Saturday, June 2, 2012

Eye of Tiger - 30 years later; Survivor and Jim Peterik


From the songwriter himself:  "30 years since "Eye Of The Tiger" was released as a single! I remember right after it was released Survivor was booked to play at Six Flags in Gurnee. At the time, we had no idea how the song was going to do. But we walked out and the place was packed and we thought, "This is good..." and then we played EOTT at the end and everyone went crazy! I looked over at Frankie and went, "What is this?"   I mean, there were people screaming, fists in the air -- just insanity! We said, "Holy mackerel! I think we've got something here!" But it seems like a snap of the finger ago - hard to believe it's been thirty years. That was the high point of my career at the time, and in terms of the impact the song had on people back then and even to this day... it truly was a band effort and couldn't have happened without all the pieces in place. Between me and Frankie writing it, Marc Droubay and Stephan Ellis laying down that beat, the way Dave Bickler sang it - it was just one of those magic moments in music.  The song is still everywhere. A recent survey showed that 45% of the people questioned considered it their favorite motivational song. That's huge, especially 30 years after it was written. It still amazes me. I never thought that far ahead - in rock'n'roll, you only think about the current charts or maybe the upcoming year. To think that it's still around is a mind-blower. And every generation seems to discover it and make it their own. The young kids now are playing it in Rock Band! There's something in the DNA of that song that just won't let go.  I think part of the appeal is the simplistic arrangement. There's nothing blatantly 80's-sounding. It's guitar and drums and vocals, with a little piano. It really comes from the "less is more" school, and it's worked!  Thank you!!!  Jimbo (Jim Peterik).  Copied from Jim's Facebook wall.

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