Master Index of Archived Threads


Survivor Island

1. "Eye of the Tiger" (#1, 1982)

3 votes

2. "American Heartbeat" (#17, 1982)

0 votes

3. "I Can't Hold Back" (13, 1984)

3 votes

4. "High on You"(#8, 1985)

1 votes

5. "The Search Is Over" (#4, 1985)

0 votes

6. "Burning Heart" (#2, 1985)

1 votes

7. "Is This Love?" (#19, 1986)

0 votes

8. Other (Please specify)

1 votes

Edgy MD Sep 02 2014 10:11 PM

Oh, you may like to think Survivor begins and ends with "Eye of the Tiger," radio programmers, but their 13 loyal fans beg to differ. Survivor had a nice little run of success, charting 18-20 times stateside, and even had another overwrought Rocky song. They also had this Black Sabbathy thing going where they kept bouncing back and forth between two lead singers, eventually touring with both of them in more recent times. The alternating was symbolic --- as the band alternated between, on one hand, cut-rate Foreigner brand of cock rock, and on the other, a the cut-rate Journey cheesy-but-hooky romance rock. But one (the recently departed Jimi Jamison) was there for most of the hit run, while the other (Dave Bickler) had less success, but sang their only #1, before polyps on his vocal chord forced him to yield the mic for the rest of the eighties. You, naturally, must choose which of these Survivor cuts makes your desert island mix tape, or pay unthinkable consequences. And really, if you can't bring yourself to honor Jimi Jamison's passing by revisiting these mid-American arias, then for the love of all that's decent, just taste the gold metal-quality cheese that's on display in the "I Can't Hold Back" video (with the accidental Was (Not Was) cameo.) You owe yourself that much. 1. "Eye of the Tiger" (#1, 1982) [youtube]btPJPFnesV4[/youtube] 2. "American Heartbeat" (#17, 1982) [youtube]jN73mvEdWjI[/youtube] 3. "I Can't Hold Back" (13, 1984) [youtube]GaMcsKtBDwE[/youtube] 4. "High on You"(#8, 1985) [youtube]fxhueyC70cU[/youtube] 5. "The Search Is Over" (#4, 1985) [youtube]xELTfJ-ZVBc[/youtube] 6. "Burning Heart" (#2, 1985) [youtube]Kc71KZG87X4[/youtube] 7. "Is This Love?" (#19, 1986) [youtube]d812E8q7I4A[/youtube] 8. Other (Please specify)

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 03 2014 08:29 AM Re: Survivor Island

They're such a great candidate for the DIMT I never woulda thought of them. To me, Survivor wasn't so much a band as some construct specifically built to deliver songs to accompany shitty Stallone films, and as such, in my mind, came to represent all that was wrong with them: the cookie-cutter stories, the way they bashed you over the head with GUTS ("In the HEAT of ATTACK, it's PASSION that KILLS!"), and the crass product placement (and the products themselves: particularly, BRUT and BOSS and SPORTSCREME. Just completely artificial. Survivor was the BRUT of rock n' roll. But... They must have come from somewhere. Wikipedia tells me they were a Chicago-based band whose early records sold poorly but had a song that Stallone liked. He asked them to write another like it, then went and completely changed Apollo Creed's character so he could repeat the song title over and over. Here's that song: [youtube:3proop2j]2DMSlx9jkqc[/youtube:3proop2j] I dunno. They're all purple stagelights and bullshit, but I suppose they had some ideas. Of the sappy romance songs I'd go with "I can't hold back" (dig the "nice beaver!" segment in the video). And Burning Heart for all its overheated drama and overproduction is kinda catchingly fist-pumpy.

HahnSolo Sep 03 2014 09:06 AM Re: Survivor Island

My gf at the time decided that "High on You" should be our song. God, our tastes sucked. I'll actually go off the board with "Caught in the Game" which was released between Eye of the Tiger and the more popular Vital Signs albums. [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_EIF8J44zk

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 03 2014 09:11 AM Re: Survivor Island

Fun Survivor fact: Original vocalist Dave Bickler was the voice singing in Budweiser's hilarious "Real American Hero" radio commercials. [youtube:20v9js3c]rA6qVDRzhF4[/youtube:20v9js3c] 9/11 ruined this campaign, making Bud turn to the less-funny "Real Men of Genius"

Edgy MD Sep 03 2014 09:15 AM Re: Survivor Island

Good show. HahnSolo, please click the "Other" selection. I went with "I Can't Hold Back." Amazing how many of their lyrics sound like rationalizations for date rape. PASSION and HOWLING in the NIGHT and the BURNING IN THE STREETS are forces that can not be resisted, and the jury will just have to understand. Also incredible: how many eighties videos are set (and shot?) in a New York that in no way resembles any New York that ever existed? The first half of "ICHB" --- that's Rizzoli's Bookstore, right?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 03 2014 10:16 AM Re: Survivor Island

The geek with the glasses was Survivor's original founder and lead singer, Jim Peterik. Now of course a successful author (can someone de-huge-ify?) [fimg=700:3i0fl5jp]http://jimpeterik.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ThroughtheEyeoftheTiger_FrontCover.jpg[/fimg:3i0fl5jp]

Edgy MD Sep 03 2014 10:20 AM Re: Survivor Island

De-hugified. Use the "fimg=" tool for huge pictures, and set an alternative width after the equals sign. God, I so want my memoir to include a foreword by Kevin Cronin.

cooby Sep 05 2014 05:15 PM Re: Survivor Island

Edgy MD wrote: God, I so want my memoir to include a foreword by Kevin Cronin. How about it?

Edgy MD Sep 05 2014 07:07 PM Re: Survivor Island

You want to read my memoir? Really?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Sep 06 2014 11:43 PM Re: Survivor Island

And whoa, after reading all about those times It's like I do remember Cause it was like, baby, better than "10" Framing device? So clever And I meant, every word I said When I said that I loved it I meant "Best memoir everrrrrrrr"