Steve Porcaro’s official return to Toto hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves, probably because he’s always receded into the background amongst wide-angle personalities like Steve Lukather or Bobby Kimball. An import-only bonus track from the upcoming Toto XIV fixes that.
“Bend” is, in fact, all Porcaro - a triumph of conception, from top to bottom, from an often-overlooked figure who added some deliciously offbeat things to Toto’s first six albums. And that’s to say nothing of one of Michael Jackson’s signature songs in “Human Nature.”
You’d never know it, of course. Even on Toto’s most recent tour, in celebration of their 35th anniversary, frontman Joseph Williams initially took the mic for renditions of the deprecating Porcaro’s “It’s a Feeling,” from 1982’s Toto IV. Only later, as the tour progressed, was Steve Porcaro pushed back to the front for this signature expression of a cuckold’s sorrow.
“Bend” showcases all of those same strengths, both in his delicately conveyed way with a vocal and the striking complexity of his idiosyncratic keyboard work - things that often got lost in a band of such outsized, polished talent as Toto, back in the day. Not anymore. Steve Porcaro is allowed to explore out to the edges of his musical vistas here, and the results are as involving as they are gorgeous. Narratively, “Bend” works almost as an answer to the roiling worries of “It’s a Feeling,” arriving in a moment of long-view acceptance when it comes to such matters of the heart.
That makes “Bend” a perfectly attenuated addendum to Toto XIV, which elsewhere underscores such a flinty maturity. Of course, Steve Porcaro’s presence on this album also completes a larger connection to Toto’s history, in siblings Mike and Jeff Porcaro’s devastating absence.
Credits:
Vocals, Synth [Samples] - Steve Porcaro
Songwriters - Michael Sherwood, Steve Porcaro
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https://www.youtube.com/user/geraldchen1/playlistsLyrics:
Out of the darkness
A light appears
Better angels fly
Moments of redemption
Between you and I
Over and over and again
We all just have to bend
So many hard lines
Are flexible
What would it give to take
Only need a moment
For it to snap and break
Brother or lover or a friend
We all just need to bend
'Cause if it breaks
We lose the power to learn from our mistakes
But if it bends
Then you and I can try to make amends
As better friends
It's almost over
We're older now
Better angels stay
Searching for an answer
And then it comes to me
Over and over and again
We'll all just have to bend
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFHlH_1wdFk