By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

SURVIVOR – EYE OF THE TIGER (1982)

In 1982, you would’ve probably had to find  yourself in a coma to have avoided hearing the “Eye of the Tiger” song somewhere. Between the Eye of the Tiger album, video airplay and its use in the Rocky III movie, the song was rather omnipresent.

While I’m sure some might’ve gotten sick of the song because I’m sure it was played to death, I have never found myself having that problem. Hell, I’m pretty sure I once owned a copy of the Rocky III soundtrack on vinyl, just so I could have an extra copy of the song!

But a funny thing happened as Survivor went from a band that had two previous albums flop commercially to a worldwide success. The “Eye of the Tiger” song completely eclipsed the album it was released on.

Seriously, I’ve been a Survivor fan for more than four decades and unless you are a hardcore fan of the band, most music fans would be hard pressed to really have much to say about the rest of the material on the album. Or even be able to name a song, perhaps.

And that’s a damn shame because while a retrospective review on AllMusic, at least according to the album’s Wikipedia page, dismisses the rest of the album pretty handily, the music on the album is actually rather good and in some cases GREAT. Hell, there’s a song on the album that is one of my all-time favorite Survivor songs and it was only released as a B-side for another track despite me thinking it is probably the second best track of the entire album.

The reason I decided to write about this album this week is tied to something in the here and now. The hard rock band Tyketto has a new album coming out called Closer to the Sun. The band released a video for the title track and I was checking it out. It was as I was listening that I noticed or at least thought I noticed that the vocals at times sounded as if singer Danny Vaughn was channelling the late ex-Survivor singer Jimi Jamison. I was struck by how similar I thought it sounded but wasn’t sure I wasn’t just hearing things. So I posted on a message board about it and another poster (the administrator of the whole website actually) concurred that the vocal did sound a lot like Jamison. With at least one other person confirming I wasn’t crazy, I was keen to tie in that little fact into a piece about another Survivor album. But since I’d already written about the band four times in the past and covered the first three albums Jamison was a part of, I had to pick an album from earlier in Survivor’s career and featuring original singer Dave Bickler. But hey, that’s okay because like I said, I’m a huge Survivor fan and I love their material with Bickler just as much as I love the albums with Jamison.

So why not approach this article by focusing on the band’s biggest album and their career-defining song?

Well, I’m definitely talking about the album, but after forty-four years, is there really all that much that hasn’t been said about the “Eye of the Tiger” song? I can’t really think of anything I could say that would be new or noteworthy. It’s simple, the song is amazing and I love it. The riff that powers the song, the tie to the movie that helped make the song a hit and the aspirational type lyrics. For me, it is one of the singular best songs I’ve heard in my lifetime.

But what about the rest of the songs on the album? People forget that there actually was another hit single from the album. Yep, it’s true! The song “American Heartbeat” was the second single released from the album and while it wasn’t as successful as “Eye of the Tiger”, the song did peak at #17 on the singles chart giving Survivor another Top 20 hit.

The “American Heartbeat” song is interesting. It’s got this keyboard-driven/laden intro that sounds like something you might’ve found opening up an ’80s sci-fi movie (though lyrically, it has NO sci-fi connotation at all, that’s just my impression of the song intro) and then the pace picks up. It’s a mid-tempo groove for the most part. The chorus features a gang vocal presence though the pacing doesn’t quite get all that much faster. It’s a good song, though clearly not as much of a rocker as “Eye of the Tiger”.

The third single released from the album was the song “The One That Really Matters”. It made no real dent in the singles chart which is a shame. It’s not quite as intense as “Eye of the Tiger” but it still rocks and has a cool guitar riff powering it as well. The lyrical content lends itself to a “love song” direction but with Marc Droubay’s drumming establishing a cool foundation and a damn fine guitar solo, it makes for a rather interesting musical journey.

That covers the singles from the album so now let’s look at the rest of Side One of the album. There’s three more songs to cover there and you can start with “Feels Like Love”. The song is fast moving and has a nice balance between the guitar and keyboard fueling the song’s musical score. Again, the lyrical content skews towards love song words but the song’s pacing is just rocking and the way Bickler’s vocals play through, this song is just fantastic! There’s bits in the song when the way Bickler phrases his singing that really catch my ear and make me really appreciate the song each and every time I hear it. The rocking nature of the music is great throughout but there’s a recurring bit where the track has a crash bang boom flourish that still gets me buzzing even now. This might’ve been an even better choice for a single than “American Heartbeat”.

Then we have the song “Hesitation Dance”.  The song title is kind of weird on its own but once you hear the song, you get it. There’s a great guitar riff in the song and the vocals are incredible with Bickler getting rather intenses at points in the delivery. For a song that pretty much talks about getting laid, the somewhat subtle way the lyrics get that point across was a nice touch. Musically, I love the guitar work. I have many issues with what guitarist Frankie Sullivan has done over the years diluting the band’s legacy, but given that he and keyboardist/guitarist Jim Peterik co-wrote all the songs (save one) on the album, he was on fire on this record with his playing.

The first side of the album closes out with the song “I’m Not that Man Anymore”. It’s clean and clear piano based opening sets a mood to kick things off. You are thinking it’s a straight forward ballad, but once the second verse of the lyrics starts, you get a cymbal crash coming into the mix before the song breaks out in full to a lively driving beat. I really dig this song a lot. However, I will say I would’ve liked to hear more of that piano in the intro if this song had been more of a straight on ballad. That said, I love the way the song mixes another intense vocal, story-laden lyrics, and once more, some fantastic guitar playing. The solo in the song is freaking awesome! And given that the song has a long instrumental outro (more than a minute of the song’s run time), you really get the full thrust of the guitar work from Sullivan here.

The second side of Eye of the Tiger kicks off with the song “Children of the Night”. Yes, there’s been a number of songs released over the years with that title but this isn’t a cover. But here’s something I didn’t know until I was researching for this album. Despite not being released as a single, Survivor shot a video for this song! I actually ended up watching it on YouTube because I had never known this fact or seen the video before. It’s a straight up band performance video. The song itself is pretty good, it’s lively pace aided by a nice vocal turn during the chorus featuring not only Bickler but both Peterik and Sullivan singing along as well. (At least if the video is to be believed). I will say that the overall lyrical content of the song is pretty pedestrian but I love the way this is yet another track that showcases Survivor’s hard rocking side to great effect.

The song “Ever Since the World Began” has a pretty interesting story to it. The song apparently was written for someone that had been fighting cancer and lost their battle. So the song had some emotional heft for Frankie Sullivan, but Jim Peterik has said that it was one of the last songs he played for his father before he passed away as well. Unless I have forgotten this information over the years, I don’t think I ever knew the backstory to the song.

As for the song itself, dare I say I love it? I wonder that because this is a ballad. But damn, this is a beautifully conceived track. The main lyrical passages play into the straight ballad song style, but then you get to the chorus and the song’s delivery changes intensity with a more focused musical style and Dave Bickler’s vocals take off into the stratosphere. He’s more in-your-face without losing the emotional component that comes from the lyrics. This track really showcases his vocals, perhaps most clearly of all the songs on the album as they seem just a bit higher in the mix to me. It’s just a fantastic number and since it does get more musically intense over the course of the song, it doesn’t simply rely on the balladry portion of the song to make you connect with it.

Since I already wrote about “American Heartbeat”, we can skip right to the album’s closing track “Silver Girl”. Remember when I said the album had one of my all-time favorite Survivor tracks on it (other than “Eye of the Tiger”, I mean)? Well, this is it. Keeping in mind that back in the day I actually heard the album in full AFTER knowing the title track so well first, I am not quite sure why I love this song so much, but from the first time I listened to the cassette I bought back then (and still have now), I just loved this song to the point where I have to catch myself from singing along.

The song’s opening instrumental flourish is rocking but the tempo slows down as the vocals come in for the first verse. The song has a great hook to it. I like the way the song’s pacing grows during that first verse. Slightly slower and methodical, then you can hear the song revving up until you get to the chorus and things are fully explosive without sacrificing the melodic nature of the song. Then you get the same structure to the song for the second verse and chorus. But after that, you get this mid-song break where it seems like the band is deciding where they are going to take the track as it heads towards its end. The guitar solo and riffing is quite cool before the song’s chorus gets a reprise as the song fades out and the album comes to its conclusion.

You know what? Anyone who dismisses this album as just filler behind the title track can flat out just kiss my butt! The Eye of the Tiger album is a fantastic collection of songs that do more than kill time behind the epic track. They are stand out songs all on their own and I thank my lucky stars every time I play this album!

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Eye of the Tiger album hit #2 on the Billboard album chart and achieved platinum sales certification. I actually own the album on cassette (obviously), vinyl and the remastered CD version from Rock Candy Records. That version includes the extended European version of the “Eye of the Tiger” song and an essay about the band.

The “Eye of the Tiger” song was the Number One song in the country for six weeks in 1982. It won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and was nominated for Song of the Year. It sold 2 million copies as a single and was nominated for Best Original Song at the 55th Academy Awards. The video for the song has been watched over a billion times on YouTube.

The song “Every Since the World Began” has had a bit of an after-life beyond the Eye of the Tiger album. Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw recorded a version of the song for his solo album Ambition. And Survivor’s own Jimi Jamison recorded a version of the song that was used both as his debut solo single and in the Sylvester Stallone film Lock Up.

Daryl Dragon, better known as The Captain from the pop duo The Captain & Tenille appears on the album credited with “additional keyboards, synthesizers and E-mu Emulator”.