret submarine schematics.

Kenneth? Is that you?
PerditaX
11-04-2006, 06:30 AM
I'll join in to add that I too always heard it as "I'll miss the rains..."

I'll also say I always heard the other line as "sure as Kilamanjaro rises like an empress above the Serengeti". Which almost makes sense but I guess "Olympus" makes more...

Well, I thought the line was "rises like a leo'press above the Serengeti. As in "a female leopard." It seemed like a cool image - a mountain "crouching" over the plain like a big cat. :cool:

I was really disappointed when I found out it was actually Olympus.

OTOH, I'm in the "miss the rains" camp.
Anaamika
11-04-2006, 09:51 AM
Hey i thought it was leo'press, too. Sigh.
Contrapuntal
11-04-2006, 09:54 AM
Kenneth? Is that you?250.789936Hz
Draelin
11-04-2006, 09:59 AM
Y'all were closer than I was by about a light year. I thought the line was "I passed the reins". You know, as in "I yielded up control".

Never mind.
Don't feel bad. I've always heard it as "reins," too. Although I usually flub the words before it because I never quite figured them out.
FriarTed
11-04-2006, 11:27 AM
Well, I thought the line was "rises like a leo'press above the Serengeti. As in "a female leopard." It seemed like a cool image - a mountain "crouching" over the plain like a big cat. :cool:

I was really disappointed when I found out it was actually Olympus.

OTOH, I'm in the "miss the rains" camp.

I always knew it was "bless the rains" but I'm also with you about the "lepress" (which is how it was spelled in my mind, tho I had the same mental image you did & not a female leper which is what my spelling would have meant.)

Anyway, I wanted to congratulate you for being the first to mention the "leo'press".
Khampelf
11-04-2006, 03:56 PM
I met Claude Rains, down in Africa.


But I'll forgive you, if you just can't see that happening.
Maastricht
11-04-2006, 04:06 PM
Y'all were closer than I was by about a light year. I thought the line was "I passed the reins". You know, as in "I yielded up control". Heh. New one; I always heard" "I passed the rains" as in " I endured and survived the rains" which made perfect sense to me. But then again, I'm not a native speaker of English.