The next few DbPB installments will feature the work of a man who, to these ears, has contributed as much as if not more than any other artist to the power ballad arts and the melodic rock genre in general—Jim Peterik. Many know him as the voice and driving force (no pun intended. Okay, maybe I intended it) behind “Vehicle,” the great 1970 single by Ides of March. Many more know him as the bespectacled keyboard player and chief songwriter (along with Frankie Sullivan ) in Survivor. Yeah, that guy. “Eye of the Tiger.” “I Can’t Hold Back.” “High on You.” “The Search Is Over.”
Ah, “The Search Is Over.” How many makeout sessions/couple skates/lonely nights of the soul in ‘84-’85 had that one as their soundtrack? Survivor contributed many other fine, powerful ballads—“Man Against the World,” “Everlasting,” “Ever Since the World Began” (read about my personal relationship with that song here)—but none had all the weapons that made “Search” such a killer—the developing tension, the underlying power chords, the dramatic chorus and bridge, plea for redemption, the key change at the end. The voice.
The voice is so important. Peterik co-wrote a Survivor track called “It’s the Singer Not the Song”—a sentiment I do not share—in part to focus attention on the band’s new singer at that time, Jimi Jamison. While Survivor’s first vocalist, Dave Bickler, possessed a monster of an instrument—akin to a Paul Rodgers or a Steve Marriott—Jamison’s baritone was tailor-made for the commercial rock for which Survivor was best known in the mid-’80s. He had strength to spare and could tackle a rough-hewn rock song, but was also versatile enough to lighten up when the music slowed down. The Peterik/Sullivan ballads on Vital Signs, When Seconds Count, and Too Hot to Sleep were the perfect canvases on which Jamison could apply all the colors of his voice. (more…)
