No, no, no---the other custom of the sea

October 3, 2013 12:06 PM

You know what they say… When in Africa, create a mimed rendition music video of the 1983 smash hit “Africa” by Toto and post it on Youtube? I actually don’t know anyone who says that, but that’s just what the crew of a Subsea 7 contracted OSV did and their video is making the rounds this week on the internets. (slytp via gCaptain)

Custom of the sea really is a thing.

posted by resurrexit (56 comments total)

Another cover of "Africa," by Retrocity.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:12 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

Eh. Wake me up when GWAR does a version.

I get deranged down in aaaaafricaaaaa
posted by Naberius at 12:15 PM on October 3, 2013 [6 favorites]

Africa makes me happier than it should. Or at least happier than I'd prefer. It's just so wonderful.

Hang in there til just before 4 minutes for a real treat.
posted by uncleozzy at 12:19 PM on October 3, 2013 [5 favorites]

Not bad at all. I particularly appreciated bucket-drum dude and the bit with the fish.
posted by brennen at 12:22 PM on October 3, 2013

Brilliant.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:26 PM on October 3, 2013

I love a well-done (or just fun) lip sync. This one has always cracked me up because the dude on the right pretty much nails Annie Lennox.
posted by jquinby at 12:29 PM on October 3, 2013 [4 favorites]

Delightfully weird. Toto, however, was terrible.
And you damn retro-loving kids better not even think about reviving this sound, you hear me? And that goes double for Asia and 80s-era Foreigner and Yes.
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:31 PM on October 3, 2013 [3 favorites]

But what if the heat of the moment really does shine in our eyes?

jk this sound is terrible and it sounds like fucking a jacuzzi filled with cheap white wine spritzer
posted by The Whelk at 12:39 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

This video is as adorable as the lyrics are awkward: "I know that I must do what's right / As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti." Really: Olympus. Above the Serengeti.
posted by mochapickle at 12:42 PM on October 3, 2013 [3 favorites]

It's a great song for me to fail at at karaoke, because I can never get the phrasing and rhythm of the line "Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti" right which frustrates me so much because it's such a stupid line. How does Kilimanjaro rise like Olympus? Why doesn't it just rise like Kilimanjaro? Olympus doesn't rise above the Serengeti and Kilimanjaro DOES, so why the comparison? What the fuck?
posted by Cookiebastard at 12:43 PM on October 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

GODDAMNIT MOCHAPICKLE
posted by Cookiebastard at 12:43 PM on October 3, 2013 [6 favorites]

And Kilimanjaro doesn't rise above the Serengeti in the first pace, which somehow only makes the line that much sweeter.
posted by Hildegarde at 12:46 PM on October 3, 2013 [5 favorites]

Man, that is smooooth myuuusic.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:46 PM on October 3, 2013

Well Kilimanjaro is closer anyway.
posted by Cookiebastard at 12:47 PM on October 3, 2013

The awkward syllable emphasis on "Serengeti" reminds me of my dad's attempts at writing raps
posted by scose at 12:50 PM on October 3, 2013 [3 favorites]

I love how much of the crew got in on this. I also love the dude on the hook at about 3:30.
posted by mstokes650 at 12:52 PM on October 3, 2013

Clearly, some of those people had never heard this song before the dude showed up with the camera.

Which, I mean, what kind of world do we live in where that's possible?!
posted by madajb at 12:53 PM on October 3, 2013

Guys relax it's just an ambiguous modifier. Add some commas: It rises, like Olympus, above the Serengeti.

It's a great song for me to fail at at karaoke because it's too high for me to hit half the notes on, but drunk me chooses to forget that.
posted by ropeladder at 12:54 PM on October 3, 2013 [4 favorites]

I'm suddenly filled with a desire to hear the line with the actual word 'comma' added in:
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises - comma - like Olympus - comma - above the Serengeti

Except that, of course, even more than that what I want is not to hear this song ever again.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 12:55 PM on October 3, 2013

Oh hey this is also a good place for a link to my one, glorious submission to a mefi music challenge!
posted by ropeladder at 12:57 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

Senegalese artist Tukuleur did a fantastic French-language version of the song.
posted by drjon at 12:57 PM on October 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

's OK, but it's no Numa Numa, Call Me Maybe, or Ding Dong song
posted by BlueHorse at 1:01 PM on October 3, 2013

This is why we have Teh Internets.
That video just keeps giving and giving.
posted by Dr. Wu at 1:03 PM on October 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

Genghis Barbie.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 1:06 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

You people actually do karaoke?
posted by slogger at 1:15 PM on October 3, 2013

Do you not?!?
posted by Cookiebastard at 1:23 PM on October 3, 2013 [3 favorites]

> on the internets.

Incidentally, can I say how much I love that one offhand comment by GWB was enough to turn "internets" into a word? I hear people call it that as much if not more often than "internet."
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:27 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

I wish I was on a boat.
posted by bicyclefish at 1:31 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

I have a deep, abiding love for this song. It started out as a mid-twenties, "ironic" thing and just sort of spiralled from there, to the point where I know it's dumb and cheesy and probably offensive, but there's just some bit of authentic emotion in the song that I love, despite the fact that I'm sure no one in Toto has actually been to "Africa" and might not even know that it's a continent, not a country.

That French version by an actual person from an African country is great, too.

And I loved this video.
posted by lunasol at 1:44 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think the most interesting thing about that video was seeing different shots around a big boat like that.
posted by slogger at 1:46 PM on October 3, 2013

If you've ever been on work ship, you know that you can forgive pretty much anyone pretty much anything.
posted by 3.2.3 at 1:52 PM on October 3, 2013 [3 favorites]

"Africa" is totally cheesy but it's Our Song for my wife and me. For no reason, honestly, other than that somehow it was on the radio all the time when we started dating and it had no good cause to be.

(I don't really know Toto's other output, but their score for Lynch's Dune is pretty awesome.)
posted by kmz at 1:53 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

I loved the scenes in the kitchen / galley!
posted by Omnomnom at 2:05 PM on October 3, 2013

in the kitchen / galley!
posted by Omnomnom

Oh you would wouldn't you
posted by resurrexit at 2:34 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

This gives me flashbacks to rollerskating down at the rink with my friends, with the little disco-ball flickering across the crowd. ALL-SKATE, THIS IS AN ALL-SKATE.

Man, that guy over there can skate backward.
posted by theatro at 2:42 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

Toto, however, was terrible.

Ahem. Jeff Porcaro was not terrible.

See Rosanna's Shuffle.
posted by gen at 2:50 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

I liked it. Especially the outtakes.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 3:03 PM on October 3, 2013

Henceforth, the answer to any "What should I name my ___" question shall be "The Bourbon Peridot."

(here's what the ship looks like, by the way. SO COOL.)
posted by argonauta at 3:28 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

Africa is nice but this is my favorite Toto song
posted by Gronk at 3:59 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

I like 'Africa', but I'm also a fan of hit pop songs with odd time signatures. (See also: 'Solsbury Hill' by Peter Gabriel, 'Say Hello' by April Wine and 'Hey Ya' by Outkast.)
posted by spoobnooble II: electric bugaboo at 5:25 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti" right which frustrates me so much because it's such a stupid line.

There is something pretty wonderful about using a European mountain half the height of Kilimanjaro to illustrate how high it rises, and then also getting where it rises over wrong.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 5:48 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

I don't know if this pushes over into political correctness, but when I was in Kenya for 5 weeks just recently, I totes (or even tototes) thought about doing something like this with my work colleagues. Downloaded the song and everything, and then I was like, "Actually, that song is really not about Africa at all. It's not sung by Africans, or displays any kind of knowledge of Africa and Africans, and isn't it a bit blah of me to repurpose something not-at-all-about-Africa and pretend it's actually about Africa, and then make a video of me and my friends which are only having the most shallow interaction with Africa and once again kinda reducing a whole complex place to a prop for a Western 'journey of self-discovery'?"

And I decided not to do it (not ragging on these guys, however). We all memorised this one instead and sung it whenever a few Tuskers had been quaffed.
posted by smoke at 6:36 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

I always thought it was "sure as Kilimanjaro rises like a leopardess above the Serengeti..." Which makes a hell if a lot more sense-yachtrockwise--than Olympus.
posted by Chrischris at 6:39 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

2:55: Epic beard.
posted by googly at 6:40 PM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

This gives me flashbacks to rollerskating down at the rink with my friends, with the little disco-ball flickering across the crowd. ALL-SKATE, THIS IS AN ALL-SKATE.

So.. my wife was in the room when I read this (she's a few years older than me) so I asked her what an 'all-skate' was. She explained: 'How do you not know that? This is a girl's skate, this is a guy's skate, this is a couple's skate, THIS IS AN ALL-SKATE, jesus I don't know why I even..' and then she walked out of the room.
posted by xorry at 6:51 PM on October 3, 2013 [8 favorites]

xorry: 'How do you not know that? This is a girl's skate, this is a guy's skate, this is a couple's skate, THIS IS AN ALL-SKATE, jesus I don't know why I even..' and then she walked out of the room.

I just laughed so hard I scared the cat.
posted by tzikeh at 7:21 PM on October 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

The line that makes me crazy is "time to do the things we never had." WTH?

When I am running and it comes on my playlist I add a loud "DONE" to the end to make it "time to do the things we never had DONE", which still doesn't work aspectually, but is better than the original. It freaks the hell out of passing runners, too, which is just a happy bonus.
posted by lollusc at 7:27 PM on October 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

Okay, now I actually watched the video. That is awesome. I especially love the bits where it seems like the guys AREN'T totally into it. Like at 2:15 and 3:49 where they don't really seem to know the words, or the whole bit around 2:44 where they have this look on their face like, "Oh god, how did we get roped into this?"

There's something about videos of men in uniform singing kitschy pop songs... It reminds me of the Danish soldiers doing the Kosovo/Kokomo video that did the rounds a few years ago. (I can't find a decent quality version to link to.)

I also love that on a ship that presumably travels all over the world, the crew are still excited enough about going to Africa that they want to mark it in some way.
posted by lollusc at 7:37 PM on October 3, 2013

The crew of Subsea 7 should totally do a calendar. I'd buy it.
posted by thinkpiece at 4:25 AM on October 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

If you hate lyrics that don't make sense I recommend you avoid Yes and America.

Unless you already were.
posted by tommasz at 4:41 AM on October 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

There are lyrics that don't make sense, that make sense, like for instance "Come Together" by the Beatles. And then there are lyrics that don't make sense, that don't make sense, like America's "Horse With No Name". The lyrics to "Africa" by Toto are just stupid. I like all three kinds.
posted by Cookiebastard at 6:33 AM on October 4, 2013 [3 favorites]

Chrischris: "I always thought it was "sure as Kilimanjaro rises like a leopardess above the Serengeti..." Which makes a hell if a lot more sense-yachtrockwise--than Olympus."

As a kid I was sure that Kilimanjaro rose like an empress above the Serengeti which, though awkward, wasn't any more awkward that the rest of the lyrics.
posted by jquinby at 6:36 AM on October 4, 2013 [3 favorites]

"When in Africa ... contracted OSV"

Picturing some people using sick-leave downtime in a hospital to make a music video, I was googling for a tropical disease with the initialism OSV.

Get well soon!
posted by sloe at 6:39 AM on October 4, 2013

There is something pretty wonderful about using a European mountain half the height of Kilimanjaro to illustrate how high it rises, and then also getting where it rises over wrong.

You're assuming that the like refers to the where, rather than to the as. Since it's common knowledge that Olympus is European, not African, the listener can discard the notion of the line referring to Olympus' geographical location. So if not that, what aspect of the mountain's rising is it referring to? Well, Olympus has mythical qualities that make it a world class mountain. Good company for Kilimanjaro.

(Yes, of course it's a silly line, but not in the ways it's being criticized. Lot of sneer here for a what is at base a pretty damn good bit of popular music. But then, I have a lot of respect of ABBA as well, so there you go.)
posted by IndigoJones at 12:43 PM on October 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

I like the song a lot (synth solo excepted), but it's hard to deny that particular line is an enjoyable medley of hamfisted metaphor and awkward rhythm.

I actually always heard the lyrics as "I guess it rains down in Africa", so I always assumed they'd never actually been there and were working from half-formed tv and encylopedia impressions of the place, just like I was.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 2:11 PM on October 4, 2013 [6 favorites]

Jon Mitchell: I actually always heard the lyrics as "I guess it rains down in Africa",

There's nothing that a hundred men on Mars could ever do.
posted by tzikeh at 4:50 PM on October 4, 2013 [8 favorites]