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‘People Were Pounding on the Wall, Yelling at Me to Stop Playing’: Toto’s David Paich on the sessions he still can’t believe became hits, from “Africa” to Boz Scaggs’ “Lowdown”

Toto’s David Paich on the sessions he still can’t believe became hits, from “Africa” to Boz Scaggs’ “Lowdown.”

The release of Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary, now streaming on HBO Max, features Paich as one of the most amusing talking heads, an experience that helped change his perspective on the term. Boz Scaggs’ Silk Degrees and Michael Jackson’s Thriller, for starters, are imprinted with his keys, as are Steely Dan’s early records and Cheryl Lynn’s grooviest hit. We started playing and Miles stopped us immediately and said, “What the hell is this, Ferrante and Teicher?” They were a known tuxedo-society-playing duo that used to be very popular — very white and high-collar society kind of thing.

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