Side One
Anteater: In the two years since Toto first hit airwaves and record stores, a lot had happened: punk and New Wave had come in with full force and AOR was on the rise.
Anteater: Therefore I think it was kinda ballsy of them to start the album off with a nearly 8-minute long behemoth.
Unknown Soldier: This was the second Toto album I purchased after
Toto IV, I therefore had three to choose from and picked
Hydra strictly for its cover and the title track is as ballsy as that album cover.
Anteater: Hydra wasn't the first Toto album I'd really sat down with, but it was the one that convinced me that they were definitely more than just a particularly sharp pop-rock group. Paich's piano and keyboard syncopation on the opening title track are awe inspiring!
Anteater: It's not even that much of a stylistic leap from the first album. But the lyrics are rather fantastical, which in itself is kind of an evolution.
Unknown Soldier: The track has that opening ambient section that leads into David Paich's work and as great as David Paich's work is here, I find that guitar lead by Steve Lukather (You know the one) to be the perfect complement. It's a pretty basic hard rock lead but so effective.
Unknown Soldier: Musically the band were less all encompassing than the debut as here they are indulging in fantastical themes and I find the lyrics to be something that have never quite left me.
Anteater: Yeah, they tackle more obtuse material. Less "she broke my heart" and more sci-fi and Dungeons & Dragons-esque elaboration.
Unknown Soldier: Have you seen the video to Hydra?
Anteater: I have actually! Was really bad quality when I watched it before, but a lone swordsman going through what looks like the L.A. sewer system with nothing but leather and a big sword was pretty funny.
Unknown Soldier: I first saw it in 1983 I think on an 'Elvira Mistress of the Night' Halloween special and on that show were bands like Devo, the Doors, Clash, Joy Division, Blondie and Alice Cooper etc but the "Hydra" video for me was the pick of the bunch.
Anteater: Agreed. I also remember reading an interview at one point where Lukather mentioned that the band used to spend tens of thousands back in the early MTV days on music videos, but he said they might as well have "taken all that green and set it on fire in the backyard".
Unknown Soldier: Remember "Hydra" video came out before the MTV boom.
Unknown Soldier: And it was pretty great stuff, the kind of video that bands into fantasy rock would've been proud of.
Unknown Soldier: So overall, "Hydra" is one of my favourite Toto tracks, a rock behemoth in the true sense and one of a kind, the band never tried to copy it again either.
Anteater: Completely agreed. It was the epitome of cheese, but I give them props for embracing video at a time when other bands didn't even bother.
Unknown Soldier: I can imagine Dio probably being pissed off, that he didn't get to walk with a sword in a Rainbow video at that time.
Anteater: Lol! This actually leads me to a key observation on the album "Hydra" as a whole: its arguably better sequenced than the first record.
Unknown Soldier: It what sense?
Anteater: Well, because the title track is immediately followed by the lyrically related 'St. George And The Dragon'
Anteater: I'm not saying this is a concept record or anything, but you can tell they thought long and hard about how these songs should follow one another.
Unknown Soldier: Ah ok sure and agree, as the two tracks go hand in hand.
Anteater: Like 'Hydra', it has a strong piano lead and propulsive melody. But whilst the title track was written by the entire band, this one's a solo Paich composition.
Unknown Soldier: …and of course "St. George and the Dragon" is a more accessible track too.
Anteater: Oh definitely. I love Lukather's guitar lead about 2 minutes in!
Unknown Soldier: …and starts with the line 'can you tell me where I might find the hydra' clearly linking the two songs.
Anteater: The title track mentions a Dragon King at several points, but I don't know if that's the same thing as the 'hydra" he speaks of in 'St. George'.
Unknown Soldier: I also think it may be the band's richest track lyrically. For example the title of the journal is taken from a line in this track.............. I just changed 'the' for 'that'
Unknown Soldier: I'm not sure of that either (‘The Dragon King’), but there is a line that says he's 'wearing a familiar face'.
Anteater: The whole thing is a revenge metaphor.
Anteater: It ties the two songs together into the closest thing to a concept in the album, because after this we're led into '99' which was the key single but a completely different beast lyrically.
Unknown Soldier: Both "Hydra" and "St. George and the Dragon" are as you say linked tracks, but "99" seems to segue in perfectly to make it three in a row.
Unknown Soldier: "99" is a beautiful dreamy track and the kind of thing that Steve Lukather always sung so well.
Anteater: At this point Paich has gotten pretty good at picking the right lead in the band for the songs he was writing.
Anteater: Himself or Bobby Kimball for the rock stuff, Lukather for groovier material, and Steve Porcaro for the occasional ballad.
Unknown Soldier: Do you think that they did different leads or just chose one to go with?
Unknown Soldier: I think the former but I know some bands tried different leads before choosing just one.
Anteater: I think Toto didn't have a true lead vocalist until 1984's
Isolation.
Unknown Soldier: Have you seen
THX 1138 the inspiration for the song?
Anteater: Yeah I have: one of George Lucas's "better" non-Star Wars outings
Unknown Soldier: I saw it so long ago that I hardly remember it, but supposedly there's a section in the "99" video that resembles the film.
Anteater: 99 is literally the name of the woman in the song, which is the big obvious connection to the source material. A nameless society where people have numbers assigned to them but little else.
Unknown Soldier: Anyway as said it's such a beautiful ballad, even though you said you don't consider it a ballad as such.....
Anteater: Critics whined at the time, saying that a song with obtuse source material wouldn't connect with audiences…
Anteater: …but I guess they forgot about Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody', among others :P
Unknown Soldier: Toto I think wrote that song with their progressive rock heads on and by 1979 that was kind of out of fashion. There finest ballad in my opinion though is "I Won't Hold You Back" but "99" is a close second…
Unknown Soldier: …and was certainly very contemporary for its time, but "99" is dreamier.
Anteater: '99' is a ballad lyrically, but the groove is faster than your typical love song.
Anteater: Ballads, atleast to me, are slow things with a lot of buildup.
Anteater: Like some of the big power ballad singles of the 80's and such.
Unknown Soldier: But before that, ballads were often a similar pace throughout like "99". It's kind of like 10CC's "I'm Not in Love" which of course is very dreamy as well.
Anteater: Yeah, that's one of the better ballads. Real masterpiece of recording too!
Unknown Soldier: So we've had three epic tracks and very different on Hydra so far.
Unknown Soldier: What do you think of "Lorraine"?
Unknown Soldier: Because for me we've had the best that the album has to offer.
Anteater: I like it a lot actually. Could have been a single. Rather knotty rhythm with some proggy phrasing in the second half.
Anteater: 'Hydra' is one of the few albums in Toto's whole discography that I think was a tad frontloaded though.
Anteater: 'All Us Boys' is pretty nondescript, but 'Mama' was the last song to even get released as a single.
Unknown Soldier: I think the piano intro is great as are David Paich's vocals in ‘Lorraine’, but I really don't like the chorus section: it really sounds like Toto are trying to be a British band in that chorus execution.
Anteater: I'd argue that all the dragons and swords imagery we've seen so far is pretty British of them anyway, but yeah...
Unknown Soldier: Yes but I feel that the band did that dragon and sword imagery with a Californian twang.
Unknown Soldier: Anyway, outside of Lorraine’s chorus, the song does have some pretty epic sections…and I agree "All Us Boys" is very average.
Anteater: Yeah, five minutes of plodding mehness. Which is something that debut managed to avoid.
Unknown Soldier: I guess there is not too much to say about "All Us Boys".
Anteater: Nope.
Anteater: However, the last three songs on 'Hydra' are actually interesting.