♫ Hold The Line ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

dorothy-totoI was in search of a Stevie Wonder song to play tonight, but I’ve played them ALL in the past year!  Gee … one would think he was my favourite or something.  Anyway, in my search I came across this one that I have only played once before, and that was a couple of years ago.  For some reason, I forget about the band Toto, although I really like them.

According to SongFacts …

This pop nugget was the first single by Toto, a group made up of six very talented session musicians who had backed up artists like Boz Scaggs, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand and Jackson Browne. Written by their keyboard man David Paich with lead vocals by Bobby Kimball, it deals with the mysteries of love. It proved that a slick pop song created by top players could succeed without a great deal of hype or a charismatic lead singer. Toto was a Top 40 staple in the ’80s, releasing nine hit songs, including the #1 “Africa.”

“Hold the line” is an expression meaning to maintain your existing position, which in this case is the singer telling a girl to be patient and stay with their relationship.

The saying also has a more literal meaning, however, which is how David Paich came up with the title. “Hold the line” is what you tell someone on the phone if you want to put them on hold while you’re taking another call. This is typical in workplaces, but in the days before cell phones, some households (especially ones with teenagers) also had multiple phone lines coming in and could put callers on hold. Paich lived in one such household.

In his 2015 Songfacts interview, Paich said: “When I was in high school, all of a sudden the phone started ringing off the hook, and I had a situation where I was at the dinner table and I had three girls all call at the same time, so all the lights were flashing. I was kind of juggling girlfriends, and that’s how that came about.”

By 2008, guitarist Steve Lukather was the only original member still with the band when he decided to call it quits. He made this statement on the band’s official website:

“Honestly I have just had enough. This is NOT a break. It is over. I really can’t go out and play ‘Hold the Line’ with a straight face anymore. I was 19 when we cut the record. I am 50 now.”

Hold the Line
Toto

It’s not in the way that you hold me
It’s not in the way you say you care
It’s not in the way you’ve been treating my friends
It’s not in the way that you stayed till the end
It’s not in the way you look or the things that you say that you’ll do

Hold the line, love isn’t always on time, oh oh oh
Hold the line, love isn’t always on time, oh oh oh

It’s not in the words that you told me, girl
It’s not in the way you say you’re mine, ooh
It’s not in the way that you came back to me
It’s not in the way that your love set me free
It’s not in the way you look or the things that you say that you’ll do

Hold the line, love isn’t always on time, oh oh oh
Hold the line, love isn’t always on time, oh oh oh

It’s not in the words that you told me
It’s not in the way you say you’re mine, ooh
It’s not in the way that you came back to me
It’s not in the way that your love set me free
It’s not in the way you look or the things that you say that you’ll do

Hold the line, love isn’t always on time, oh oh oh
Hold the line, love isn’t always on time (Love isn’t always on time)

Hold the line, love isn’t always on time (love isn’t always, love isn’t always on time)
Hold the line, love isn’t always on time
Love isn’t always on time
Love isn’t always on time
Love isn’t always on time, oh oh oh

Songwriters: David Paich
Hold the Line lyrics © Spirit Music Group

35 thoughts on “♫ Hold The Line ♫”

  7. Not my favourite Toto song, however reading this I can see it was something of a ‘Just starting out’ type, promise of thing to come.
    They did morph their craft into the sublime ‘Africa’ and the evocative ‘Roseanna’. Luckily they figured on most compilations of American ‘rock’ in all its forms through 1980s to 1990s.
    Toto, Kansas, Journey, Boston, Hall & Oates, to name but a few. Liked them all.
    Thanks Jill

    Liked by 2 people

      • Music can be a vehicle in many ways. Those bands performed entertainment, that does not mean they were shallow and facile; take ‘Don’t Stop Believing,’ by Journey or ‘Carry On My Wayward Son’ by Kansas. They would reach out to large audiences with upbeat, broad and wide music.
        I daresay they were none of them angels, there were spats, there was money, some excess, though they did not publicise and revel in it. Depending on your tastes (I could never ‘get’ Georgy Porgy by Toto) there were ‘clunkers’.
        But overall they could raise folks spirits with the sheer energy, across airwaves and being together at concerts.
        That is no bad thing.

        (PS: And the video of ‘Roseanna’? Oh my. Let’s hear it for the dancers – Cynthia Rhodes (wonderful never grows old) and not forgetting the guys doing the West Side story pastiche- damn that was so cool!).

        Liked by 1 person

        • Hmmmm … you make a good point there! It doesn’t need to have a deep, dark message to have meaning. Given that I rarely hear the lyrics well enough to understand them, I’m usually happy if the tune just pleases my ears. Since I’ve started doing these music posts, though, and researching background and lyrics, I’ve learned to look deeper sometimes. Not a bad thing, but … sometimes it’s okay just to like the tune, too.

          I’ve never heard or seen the West Side Story pastiche … I shall go in search of. I have, however, seen West Side Story and it is among my favourite movies … love some of the songs and dance moves!

          Liked by 1 person

          • Sorry I didn’t make that clear Jill.🙃
            In the Toto video of Roseanna, aside from the band, and Cynthia Rhodes, there’s those eight male dancers, that’s the pastiche I was referencing.😀.

            And speaking as one who once had a collection of albums that tend to crop up as classics, you can have too much ‘Deep’ ‘Meaningful’ music. There’s nothing wrong with the other types…..
            Mind you there are limitations…..
            For example….

            Inane lyrics follow:
            That’s right, That’s right
            I’m sad and blue
            ‘Cause I can’t do the Boogaloo
            I’m lost, I’m lost
            Can’t do my thing
            That’s why I sing
            Gimme, Gimme Dat Ding Ah…
            Gimme Dat, Gimme Dat
            Gimme, Gimme, Gimme Dat
            Gimme Dat Ding, Gimme Dat
            Gimme, Gimme Dat, Gimme Dat Ding
            Gimme Dat, Gimme, Gimme Dat,
            Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Dat Ding (Oh Sing it one more time Momma)
            Oh, Gimme Dat, Gimme Dat
            Gimme, Gimme, Gimme Dat
            Gimme Dat Ding, Gimme Dat
            Gimme, Gimme Dat, Gimme Dat Ding
            Gimme Dat, Gimme, Gimme Dat,
            Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Dat Ding (Ah, you ain’t doin’ that late at night)
            Ah, what good’s a metronome
            Without a bell for ringing
            Not once, can’t anybody ever tell he’s swinging
            How can you tell the rythmn written on the bar
            How can you ever hope to know where you are?

            And that’s not the worst of it either.

            Liked by 1 person

  8. For some reason, I like to forget about the band Toto too. They had nothing like the same degree of success here as they did over there but they still got played a lot on the radio, sadly, so they were hard to ignore. Overblown, overwrought, overrated.

    Liked by 1 person

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