Toto have shared a studio recorded version of their cover of Weezer‘s ‘Hash Pipe’ after performing it at a gig in Vancouver earlier this month.
A fan-driven campaign back in May got Weezer to cover the Toto’s classic number one hit ‘Africa’, and the iconic band returned the favour by covering one of Weezer’s biggest tracks.
Asked why they decided to go with the ‘Green Album’ song, keyboardist Steve Porcaro said they originally wanted to cover Weezer’s ‘Beverly Hills’.
“I thought ‘Hash Pipe’ had a better melody,” Lukather said. “I love the message, you know what I mean?… And we wanted to do it justice.
“We wanted to do our thing to it, but still pay respect to it. And we added a couple of our kitschy little things to it, which I hope that they laugh [at]. We wish we could be in the room when they hear it.”
Listen to the studio version of ‘Hash Pipe’ below.
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The band also let their thoughts be known about Weezer’s cover of ‘Africa’, giving it a “B++”. The band, they said, “kicked ass on it.”
Lukather added: “Our music has such little nuance. We spent so much meticulous time. These guys stood this shit up in an afternoon.”
Meanwhile, Burger King played Toto’s ‘Africa’ for a whole day at one London restaurant.
“I bless the rains down in Camden Town, head to our restaurant there today if you want to sing along”, they wrote on their Twitter account earlier this week (August 7).
“Don’t do that to your employees listening to the same song on repeat all day is HORRIBLE”, one Twitter user wrote.
Another suggested: “Why not make it all restaurants and a yearly event to just have a day dedicated to africa by toto.” Burger King’s apparent love of the song comes after the cult hit was transformed into an online meme.