Great Rock Albums of 1982: Survivor- Eye of the Tiger

A joke that made the rounds back in the early 80s was that Survivor was the band that Sylvester Stallone discovered. Rumour had it that the actor liked this band so much that he insisted they played on the soundtrack for "Rocky III." The extent of the truth in that theory is rather fuzzy in my recollection but Survivor's contribution to the soundtrack to the film led to them having one of the best known singles in 1982 and opened the eyes of many to the album of the same name.

The album "Eye of the Tiger" proves that Survivor were just too good to be a one hit wonder. There are just too many good songs on this album. Keeping with the 1982 tradition, the album opens with the big single, which has one of the most memorable intros in rock history. Like it or not, the opening to the title track is one that you can't get out of your head. Now for the rest of the album, which tries to be progressive hard rock throughout. The second track and third track are a bit more keyboard oriented but I still like "Hesitation Dance." Then things rock out more with "The One That Really Matters." It has a crunching guitar intro and the song goes more hard rock. Next comes, "I'm Not That Man Anymore" and that gets my vote for best guitar solo on the album. Trust me, that solo cooks! "Children of the Night" is the ballad on the album and it's not bad.  The penultimate track is also their second biggest single, "American Heartbeat." It didn't get to number one like the title track but had to settle for number seventeen. I thought that was fair enough because it's not as good. The closer is a bit of a funny one. "Silver Girl" starts sort of hard but then goes very progressive, almost space rock in the middle to come back in harder at the end. Even after all these years, I can't really say how effective that is. Still, I can't agree with whatever critic stated that the rest of the album didn't live up to the title cut. There are some good tracks on this album, if you can get Rocky out of your head.

Track Listing:

1. Eye of the Tiger

2. Feels Like Love

3. Hesitation Dance

4. The One That Really Matters

5. I'm Not That Man Anymore

6. Children of the Night

7. Ever Since the World Began

8. American Heartbeat

9. Silver Girl

[caption id="attachment_2631" align="aligncenter" width="274"] Survivor[/caption]

Dave Bickler- lead vocals

Frankie Sullivan- lead, rhythm, acoustic guitars, backing vocals

Jim Peterik- keyboards, rhythm guitars, backing vocals

Stephen Ellis- bass

Marc Droubay- drums

Even if Sly Stallone did sort of discover Survivor, who cares? After all, he did the music world a favour by doing so. This album is proof of that.

Next post: Robert Plant- Pictures at 11

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