Survivor - Premonition

grossly overlooked

This was one of my favorite 80's cds. Just a great feel good effort. Great melodies and vocals from Dave Bickler. I felt like Survivor went bubblegum after he left. This one had at least 4 potential radio hits and never got any air play. That sort of thing started happening alot after MTV cranked up and injected cancer into the american music scene. This cd rocks. You definitely won't be sorry you bought it. Their first cd is very good as well. January 19, 2006

Severely Underrated

One of the most unfortunate things about the band Survivor is that some of their greatest works did not appeal to general pop culture. In other words, they were at many times independent from most other rock bands from that era, not giving into media demands to perform a certain way. This was no more apparent than with their first two albums. Slightly softer than their hard-core first, this one brought more power-ballads to the table. The sensational vocals of Dave Bickler (Survivor's early 80's era singer) give the ballads a true feeling that's very rare. These include 'Summer Nights', 'Runaway Lights', and 'Heart's a Lonely Hunter'. They spell out the true difference, although the rocker's such as 'Chevy Nights' and 'Take You on a Saturday' hold up as well. That being said, the only one that matched the early 80's sudden music change was 'Poor Man's Son' (as high as #33 on the billboard charts). While they would eventually alter their musical style slightly (most notably with 'Eye of the Tiger' the following year), this one remains overlooked and deserves some bit of credit. August 10, 2005

Sly must of had a Premonition.

When Sylvester Stallone was looking for a new song for ROCKY III
he listened to this album. Survivor had finally made the top 40 with "POOR MAN'S SON." I'm sure he had no idea just what would happen when he asked them to write the theme song. So I guess you could say that if not for this album, the words "EYE OF THE TIGER" would be nothing more then words form a script.
What we have here is a great album of rock. From the opening riff of "CHEVY NIGHTS" to the b-side of "EYE", "TAKE YOU ON A SATURDAY", this album was self produced by the band,(just look at the album cover) which means no "CORPORATE ROCK" here.
Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan wrote all of the songs. Every one of them finds way to tug at your heart. The haunting "HEART'S A LONELY HUNTER" (which by the way is my favorite) to the rock n roll fantasy "LIGHT OF A THOUSAND SMILES" (which is something everyone of us has done at least once in our lives) not to forget the homecoming tear jerker "RUNWAY LIGHTS" this album will make you feel good when you listen to it. August 26, 2004

It's really their first!

I remember hearing "Poor Man's Son" on the radio in 1981 and wondering who that was, really liking it. I'd never heard of Survivor and would not hear of them again - until the next year.

1982's "Eye Of The Tiger" was a huge hit, as well all know.

What we all seem to miss is the original issue dates of these albums; Premonition was released *before* Eye Of The Tiger. It was *re-issued* after Eye hit it big. If you find the LPs, look at the release numbers on them - Premonition came first. Yet many fans thing it was the second album. Thanks to some good San Francisco rock station, which has long since gone blander than tofu and/or been bought by Clear Channel, I *knew* who Survivor was, sort of, when they made it big.

So, it was neat to see a case of commercial redemption, where a band was able to follow on a hit album by re-issuing their earlier material after it was ignored.

Premonition is mandatory in any Survivor fan's collection. It's raw-edged David Bickler stuff. It manages to capture a great deal of the teen male angst that they tried to appeal to. While it's not the work of art that 'Foreigner' was, it belongs next to it. July 17, 2003

SURVIVOR - PREMONITION

HOW DO YOU COMPARE SURVIVOR WITH DAVE BICKLER OR JIMI JAMISON???
YOU CAN'T, THEY ARE 2 DIFFERENT BANDS...
THE ORIGINAL SURVIVOR HAS HARDER EDGED SONGS AND JIMI JAMISON HAD THE BIGGEST HITS & THE BALLADS...
I THINK CAUGHT IN THE GAME IS THE BEST DAVE BICKLER ALBUM RECORDED...
EVERY SONG IS GOOD FROM BEGINNING TO END, THERE ARE NO FILLERS ON THIS ALBUM, CAIUGHT IN THE CAME WAS THE FIRST DAVE BICKLER ALBUM I EVER BOUGHT, I HAD MY DOUBTS AS I HAD JUST BEEN INFECTED WITH VITAL SIGNS, AND BOY WAS I WRONG CAUGHT INTHE GAME WAS A GREAT ALBUM, I LOVED IT INSTANTLY...
I HAVE READ ALOT OF REVIEWERS WHO FAVOR JACKIE DON'T GO, AS THEIR FAVORITE, I HAVE TO AGREE ON THIS ONE...
BUT AGAIN I CAN'T SINGLE OUT 1 SONG AS BEING BETTER THAN ANOTHER...
I NEVER STOPPED LOVING YOU, READY FOR THE REAL THING, WHAT DO YOU REALLY THINK?, HALF LIFE ALL GREAT SONGS, AND JUST AS GOOD AS JACKIE DON'T GO, THE HARD ROCKIN' TITLE SONG CAUGHT IN THE GAME...
THIS IS A MUST FOR ALL SURVIVOR FANS... April 10, 2003

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