Customer Reviews

Survivor

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I discovered the band Survivor with the famous "Eye of the Tiger" hit, so I just wanted to try a Best-of album and any other album in their discography. I decided to try this first effort of Survivor because it contained no songs from the Best-of.
And now, I'm completely amazed of it. This is a great rock album.
I don't own the other albums but I guess this one is the BEST.

Believe me, it really rocks, better than "Eye of the tiger".

Personal ratings :

Somewhere in America - B+
"Somewhere in America, she waits for me...". Nice story, but the guitar riffs could be more elaborate.

Can't getcha offa my mind - A+
First amazing song. This synthesiser intro, yeah ! The subject of the song is common, but what a pleasure to hear this !

Let it be now - A+
My personnal favorite. It has a loud and catchy chorus that surronds you. What an atmosphere in this song !

As soon as love finds me - A
An interesting song that has a good vocals demonstration in the middle, followed by a guitar solo.

Youngblood - B+
A generic chorus, quite monotonous.
This song has a vocal solo.

Love has got me - B+
A slower song. The chorus is a little boring.
This time, the singer is Jim Peterik.

Whole town's talkin' - A
An interesting intro on acoustic guitar.
The chorus is slow and nice, like on a ballad.

20/20 - A
Survivor is pretty good for chorus.
This song has a good guitar demo.
If I had a mark to give, it would be 20/20.

Freelance - B+
Hmm... This reminds me a lot "Runnin' with the devil" from Van Halen. Similar guitar intro, similar first sentence.

Nothing can shake me (From Your Love) - A+
This song is a ballad. A soft song that becomes suddenly hard. I hear "Oh no, oh no" and after a catchy chorus, it becomes soft again. An excellent piece.

Whatever it takes - A
A nice intro on both guitar and synthesiser.
A nice dialog-bridge :
"Will you break the rules?"
If I gotta
"Will you play the fool?"
Every time

This album is really awesome. I wasn't born when it was realeased but I guess that it had no success and that it was terribly underrated. It's really hard to find some flaws in this ...
If you don't own it, don't hesitate to buy it.

Line-up :
Frankie Sullivan & Jim Peterik : Guitar & backing vocals
David Bickler : Lead vocals & keyboards
Gay Smith : Drums
Dennis Keith Johnson : Bass

I remember seeing Survivor at Rock It North, a tiny club just across the border in Wisconsin where 18 year olds could still legally drink. The band at that time had a not yet strong local following. Wow!! This was one terrific band that unfortunately fell into the homogenized trap that also befell Styx, REO, Journey, and others. I heartily recommend this album.

Anyway, to answer the above post: Rebel Girl was not on the original release. It should have been, as it is a great song. It was released on a 45 only. I wish I still knew where mine was. I have the song on a 25 year old TDK casette, and it still sounds good.

All groups have to start somewhere, and the way Survivor started with this album wasn't all that bad. While I prefer most of the music with Jimi Jamison later on, this album is still a good one. If you like rough, rugged, edgy, chunky, down-and-dirty, foot-stompin' rock, then this is the album for you. Each song is exhibited with virtually the same kind of flavor and technique, but all are very listenable and enjoyable enough. David Bickler, along with Frankie Sullivan and Jim Peterik provide the rough and somewhat raspy lyrics which are a perfect fit amongst the charging guitar of Sullivan and Gay Smith's pounding drums. "Somewhere In America" was Survivor's hit off this album, and is one of my favorites. I love the swaying up-and-down sound of Dennis Keith Johnson's bass in that song, and the song is a prime example of how Survivor music was back then; pure guitar power and crunching beats with rugged vocals. "Can't Getcha Offa My Mind" is another favorite of mine. It's a bit faster paced, and I love Bickler's flawless, melodic keyboards. It really gets you going. As with each song, the vocals are intense and soulful. "Nothing Can Shake Me (From Your Love)" is awesome! This song rattles through your system with some of the most intense vocals on the album, and the way the surging guitar chords and drum beats build up in that song together just echo through you! "Whatever It Takes" is great too. Some great keyboard and guitar work can be found in that song as well. Though not Survivor's best album in my opinion, no Survivor or classic rock collection would be complete without it. Grab this album and use it to party on down!

I originally bought this record in 1985, and I was blown away. I played the heck out of the record, made a tape of it, and put songs at the end of tapes I made of other records. Well, my tape got stolen, my young son trashed my turntable, and all I had were some old tapes with some of these songs at the end. I'd given up hope of ever finding this on CD, but finally it's here.

This CD is a lot more guitar-heavy than the later, Jimi Jamison era stuff, which may or may not be to your liking. Keyboards are not prominent on this CD, although they are used to nice effect when they are used. Jim Peterik is credited with playing guitar rather than keyboards like on the later stuff.

I just completed my Survivor collection with "Premonition" and "Caught In The Game". A reviewer for "Premonition" alluded to the varied sound of this CD compared to their later CDs, and after listening to all the Dave Bickler era CDs, I have to agree. It doesn't have quite as much of that "Survivor" sound that is evident on their later stuff. The drummer and bass players are not the same as in their following releases, and these two guys do have a lot of songwriting credits on this CD, so that may be part of the difference. Just about every other song on their next three CDs are written solely by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan. But, despite the slightly different sound, this is a most excellent CD. Not a bad tune in the bunch.

If you like the sounds of "Vital Signs" and "When Seconds Count", with their increased emphisis on keyboards, then this might be a little hard for you. Chances are you've never heard any of these tunes on radio. But if you are a Survivor fan, and if you like guitar-based hard melodic rock, grab this one now!

It's hard to believe that it took Survivor so long to rerelease their entire catalogue on CD, but they finally did it, and it's a good thing. I've heard all of their other albums, but couldn't find this one anywhere until now. While it may lack some of the depth of their later albums, it contains some of their catchiest, rocking melodies ever. As some of the other reviews pointed out, this one is more guitar-based than the Jim Jamison stuff is, and at times, it almost has an "Iron Maiden-lite" feel to it. Perhaps some people will be turned off by the lack of ballads which infused albums like Vital Signs and When Seconds Count, but if you're just looking for catchy, feel-good rock, definitely give this a try.

This was and IS the best album Survivor ever did....After they lost Dennis Keith Johnson on bass...that pretty much reduced them to some lame pop band....The bassist (if you want to credit him as one) who followed Johnson is a very weak player and doesn't even begin to offer the creativity and the chops that his predecessor did.

I have one big question......WHEN WILL THE RECORD COMPANY OFFER UP A DELUXE REMASTERED VERSION OF THIS ALBUM...complete with bonus tracks...as I am sure there must be several.

C'mon guys....get it together...This original lineup deserves the full treatment.

All that I can say is- it's great to see the entire SURVIVOR catalog finally out on c.d.!! Don't be afraid of this debut,because it contains some really good songs throughout.Although not quite as "polished" a sound as later more familiar albums-we're still talking about the songwriting talents of JIM PETERIK/FRANKIE SULLIVAN w/ the vocals of DAVE BICKLER here! give it a shot-I think you'll enjoy this one!

Survivor's first album may not be their best but still a great debut. The band was founded by songwriting guru Jim Peterik, with lots of top musicians such as Frankie Sullivan and Dave Vickler of Mariah, Gary Smith and Dennis Johnson of Chase. Jim Peterik, himself was part of Chase in latter days as lead vocalist. This album offers variety of power pop, hard rock, blues rock that represents late 70s. They had been really ahead of the game, but commercial success would had to wait until 1982 when Rocky III theme song EYE OF THE TIGER rocked the world. SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA is BOB SEGER/JOHN MELLMCAMP styled dynamic acoustic rock, while CAN'T GECHA OFFA MY MIND is somewhat like The Cars. AS SOON AS LOVE FINDS ME reminds me of STYX and QUEEN as in KILLER QUEEN/BOHEMIAN RAPSODY styled dynamism. YOUNGBLOOD can be the original prototype of EYE OF THE TIGER. LET IT BE NOW reminds a bit of HOLD THE LINE in TOTO's debut. LOVE HAS GOT ME is the only song that Jim Peterik leads the vocal part. Jim used to be the vocalist of latter days Chase and recently he sings some of the songs in Pride of Lions album. Dave Vickler was so great a vocalist then he gave up the lead vocal part to Dave. That was part of the reason this rock grop eventually became far beyond Jim Peterik rock project and we now have 6 more excellent melodic rock gems. WHOLE TOWN'S TALKING and 20/20 are some of my most favorite early Survivor tracks. Also must be noted is that this album was directed by that RON NEVISON who is known to be severe in track choice. ROCKIN' INTO THE NIGHT that was rejected as Survivor debut found a chance in 38 Special's ROCKIN' INTO THE NIGHT album that won them their first commercial success.

Recommended for late 70s/early 80s American rock fans.

I was lucky enough to get this release on CD a number of years ago as a Japanese import; though I paid through the nose for it, I considered it money well-spent, because the Japanese CD DID have the hard-to-find "Rebel Girl" track.

Brian & Patrick...you'd mentioned in your reviews that you missed having "Rebel Girl" available...it once again IS. "Ultimate Survivor" is a newish greatest hits release, available on Amazon, that not only has "RG" but a longer version of "Summer Nights" not available on "Premonition." AND, the original version of "Rockin' Into the Night." Those three tracks alone I though were worth the price of the CD.

I love this Cd, but it is missing a song from the original and I don't know why. The song "Rebel Girl" was on the original release but is missing here. That was a great song! Other than that, this is top notch quality.