27: Eye of the Tiger - Survivor

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, selliest and weirdest as fuck music videos.

Say hello everyone.

Hello.

Hiya.

Hi.

Happy New Year, loyal podcast listeners.

Woohoo!

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

and yes, challenges. 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, uh, can't think of an example, hardware store. Breaking

and entering. You can't go wrong with that formula. I'm sure it'll give the staff something

to do. The song exists because of Sylvester Stallone. He wanted to use another one, Rise

the 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 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 Dior or group

with vocal at the Grammys. Is that true?

This song actually won a fucking Grammy?

Yeah. Fuck.

Sounds like a monster.

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

that actually word.

I was very, very confused

while I was trying to make train noises.

Well, that makes sense now.

It's the train.

It's the train to victory.

Speaking of train to victory,

has anyone taken up boxing

for their New Year's resolution?

Two years ago.

I haven't gone there yet, but...

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 bean dish

by other people, thanks.

Fair enough.

You can punch people

out masks on trains

and then sanitize your fists.

straight after.

Pre-sanitized.

A bit more dramatic

when you hit.

I'm going to sanitize

your face with my face.

I have not actually

seen Rocky 3

so I did not know

that there was

extra tiger throwing

for the magic effect.

I didn't realise

this 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.

Has anyone actually seen 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 of it.

I mean, I think the film is fine.

It's nothing special,

but I think this song's the main thing that people remember from it.

Well, third one at least.

This is so un-American and un-patriotic, Neo.

How dare you?

I'm 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.

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 the Eye of the Tiger.

Gonna Fly Now?

No, I've not heard of that.

I think I read an IMDb.

It was in a different movie actually called Eye of the Tiger.

It sounds like a bad 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.

Well, that's going in there.

All right.

Am I the only one?

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,

didn't it?

It's probably the quickest

I've ever got through.

the show notes mainly because mainly because nelly usually does it this the song is sort of embedded

in everyone's head anyway so um it does give a little bit of motivation to to work i think the

question is it is it the song that gives you that motivation or is it our association with

montages of rocky running upstairs and shit both oh it's a 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 a final countdown would have a similar effect

in fact i confused the two songs when i was younger can you 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 it might not happen because of covid any anymore but you

know let's assume covid doesn't exist if i meet up with 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 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 it's the one on the phone it just played yeah i the one where the guy's on the phone

he's just like oh well we're filming are we oh he was on on the phone his side piece and he

didn't want to get recorded you know clearly sorry i've got to march stoically towards a warehouse

full of bathtubs 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 sort of

picture you know it is you know music i don't know the guys is like 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 the tutor and they're just like jamming in someone's garage it's one 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

have the sort of hair metal look i was expecting yeah well it's not hair metal it's i don't know

what it's rock i guess i know i know it's not hair but that but that's kind of what i was expecting

what they look like but they just look uh i don't know could you get i feel like you could get away

with more awkwardness than 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 this explains this way in us as well well that yeah and

they're not talking to each other you know gotta gotta gotta keep that from poking through yeah

that takes us nicely on to the next point

why they find a warehouse full of bathroom supplies

so for list as only

they march through San Francisco

just looking very stoic and determined

and like they need a fucking job

and 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 baths and beyond

like the way

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

oh I'll say it again

Bed Bath & Beyond

this episode is sponsored

by Bed Bath & Beyond

get your bed

your bath

and beyond

use promo code

jobbies

maybe we need to

explain to non-rich

listeners what a job

is just in case

they think

alright

it's a shit

it's a shit

yes

just in case

they think

they need a handjob

very very very

imminently right now

I never made that connection.

Just saying it from the point of view of someone who,

when they heard the word job before a second,

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

But yeah, I was confused by this bathroom,

storeroom looking place at first,

but then when they go into that actual 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, sorry, scattered stuff.

I've got a really bad habit of replacing the word stuff with shit,

and it's got me in trouble a few times.

It's like, I went to this flat and there was shit everywhere,

and they're like, what?

Sorry, stuff everywhere.

Literal shit's kind of on the wall.

But that's the impression I got,

that they just found 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

slash will to go anywhere else.

I'm wondering if,

because we said in the intro

that it was basically written for Rocky III

and they used the demo version in the movie.

So I'm wondering if they've had to

just pull all this together really quickly.

They were like,

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 in.

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.

Has anyone else wound up by that or is that just me?

I don't.

I can recall only one time I've seen this.

No, it's a YouTube song for one of the Batman movies.

I can't remember what it is, but I just remember they literally do that.

They just show screen, like just shots from the movie with like voiceover and actual dialogue.

Yeah.

That's the only thing I can recall.

I don't know how it actually 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 Bed Bath & Beyond.

So maybe this is an exception to the role.

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

don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past you must fight just to keep

the first half of the videos are just kind of playing in the

the generic warehouse thing but then the second half it kind of transitions to

them having a big goal backdrop which is kind of wind swept i hate this i just i

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.

Is 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 Right Round?

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

Yes, and also in The Sock of Seagulls.

In fact, yeah.

It's silver, though.

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

It's the globe binds 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 at some point we're going to 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 Bussin.

I was like, yes, yes.

You have to watch it both in real time.

Okay.

react to it together.

It's the reaction channel now.

It's the perfect trailer because

you get the whole film in the trailer.

But you know, that got go background was

I don't know, just pissed 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

I don't know where 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 what you've seen in 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 word.

Would have been interesting

if they're all sitting on toilets.

That would be great.

Speaking of the second half of the video,

this is where they get just sort of inexplicably sweaty.

Well, it's inexplicably.

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

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

the effect as opposed to...

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

intensely looking down the lens

and he genuinely looks like he's made of plastic

because he's just a bit shiny

from all the sweatiness.

While we're talking about leather pants, can we just point out

their fashion

non-existence of fashion sense?

Like leather pants, but

white trainers and the fucking beret what with the fucking beret someone please explain yeah the

the beret did stand out it kind of looks like a sort of pound shop shea gavara yeah

yeah what kind of here's a question what kind what kind of revolution would survivor lead

probably the 2029 war of the toilets where all the toilets revolts and spit it back up what they've

and swallowing all this time.

B effect.

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.

I just visualized, seriously.

But the song's always playing,

so it keeps the populace motivated and productive.

Is this kind of a Mr. Roboto environment?

A little bit.

Yeah, Mr. Roboto keeps popping into my mind

while I'm watching this, actually.

So, yeah.

They're secretly revolting against the machines.

Not against the machines, just against the machines.

Oh, that's it, the revolution of that rock.

We need to reinstate that 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?

The definition of dad rock apparently adjusts with time.

So I'm pretty sure there was a quote-unquote dad rock album

that came out like a few years ago which had stuff that i like on it i was just no no no this is not

i'm not that old yet it never occurred to me that the 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 old friends who have or ourselves whatever who have kids and suddenly

realized like oh dad rock oh sun 41 oh no i think it was it was stuff like sun 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 that yeah exactly so you can take the american

punk stuff but you can't have the metal so i've just i've stuck in the discord um 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 you have like queen um kiss foreign earth and lizzie zz top there's eye of the tiger

and then fucking disc 2 has coldplay nickelback rem the kinks iggy pop oasis that's not dad rock

Mr. Brightside

Bohemian Like You

What is this combination of music?

Like you have Queen

next to Kiss

next to Foreigner

next to David Bowie

who the fuck created that?

The Daddy Warhols

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 anything past like

years or something that becomes dad rock that's 2009 right so it's not even been that long yeah

how the fuck i think we should we should write a strongly worded letter to now 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 half of those songs are like lad songs dads used to be lads but now they're dads

oh no can 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 I 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

like

what does dad rock

even mean

yeah well that's

because I always

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

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

That's not...

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 parts of this.

I don't...

Well, it's probably what's easier to license.

Let's be honest.

I am the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight

Rising up to the challenge of our rival

And the last known survivor starts his bread in the night

And he's watching us live in the eye of the tiger

So I'd like you to watch this, if possible, real time together

And then sort of explain to the viewers what's happening

Three, two, one, go

Gary Busey

is Buck Matthews

the classic voiceover man

he's come home to find his family

oh no no his family

and his worst enemy waiting for

god's sake

don't you know what's going on out there

people running around screaming

waterbanks crashing

motivational speech

as motivational as Gary Busey

I'm guessing he's fighting a motorcycle gang

because he just keeps coming back to motorcycles

oh there's another

yes

windows and walls

oh that's great

these people killed my wife

and nobody's doing a thing about it

do me a favor huh

get out of this town

let these maggots have it

I'm not running

the norm badass

was that a coffin

that was a coffin

yeah

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 2

looking plane

that's what's

fucking throwing

it's amazing

you've got

Eddie Tiger

face to face

fist to fist

and only one

will survive

fist to fist

Gary Busey

John Fett Cotto

Eye of the Tiger

fuck yes

yes

I think that

does the song

justice

it's like one of

those 80s action

films that actually

never got his

chance

So my final points are

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

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 going to give it.

I think this video is mediocre at best.

It's one of those videos where you know the song,

but you've maybe never seen the video,

and it's probably best kept that way.

My favorite moment is in one minute,

the band walking into the giant warehouse full of bathtubs,

And this is the least rock thing you could ever see on a lover.

Preach.

And the worst thing is the whole second half.

Every time the lead singer looks directly into the camera,

all sweaty and awkwardly smiling, feeling he's cold or something.

I think my favourite 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 possesses.

And 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 was very sweaty as well.

When they walked in the B&Q, that just really juggled me.

Of all the places they could have used as a set.

Yeah, Sinks, baths, toilets, it was very classy.

And then 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 think it looks dreadful.

And I think as a band, they don't feel like they're all singing from the same hymn sheet.

It literally looks like they have been pulled off the street.

They don't look like they're a band together.

They're dress code.

They're so awkward.

I'm going to 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.

It's fine.

I would say yes, but this is a podcast about music videos.

So I am going to give it an eye.

No, it's not meant to be.

No.

Let's be honest.

Nobody needs this video to exist for the song to.

Yeah.

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.

Ah.

Whose voiceover?

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Thank you for listening,

Yoh.

Bye.

Happy New Year.

Bye.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year, guys.

Bye.

No.