Kingdom of Desire is the eighth studio album by Toto, released in 1992. It is the first album on which guitarist Steve Lukather assumed sole lead vocal duties and the final album to feature drummer Jeff Porcaro, who died during rehearsals for the tour promoting this album. The album was mixed by Bob Clearmountain and dedicated to Jeff in his memory.
Background and recording
During the tour for The Seventh One, lead singer Joseph Williams was fired from Toto.[4] In between The Seventh One and Kingdom of Desire, the band released Past to Present, a compilation album which contained four new tracks. Multiple vocalists were considered to replace Williams for the new tracks, including original singer Bobby Kimball (although not included on Past to Present, Kimball's contribution "Goin' Home" would ultimately be released on Toto XX). At the suggestion of Columbia director of A&R, the band ultimately auditioned South African singer Jean-Michael Byron.[4] Byron was championed by Jeff Porcaro and hired by the band to perform the new tracks on Past to Present. Steve Lukather described Byron's live performances with Toto as "horrifying."[4] As a result, not unlike the prior tour with Williams, Lukather was pressed into often assuming lead vocals. Byron became the fourth lead vocalist fired by Toto.
Left, once again, without a lead singer, the band decided their next album would be performed by the core band, Lukather, Jeff Porcaro, David Paich, and Mike Porcaro, and would be a more rock-oriented record, not unlike their fifth album, Isolation. Lukather would assume lead vocals for the album. Kingdom of Desire was recorded throughout most of 1991, primarily written through jam sessions, though two tracks were written by Danny Kortchmar, "Kick Down the Walls" and the title track.[4] The basic tracks and overdubs were done at Skywalker Studios in California with producer Greg Ladanyi and mixed by Bob Clearmountain.[4]
During the recording of Kingdom of Desire, Toto did a summer tour in Europe, where they played the Montreux Jazz Festival. In addition to classic tracks like "Africa" and "I'll Be Over You," the band performed "Kingdom of Desire" and "Jake to the Bone," both of which would appear on Kingdom of Desire. A CD, DVD and Blu-ray of the performance was released in 2016 as Live at Montreux.
Jeff Porcaro died on August 5, 1992, of heart disease, one month before the release of Kingdom of Desire. He was 38 years old. AllMusic describes Porcaro as "arguably the most highly regarded studio drummer from the mid-70s to the early 90s." He would be inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1993. In live shows, Toto has often dedicated Kingdom of Desire track "Wings of Time" to Porcaro, who wrote the lyrics, and later, to his brother, Mike, who died from complications of ALS on March 15, 2015. The final line from the song's chorus can be found on his tombstone at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).
Reception and tour
Upon completing the album, Columbia Records executives indicated they were unhappy with Kingdom of Desire and were not going to release it. Lukather has indicated this was the "last straw" between Toto and Columbia and they would immediately start looking to leave the label.[4] However, Columbia was not willing to release the band and they would record two more albums for the label, Tambu and Mindfields. Kingdom of Desire was released outside of the U.S. in September 1992 and was well received. Thus, the single "Don't Chain My Heart" was a real hit in France during the winter of 1992-1993. Eight months later, Columbia relented and also released the album in the U.S. on its Relativity label.
Toto had sold out a number of arena dates in Europe to support Kingdom of Desire prior to the death of Jeff Porcaro. Though devastated by the loss of a founding member and lifelong friend, the band asked Simon Phillips to play drums on the forthcoming tour. The first song the band rehearsed with Phillips was "Hydra" and his performance made a strong impression on Paich, Lukather, and Mike Porcaro.[4] Phillips would become a permanent member of Toto and remain with them for the next 21 years. Toto has credited him with helping them continue on after the tragic loss of Jeff Porcaro.[5]
Kingdom of Desire has an AllMusic User Rating of four stars.[6]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Toto, except where noted[7]
Recorded by Anas Allaf, Mike Arvold, Shawn Berman, Kyle Bess, Ken Deranteriasian, Bob Edwards, Jeff Graham, Rob Jaczko, Dick Kaneshiro, Fred Kelly Jr., Ed Korengo, Keith Kresge, Tim Larber, Randy Long, Jeff Lorenzen, Rick Plant, Chris Rich, Rail Rogut, Thom Russo, Darian Sahanaja, M.T. Silva, Mick Stern, Bart Stevens and Randy Wine.
An interesting fact is that the lyrics printed on the cassette liner or in the CD booklet have the second chorus of each song translated into a foreign language - German (track 1), Japanese (track 2), Italian (track 3), Swedish (track 4), French (track 5), Dutch (tracks 6 and 9), Danish (track 7), Spanish (track 8), Portuguese (track 10) and Russian (track 11, in the latter case as poetry of decent quality).
