Greg Phillinganes walkthrough of Toto Rosanna and Africa parts

[GovernorSilver]

Amazing how smooth he looks, just calmly flitting from keyboard to keyboard to play both David Paich's and Steve Porcaro's parts.

 

 

[wd8dky]

Thank you for sharing this! 

[Stokely]

Oh man, where was this when I was (feebly) attempting to learn Rosanna from cassette in 1987

Yeah, I know, "the future."

Same goes for Foreplay Longtime and a number of other songs where I basically just said "F it, close enough" after wearing out the rewind key....

To be fair my issue on the Rosanna solo was not so much hearing what was going on, but playing those multiple parts (especially with a weak left hand).  I ended up doing a hybrid version that I could manage and no pitchforks were noticed.

[ElmerJFudd]

He’s a great choice for this kind of gig.  That setup is definitely showy.  Given the narrow range of those parts, split and layer on one or two boards will do it more efficiently.   Made a lot easier today with a MainStage setup.  But lots of keyboards and MIDI cables are so cool!  😊

[GovernorSilver]

Shows that he considered the intended audience for the act that he was hired to support.

[JohnH]

Part of the Rosanna solo he did not play and just waved his hands in the air- it's either sequenced or sampled just like it is on the record. He told me it's a secret when I asked him about it but that's ok. Super guy! Wish he'd have come back to the band, great singer too. Now they can't afford him and most of the current Toto is not name players. And giving the Roseanna solo to the sax player in the current touring band is a huge turn off and terrible.  Disgusting.  The keyboardists are supposed to play one of the most iconic keyboard solos of all time and instead it's Warren Ham honking away.  You can bet Luke wouldn't be giving one of his guitar solos to the keyboardists, Paich and Steve would never put up with this. 

[GovernorSilver]

The comment about replacing an iconic keyboards solo with a sax solo reminded me of Frank Zappa's cover of "Stairway to Heaven", in which he arranged Jimi Page's guitar solo for horn section and had the horns play it.   Thought it was hilarious at first, then I marveled at Zappa's brilliance.

[Mills Dude]

6 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

The comment about replacing an iconic keyboards solo with a sax solo reminded me of Frank Zappa's cover of "Stairway to Heaven", in which he arranged Jimi Page's guitar solo for horn section and had the horns play it.   Thought it was hilarious at first, then I marveled at Zappa's brilliance.

Dude, me and my buddy were setting in the Beacon Theater, 1988 I think, seeing Zappa.  Pretty much the same reaction when that horns started in with the guitar solo.  Hysterical laughing at how ridiculous it was followed by the silence of OMFG.

[o0Ampy0o]

This reminded me of Lou Reed switching his band to saxophones and replacing the spectacular guitars of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, which were so great we could tolerate Reed's vocals.

[analogika]

21 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

The comment about replacing an iconic keyboards solo with a sax solo reminded me of Frank Zappa's cover of "Stairway to Heaven", in which he arranged Jimi Page's guitar solo for horn section and had the horns play it.   Thought it was hilarious at first, then I marveled at Zappa's brilliance.

Oh wow. I wasn't aware of this version! Thanks! 

 

This is now one of my three favourite versions — the others being the one with Heart at the Led Zep Kennedy Center Honors, and the Dread Zeppelin version (which literally had us in tears, under our chairs, when they sprung it on us at a show as a final encore — this was before the second album came out). 

[o0Ampy0o]

I saw Robert Plant’s solo tour after his 2nd solo album and he had them playing Dread Zeppelin through the PA as we waited for the show to begin.

 

National Lampoon’s take on STH was good for a parody. Zeppelin shut that down. At least they just did a goofy version unlike their Rocky Mountain High which John Denver sued them for.