27: Eye of the Tiger - Survivor

[Transcript generated with MacWhisper] You know me, I like to tease you and let you down.

Hello and welcome to We Can't Rewind We've Gone Too Far, a podcast where a Scotsman,

an Irishman and a Bulgarian discuss the worst, silliest and weirdest of f*cking music videos.

Say hello everyone.

Hello.

Hiya.

Hi.

Happy new year loyal podcast listeners.

It's 2022 and with the new year comes new opportunities and yes,

What better way to start off the proceedings than with the most montageable song ever written,

Eye of the Tiger, by Survivor.

The video is simple, it follows a band through the dark streets of San Francisco in what

looks to be a scene inspired by Saturday Night Fever. They are determined to play a gig somewhere.

Heck, anywhere. The band finds the perfect venue, in front of a massive audience of, well,

zero people, in what looks like to be the story of a home base. To our American audience,

home base is pretty much like a… can't think of an example… hardware store! Breaking and entering,

you can't go wrong with that formula. I'm sure it will give the staff something to do.

The song exists because of Sylvester Stallone. He wanted to use "Another One Rise to Dust"

as a theme tune for Rocky III, but Queen, alas, turned him down. In response, he began a dramatic

montage where he called "Our Heroes" the rock superstar survivor and requested they write a

song for the movie instead. A demo version of the song was used in the movie, with extra extra

tigers roaring for dramatic effect. The final version of the song topped charts all over the

world in 1982 and won best rock performance by duo or group with vocal at the grammys

is that true this song actually won a fucking grammy yeah fuck

I like how we both went for different parts of the song.

That actually worked.

I was very, very confused when I was new trying to make train noises, but that makes sense now.

It's a train to victory.

Speaking of train to victory, has anyone taken up boxing for the New Year's resolution?

Two years ago.

I haven't gone there yet.

Oh, good job.

You'll get there one day I believe in you.

Post Covid maybe.

I very much don't want to touch the stuff that's being touched by other people's things.

Fair enough.

can punch people out of masks and trains and then sanitize your fists straight after.

Pre-sanitize? A bit more dramatic when you hit.

I'm gonna sanitize your face with my fist.

I have not actually seen Rocky 3 so I did not know that there was extra tigers

roaring for the magical effect.

I didn't realize this it was for Rocky 3. I presume this was in Rocky 1.

Hold on was it not in Rocky 1? I'm pretty sure it was in Rocky 1.

Yeah I thought it was as well.

Yeah I mean Rocky 1 was 76 songs from 82 or something.

Maybe that's just how culturally relevant it is. We all presumed it was in Rocky 1.

Does anyone actually see in Rocky any of the movies?

Nope.

Therefore.

Well it's been a while hasn't it?

I haven't. I think I might have seen Rocky 1 maybe as a child but I have absolutely no recollection.

I mean I think the film is fine. It's nothing special but I think the song's the main thing

that people remember from it. Well, third one least.

This is so un-American and unpatriotic, Neo. How dare you?

Not American. Well, according to some people.

We're all American in our own ways.

In our own ways.

Freedom.

No, Scottish.

Yeah, that is very Scottish, dear.

Freedom!

I'm just going through the Rocky soundtrack list. No, it's not.

There's a song called "Gonna Fly Now", which is a theme tune from Rocky, which I cannot recall.

I just keep thinking about "Eye of the Tiger".

"Gonna Fly Now"? No, I've not heard of that.

I think I read it was in a different movie actually called Eye of the Tiger.

It sounds like a butt cheesy 80s movie. I'm looking forward to it.

We'll get to that. Keeping the suspense going.

You know me. I like to tease you and let you down.

That's going in the head open.

Am I the only one who, when you listen to this song, do you feel like you can see yourself

in a montage doing the thing you're trying to do when you're listening to the song?

Yes, because I was doing some of the show notes yesterday and I had this on in the background

doing it.

It's probably the quickest I've ever got through the show notes.

Mainly because Nelly usually does it.

This song is sort of embedded in everyone's head anyway, so it does give a little bit

of motivation to work.

I think the question I have is, is it the song that gives you that motivation or is

it our association with montages of Rocky running upstairs and shit?

Both.

very it's still pumping music like kind of like the final countdown it's not I don't

think it's been in any movie but you still kind of feel like oh yeah I'm gonna whatever

the fuck final countdown is about but you know it has like a very cheesy 80s rock vibe

yeah that's true I think your final countdown would have a similar effect in fact I confused

the two songs when I was younger can you see yourselves walking down the street like these

guys I just I generally enjoy the idea like next time I meet up with like all my friends

like you know obviously might not happen because of covid anymore but you know let's assume

covid doesn't exist if i meet up all my friends i want to meet up by walking down the street

and just stoically like sort of gathering one by one the maximum you're allowed to do

is a stoic nod and nothing else just like yep hi we're on a mission this kind of looking

behind the wall very creepy look yeah i won't be part of that guy i think there's one in

particular where the guy where the shot just looks like the guy who's sort of been taken

by surprise by the camera and he's just like oh fuck oh there's one on the phone it just

played yeah the one where the guy's on the phone he's just like oh well we're filming

are we?

Hila- oh he was on the phone with his side piece and he didn't want to get recorded doing

that clearly.

Angus- sorry I've got to march stoically towards

Hila- a warehouse full of bathtubs

Sean- there's a certain awkwardness to these guys and I don't know what it is. The thing

is they don't look like the sort of people you assume make this song you know you just

of picture you know, 80s you know music. I don't know the guys look really cool. Which they're not.

These guys don't look really cool. They look like they stepped out of like an art college.

Yeah they do actually yes. There's one guy who is slightly older at least looking than the rest.

Yeah he's just a tutor and they're just like jamming in someone's garage. One of their dads.

Dad we need to stand in. All you have to do is walk and bash a keyboard. Yeah they don't quite

quite a bit of this of hair metal look I was expecting here.

It's all hair metal. It's I don't know what it's rock I guess.

I know. I know it's not a hair metal but that's kind of what I was expecting what they'd look

like but they just look at I don't know. Could you get I feel like you could get away with

more awkwardness in the 80s and still be considered cool.

They look like they're really determined to find the toilet. That's that's that's the

look that I think they're going for which doesn't sell the idea.

This explains the way I still walk into it.

This explains the sweatiness as well.

Well that, yeah, and they're not talking to each other, you know, got to keep that from

poking through.

Yeah.

And that takes us nicely on to the next point.

Why they find a warehouse full of bathroom supplies.

So for listeners only, they march through, through San Francisco, just looking very stoic

and determined and like they need a fucking job.

then they go into a building but weirdly first the building's just full of baths which I

find quite confusing so it looks like they've just walked into bed bath and beyond like

the way they're not their shop their warehouse you know it's like there we go that's an American

shop nailed it.

Yeah that is yeah you can insert it on I'll say it again bed bath and beyond.

This episode is sponsored by bed bath and beyond get your bed your bath and beyond use

promo code.

Jobbies.

Maybe we need to explain to non-british listeners what a job is just in case they think they

need a hand job very very very immediately right now.

Just saying it from the point of view of someone who when they heard the word job before second

took them a hot second to connect what the context was.

But yeah I was confused by this bathroom/store room looking place at first but then when

go into that stage area there's more just random shit scattered everywhere. So I kind

of got the impression it was just like a prop warehouse.

When you say scattered shit, in context of what we just talked about.

All right, it's all right. Scattered stuff. I've got a really bad habit of replacing the

word stuff with shit and it's gotten me in trouble a few times. It's like I went to

flat and there was shit everywhere and they're like what? Sorry stuff everywhere.

LITRO shit's coming on the wall.

But that's the impression I got that they just found like the prop warehouse and so

we'll stick a stage up here and that'll do.

Maybe they're secretly very tiny people and they need to make their recording stage on

top of bathtub stacks or something?

I don't know it's a very weird location.

I presume they just didn't have money/will to go anywhere else.

I'm wondering if because we said in the intro that it was basically written for Rocky 3

They use the demo version in the movie, so I'm wondering if they've had to just pull

all this together really quickly.

Really just get the first place you can find because the movie's coming out.

I'm surprised they just wouldn't just use shots from Rocky then.

This is like a side rant.

I hate, I fucking hate in music videos where it's like being in a movie and they just crowbar

in lots of shots from the movie.

A lot of the time they put voiceovers and like last week with the Muppets thing I was

trying to find a copy of like another Muppets video that didn't have just fucking random

shit from the Muppets movie shoved in it because it just takes away from the video and usually

you've got fucking idiots talking over your fucking song so I'm actually kind of glad

they didn't do that for this. Is anyone else wound up by that or is that just me?

I don't I can call because we call only one time I've seen this. No it's a YouTube YouTube

song for one of the Batman movies. I can't remember what it is but I just remember that

they literally do that they just shove screen like just shots from the movie with like voice

over and actual dialogue yeah that's the only thing i can recall so i don't know it actually

i like pisses me off as much because i don't think i've encountered it as much although

maybe the shots from the movie would have been more interesting than them playing in

in Bed Bath and Beyond so maybe this is an exception to the rule.

Rising up, back on the street Took my time, took my chances

Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet Just a man and his will to survive

So many times, it happens too fast You change your passion for glory

The first half of the video is just kind of playing in the generic warehouse thing, but

then the second half it kind of transitions to them having a big gold backdrop, which

is kind of windswept.

I hate this. I just I think that was I just think that's so tacky. It looks like shit.

And you can just tell it's cheap. It just doesn't do it any justice.

Was it tacky or was it fashionable in the 80s?

Because you see it in a fair amount of 80s videos, I think.

Was there something a bit like this in "Spin Your 8 Round"?

I feel like that may have had something similar in it going around.

Yeah, and also "The Suck of Seagulls".

In fact, yes.

[laughter]

It's silver though.

I'm sorry for keeping bringing this video, but it's in the middle of everything.

It's the glued bands together.

I'll have to explain this because I've cut this out every single time,

But every week Nelly mentions the music video for Flock of Seagulls, like almost every week.

So I think we're gonna have to do this video.

Oh my God, I'm just looking at the trailer for Eye of the Tiger.

No, not yet.

Oh, sorry. I just saw it.

I saw Gary Busey and I was like, yes, yes.

You have to watch it both in real time.

Okay.

React to it together.

This is the reaction channel now.

Go on, cast and react.

It's the perfect trailer because you get the whole film in the trailer.

But you know, that go background was, I don't know, just piss me right off.

It's purely just to make the set look less shit.

That's the only reason why it's there.

You know, they're in this warehouse literally full of shit or stuff.

Sorry.

And it's, you know, it's how do you make it look visually more interesting or less shit.

There's no way to sugarcoat this.

It's a classic trick to shoving a backdrop over just whatever location you happen to have.

you can still see above it and it pretty much tells you what's there. Shite. Can you see

more bathtubs? I don't remember if you've seen bathtubs. Can you? No, not since the

beginning. Oh, maybe if you freeze frame it, you'll see a little waft at the bottom and

there's like another, there's a toilet underneath. Waft. I love this one. Would have been interesting

if they're all sitting on toilets. That would have been great. Speaking of the second half

video this is where they get just sort of inexplicably sweaty. Well it's

inexpletible they wear leather pants in probably a very humid plastic bag

wrapped atmosphere. So maybe the sweat was real. It definitely

looks deliberate because there's probably some of the funniest shots in the video

where it just cuts to the drummer or the guitarist like flicking their

hair back and just fucking sweat goes everywhere. For some reason I thought

that it was real it's just that they decided to make it effect as opposed to

Maybe, maybe, maybe they were just playing that hard. They were so motivated by their

own song. Kind of to the point where there's a close up on the lead singer where he's kind

of just like he's like intensely looking down the lens and he genuinely looks like he's

made of plastic because he's just about shining from all the sweatiness.

Well, we're talking about leather pants. Can we just point out their fashion, non-existence

to fashion sense like leather pants but white trainers and the fucking beret. What were

the fucking berets? Someone please explain.

Yeah, the Beret did stand out. He kind of looks like a sort of pound shop Che Guevara.

Yeah.

Here's a question. What kind of revolution would Survivor lead?

Probably the 2029 war of the toilets where all the toilets revolt and sped it back up

what they've been swallowing all this time.

Be effective. I'm just imagining like a sort of Big Brother scenario, but every time you

go to the house there's a giant screen with his sweaty face staring at you. But the song's

always playing so it keeps the populace motivated and productive.

It is kind of a Mr Roboto environment.

Yeah Mr Roboto keeps popping into my mind while watching this fact actually so yeah.

They're secretly reporting against the machines. Not against the machines, just against the

the machines. Oh, that's it. The revolution of dad rock. We need to restate dad rock as

the premium music.

I think they used to release albums at Christmas, like for dad rock.

Oh, they still do. But you know, the scary thing is the definition of dad, dad rock apparently

adjusts with time. So I'm like, I'm pretty sure there was like a quote unquote dad rock

album that came out like a few years ago, which had stuff that I like on average. No,

"No, no, this is not cool. I'm not that old yet."

[laughter]

It never occurred to me that the genre of dad rock will naturally evolve with who is the dad.

>> Can you imagine like in 10 years time as being like in our 40s and like, you know,

naturally having friends who have, ourselves, whatever, who have kids and suddenly realize like,

"Oh, dad rock. Oh, Sum 41. Oh, no."

>> I think it was, it was stuff like Sum 41 and like Green Day and stuff like that.

Really? Yeah it was like it's when it's like system of a down stuff that's when I'm gonna be angry.

System of a down is too cool for dad rock. Yeah exactly. So you can take the American punk stuff

but you can't have the metal. So I've just I've stuck on the discord a 2009 dad rock album and

to be fair most of the songs on the first cd are like quite old and then cd2 it goes from okay so

we have like Queen, um, Kiss, Foreigner, Thin Lizzy, ZZ Top.

There's Eye of the Tiger.

And then fucking Disc 2 has Coldplay, Nickelback, R.E.M, The Kinks, Iggy Pop, Oasis, that's

not Dad Rock.

Mr. Brightside, Bohemian Light Queue.

What is this combination's music?

Like you have Queen next to Kiss, next Foreigner, next David Bowie, who the fuck created that?

The Daddy Warhorse, come on, that's fucking bullshit.

That song is from like 2001 I think Bohemian like you. How did it turn into fucking that?

Who the fuck created that? I'm offended.

I'm glad it wasn't just me.

You had songs from the 60s all the way to like early 2000s. Oh fuck.

There must be a cut off point like getting into the past like 20 years or something.

Becomes dead rock.

That's 2009 right?

So it's not even that long.

Yeah how the fuck.

I think we should we should write a strongly worded letter to know this is what I call

music.

No this is what I call bullshit.

Welcome to our podcast 'Millennials have an existential crisis'

I feel like I have no songs like 'Lads' songs

'Dads' used to be 'Lads' but now they're 'Dads'

Oh no

Can't confirm, that's happened to most of my friends

I feel like what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take this list, I'm gonna present it to friends

that have that are 'Dads' in our like age range and ask them what they think should

be an open poll

I imagine they'll have a similar reaction to us

I like it, it can't be dad rock.

What does that rock even mean?

Yeah well that's like, because I always associated it with like cheesy sort of 80s rock music.

I was like that was the genre that is dad rock for me.

But if you think about it though, it can't really be a defined genre because it depends

on who the dads are.

But Iggy Pop, have you heard the song The Passenger?

That's more, they've basically been like okay so vaguely known familiar rock songs.

We're just going to put them in there, it doesn't make any sense.

I know people who for a fact would listen to half of them and they would completely

hear the other part of this.

I don't...

Well, so it's probably what's easier to license, let's be honest.

[Music]

So I'd like yous to watch us, if possible, real time together

and then sort of explain to the viewers what's happening.

three two one go

gary bucy is buck matthews after the classic voiceover man and three years in prison

he's come home to find his family oh no no it's family and his worst enemy waiting for

god sakes oh do you know what's going on out there

those people are around screaming people more bikes crashing

it matters how we deal with motivational speech

As motivational as Guy Busic in it.

They made a big mistake Matthews.

You know nobody ever stood up to them before.

They are going to take a person.

Sometimes when I was in prison I get a feeling, I guess before something.

I'm guessing he's fighting a motorcycle gang because it just keeps going back to motorcycles.

Oh there's another one.

Try and throw windows next.

Oh no.

Yes.

Windows and walls.

Oh that's great.

windows and walls. Ahh that's great! These people killed my wife and nobody's doing

it, think about it! Do me a favour hun, get out of this town, let these maggots have her.

I'm not running. The gnome's by us! Is that a coffin? That was a coffin! First of all

there was a coffin being dragged by a motorbike. You got a plan? We've got his buddy here.

More crashing, more explosions. That's a van, oh god. Is that a World War

II looking plane? This looks fucking brilliant. This is amazing.

You've got any tiger in the back then. Fist to fist, fist to fist and only one will

survive. Fist to fist.

I think that does the song justice.

It looks like one of those 80s action films that actually never got its chance.

So my final point is don't watch the fucking video for Eye of the Tiger, watch the movie

Eye of the Tiger instead. It's a bad movie, sorry bad video.

It's a serviceable music video, I think it kind of does the job but that's all I can

really say about it. It has that cheesy 80s getting pumped up for some sort of task, and

it does the job. That's the highest praise I'm gonna give it.

I think this video is mediocre at best. It's one of those videos where you know the song

wrong, but you've maybe never seen the video and it's probably best kept that way.

My favourite moment is in one minute then, the band walking into the giant warehouse

full of bathtubs and this is the least struck thing you could ever see and I love it. And

the worst thing is the whole second half, every time the lead singer looks directly

into the camera all sweaty and awkwardly smiling, thinking he's cold or something.

I think my favorite part is, I already mentioned this, but the group linking up at the start

sort of converging on each other with the single-minded determination that only survivor

possess. In worst part, didn't have any major complaints overall apart from the fact it's

a bit mediocre, but like Nelly in the second half, the lead singer staring intensely into

the camera as I've put it here, fucking the camera with his eyes, it made me feel slightly

uncomfortable because he's very sweaty as well.

When they walked in the B&Q that just really, just really chuckled me of all the places

they could have used as a set.

Yeah, thanks Bass Toilets, it was very classy.

And the worst part, yeah, I can't get over that windy bin bag set, it's just so trash.

But I guess maybe it matches 80s trash, so yeah, sure, maybe I'll give it a slight pass

but I just I just think it looks dreadful. And I think as a band that they don't feel like they're

all singing from the same hymn sheet. It literally looks like they haven't pulled it off the street.

They don't look like they're a band together. They're dress code, they're so awkward.

I'm gonna give it an eye like I said purely because it's serviceable, it does the job,

it's nothing particularly inspiring but it's fine.

I would say yes, but this is a podcast about music videos. So I am going to give it a nay.

No, it's not meant to be.

Let's be honest, nobody needs this video to exist for the song too.

It would have, you know, would have been better if they just made it one of those,

you know, really slick music videos where they just use footage from films.

Ahh.

With voiceover.

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Thank you for listening, y'all.

Bye.

Happy New Year.

Bye.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year, guys.

Bye.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

(crashing)

(electronic music)

(door opening)