BraveWords recently caught up with legendary Saxon singer Biff Byford for a chat about the band’s journey back in time, recreating material that shaped them musically. The British heavy metal giants are promoting their covers album, Inspirations, out now via Silver Lining Music. One of the unexpected songs is the band’s take on Toto’s "Hold The Line”, a track found on their self-titled debut from 1978, which soared the charts globally.  

“Well, I'll tell you the story of the song,” Byford begins. “I've told (Toto guitarist) Steve (Lukather) this because I've met him a few times. The way he plays that riff you know, he plays it on a root and fifth chord, which is just two notes, and because it's just two notes, usually on the E string and the A string, or sometimes the A string and the D string, but you can move up and down the fret very quick, playing that type of chord. And we basically took that style that Lucas played on that song, and used it for '747 (Strangers In The Night)' and 'The Bands Played On' if you listen to those. Even 'Princess Of The Night' is that similar style, and it enables you to play chords very fast. It's nearly like a solo really. That song influenced us in writing, I don't really think Toto influenced us too much, because they were a little bit sort of jazz, more jazz-funk oriented most of the time. But we just took the essence of the song, the skeleton of the song, which is the guitar riff actually, and we took the keyboard part and transposed it onto guitar. Then I sang it really rock-y rather than singing it more, I mean, there's a lot of R&B soul sort of influences in there the way they sing it, but I just sang it heavy rock. And a lot of people have said to me, you know, that could have been a Saxon song back in the day."

BraveWords: So there was never any band discussions about covering Toto's ‘Africa’, then!

Byford: “(Laughs) I don't think ‘Africa’ influenced us, although it's a beautiful song! Or ‘Rosanna’, we wouldn't cover ‘Rosanna’ because it's not that style. That style that Lukather came up with back in the day was very influential to our songwriting. The thing is, as well, when you're doing these albums you have to be honest, because if you're going to tell people this is a collection of songs and bands and music that influenced us, then you have to be honest. And that's why it's such a massive cross section of different bands and music, because, actually, we're trying to be honest, to let people know what influenced us. But it was from ‘Hold The Line’ that we ripped him off."
 

Tracklisting:

"Paint It Black"
"Immigrant Song"
"Paperback Writer"
"Evil Woman"
"Stone Free"
"Bomber"
"Speed King"
"The Rocker"
"Hold The Line"
"Problem Child"
"See My Friends"

"Paperback Writer" lyric video:

"Speed King" video:

"Paint It Black" video:

Inspirations "making of" documentary:

(Biff Byford live photo by Mats Andersson)