Something has happened to the radio in the Star Wagon these school holidays. It has found itself tuned away from the usual independent broadcaster and over to “Gold FM”, home to the Good Times and Great Classic Hits.
This is partly because some of the music played on the independent station makes my children cry with fear. Which is not to say that they don’t cry when Gold FM is on – I just wouldn’t know because I’m too busy singing along to Orchestral Manouvres In The Dark at the top of my voice. Yes, through the power of The Singalong, I’ve been finding that Happy Place in my head as I ferry my screaming children between school holiday activities. Also, I’ve been trying to drown out that Elmo Chicken Dance song that still haunts me from time to time.
For a while there, I was worried that my husband might burst my bubble by calling me a “goddamn 80s tragic loser” and turning the radio back over to the independent station.
But no, he came back from taking the car out, all smiles and exclaiming “That Gold FM plays hit after hit after hit!”
So we’ve both been driving around enjoying good times and greatest classic hits and life’s been good… except…
After a while, you begin to realise that there really aren’t *that* many songs Gold FM gives its Great Classic Hits Stamp of Approval to and that you’re hearing a lot of the same songs again and again. And again. And you hear a few too many songs by Christopher Cross, Phil Collins and Whitney Houston and you start wondering whether the 80s were really that “great” after all.
And then you find, after one too many repeats of a song like “Eye of the Tiger”, that it slips easily into your head, like so much tanbark into your shoes, and that you just can’t shake the thing out, no matter how hard you try. Even when all is still and silent at night, all you can hear is “DAH! Dah-dah-DAH! Dah-dah-DAH! Dah-dah-DEEEEERRRHH!”
And then you start to find everything you do and say and write is informed by that song and that you’ve totally become this freakish Eye Of The Tiger Lady and the goddamn song has become the goddamn soundtrack to your goddamn life.
And then you stop fighting it. You accept that this is how things are going to be from now on. And you google the lyrics so you can at least sing along to this stupid song in your head accurately and not just go “nah-nah-nah” in the bits you don’t know.
And that’s when you find out that the lyrics that you’ve thought were “it’s the thrill of the fight” for twenty-eight years are actually “the cream of the fight” and there’s all these references to “rising to the challenge” and being “face-to-face out in the heat” and you realise that the whole song is thinly-disguised pornography and that the “eye of the tiger” is probably a euphemism for that hole at the end of a penis and now it’s LODGED IN YOUR HEAD AND YOU CAN’T GET IT OUT.
So much for that Happy Place in my head. Sheesh!
The “cream of the fight”? Ha ha ha. I had NO idea. Pretty, pretty, funny.
Funny, but not pretty, actually.
Ah, good old OMD. I can’t listen to “If You Leave” without thinking of all those great John Hughes films. Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off….
Those were the days…
… which is exactly why I was singing it at the top of my voice…
Because I live in Perth I have two oldies stations servicing my retro needs. It is possible to switch from one to the other two find they are both playing Hotel California for example. Not in synch – that would be weird.
I just checked on ‘cream of the fight’. I remained unconvinced. It feels like a typo the entire Internet is sharing. It is metaphorically out of joint with the rest of the song. This is going to upset me for the rest of the day, @NDM…
My favourite response to someone asking this very question (cream or thrill?) on a forum is “What an ass Jeezus WHY you POST THIS”.
WHY? Because it’s important. To people like me whose life has been touched by Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”.
It would be great if it were just one big internet scam. Like the time (pre-internet) that one of my friends taught his students in Japan “Mint-tickety-boo!” was a common Australian phrase.
It’s a thinly-disguised porn! Ugh! Just another reason to hate the Rocky movies.
My favourite bit is the reference to his enemy *looking* through the eye of the tiger. What is he planning to see? The “cream of the fight” obviously!
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself just then. The song is obviously affecting my brain.
the local stations here (Central Coast NSW) all seem to play golden oldies (70′s and 80′s = songs from when i was at least 10) with some what i presume is top 40. Aren’t Coldthing and…. um… oh i remember, that nice young man (Dave Grolsch? Or is that a beer?) who started the band after the other guy shot himself because he was married to Courtney Love? Anyway – aren’t they young people’s music?
I too misheard The Eye of the Tiger – probably because the Italian guys i grew up with got so overexcited whenever it came on, they used to do football (soccer) chants and drive like crazy people – the chant was “oggi oggi oggi” (pronounced ‘odgy’) which weirdly, has become “Aussie Aussie Aussie” – the fundie bogans are so unoriginal, it’s why they like their music on permanent loop, their brains fry if they have to actually think or hear anything new. The radio stations are just pandering to their audience.
btw – i recommend Eddy Grant’s Electric Avenue as a universal antidote to songs stuck in your head. http://tinyurl.com/3awcmd weirdly, was released 1983, the year after Eye of the Tiger – i reckon he saw the need.
‘Electric Avenue’, eh? It’s just so crazy it might work!
I had been thinking of listening repeatedly to song-a-like “The Final Countdown” until it replaced “Eye of the Tiger”. At least then, I could think of Gob from ‘Arrested Development’ releasing doves.
If they’re not playing Peter Cetera ‘Glory of Love’ on that radio station then something is very wrong – please confirm that it’s getting airtime over there on Gold FM.
Important disclaimer: This query is not a personal endorsement of either Peter Cetera or ‘Glory of Love’.
[p.s. Eddy Grant, on the other hand, absolutely fucking rocks - good reminder stinginthetail]
I actually had to google Peter Cetera only to find that, regrettably, I *did* know the song.
Thanks for that, Fee S (she says, between clenched teeth).
And no, I haven’t heard it played on Gold FM yet. Perhaps you should petition them? You know, since you’re obviously such a big fan and all.
I think it’s just one of those mistakes on lyrics websites that get propogated around the entire internet. If you look on http://www.survivormusic.com/ it says “Thrill of the fight”
Other examples of the era:
I’ve seen Elton John’s Daniel lyrics that say
“Daniel is travelling tonight on a plane / I can see the red tailed eyes heading for Spain”
You know, now that I know it’s actually “thrill of the fight” I just feel cheated. I thought that at least this song, as opposed to other homoerotic songs about fighting, had the guts to get to the point of the matter – pun totally intended.
Ahh Eye of the Tiger.
For me it’s always Gob’s (on Arrested Development “If you didn’t have adult onset diabetes, I wouldn’t mind giving you a little sugar”) Magic Show theme music.
Or maybe that’s Final Countdown. Is there a difference?
Don’t worry, I get them confused ALL. THE. TIME.
I also think of Gob on that segway ALL. THE. TIME. So saying I’m thinking of “The Final Countdown” when I’m actually still thinking of “Eye of the Tiger” legitimises it, just a little.
Exactly! I too shared in the excitement for a while, tuning into classic hits from the 70s 80s and 90s, only to find that the novelty quickly wears off and i’d rather live with the delusion that those songs are…special….and great….which is only really possible if I listen to them every 5years or so…
Every 5 years is about right. It’s how often I eat Kentucky Fried Chicken – just to remind myself why I *don’t* eat it more often.
I’ve done the switch before and the two year old just kept shouting ‘wiggle, Wiggle, WIGGLE’ at me until I was forced to change. I had just been getting into a rousing rendition of “Dancin’ on the ceiling’”…
Ah, eye of the tiger. It reminds me of one of my mother’s mixed metaphors “Beauty is in the eye of the tiger”. If the song IS a euphymism then mother is definately NOT right about that.
Oh, and I think you’ve got some more lyrics mixed up. Its not “DAH” its ‘Bamp’ as in
“BAMP! bamp-bamp-BAMP! bamp-bamp-BAMP! bamp-bamp-BAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNAA!” Its an easy mistake to make.
I stand corrected.
Funnily enough they don’t include that riff in any of the online lyrics and yet it’s the bit that sticks the most.
Hee – we call our local “Classic” station “All the best of the early 80s, the mid-80s and the late 80s.”
I super-secretly love it.
Meanwhile I want this “Eyes of the Tiger” t-shirt:
http://www.threadless.com/product/2185/Eyes_of_the_Tiger
Oh, I soooooo want that t-shirt.
I kind of consider myself too young to be affected by the 80′s & thankfully my guys weren’t that into Elmo . . . but today i posted about being trapped at The Big Day Out in my car as my 3rd row of children took over the CD player & i had 5 primary schoolers singing “baby get shakey after school” the whole way home, VERY loudly. They make “Hits for Kids” CDs now a days, like clean top 40 for children, easy gift from aunties to little ones at Christmas. Good luck!!
Eeesh! “Clean Top 40?”
Mr Justice’s favourite song used to be “Hey Ya!” which contained the lyrics “Don’t wanna meet your momma, Just wanna make you cum-ah” which I just loudly “LAH-LAH-LAH!”ed over the top of.
speaking of tiger – I was at a barbecue yesterday. . .
… and my husband was expounding about his “Tiger Corps” versus “Elephant Corps” theory, wasn’t he?
That man!
Incorrigible.
Still, it was nice to see you Lynne. Even if I was depressingly sober on Australia Day.
I too have an eye of the Tiger Story. When I was about 10 and my brother about 13, I coaxed him into to telling me how much he like our neighbour up the road whilst secretly taping it on my double pink tape deck. Then I bribed him with it.
Not long after, I came home after being somewhere and he was being a pig and I threatened him with exposing his love for Debbie (she did do Dallas btw) and he just laughed.
I ran to the tape deck and played it. He had taped Eye of The Tiger over the top of it.
I think of that, every single time I hear that song.
Eye – of The Tiiiiiigerrr
That is such a great story – but how disappointing! If only you knew then what you know now about it being a song about the hole in his “Willy-Whatsit”. You could have humiliated him that way instead.
I totally blinked and looked up Eye of the Tiger lyrics.
Fail.
Is that fail for me or for the lyricist of Survivor?
Is the lyricist for Survivor amongst the finalists for the 2010 Bloggies Awards (Australia/NZ category)? I don’t think so. I bet he’s not even from Australia or New Zealand.
So funny! I have to sing in the car (loud, very loud for preference) in order to stop myself from screaming at either kids or other drivers, depending on who is the worst behaved. For mindless singing, my current favourite is either the ‘Mamma Mia’ soundtrack, or ‘Hairspray’. The you get to do a little shimmy at the traffic lights and this has the dual result of keeping me calm and entertaining those in the cars around me. I love multi tasking!
Yes, I consider it part of my civic duty to act strangely at traffic lights. It keeps the riff-raff out of our neighbourhood.
From the urban Dictionary….an alternate definition..
“eye of the tiger”:
the act of lurking for somebody with one’s pants down and spreading the buttcheeks, so that the victim gets a great surprising view of your butthole (the so-called eye of the tiger) and sometimes even the nuts.
As in:
- Oh no, I just got pwned! Jerry just performed an eye of the tiger on me in the bathroom.
- Haha, you’re blind now. Many have passed out upon that sight.
I prefer *my* eye of the tiger because it explains the cream of the fight part. Or rather, *would* explain it, were they the real lyrics.
You have just ruined a perfectly annoying song for me. Ewwww! I don’t want to think about the Eye!!! Ewwww.
Did you know I am in an 80′s cover band? We are called Mullet Over, and although no tours are planned for Australia, if we came I have no doubt you would be shakin’ yer booty and singing along to all the songs!!!! Remember “The Final Countdown, Workin’ for the Weekend, She-Bop, Rio, 99 Red Balloons, Photograph, Relax, and….of course….the Land Down Under?
Who *does* want to think about the eye? That’s why they wrote the song. They were angry. Very very angry.
Does your band want to fly over in November to play at my 40th? I can’t cover your airfares, airport transfers or accommodation but there will be a cheap bottle of fizz in it for you!
Dude? No way? Is it really cream of the fight? I don’t think I can take it if those are the actual lyrics. I used to have the worst job ever (other than shoveling poop) and I played that song every morning loud enough for the entire company to hear. To pump us, namely me, up for the day. Shocking thing is, I got fired.
What’s the worst job other than shovelling poo? The mind boggles…
Perhaps you got fired because the management understood the true meaning of the song.
The first cassette I ever owned, which I played in the first cassette player I ever owned, included “The Eye of the Tiger” covered by The Chipmunks. No joke. My siblings and I used to ride our bikes in circles around the carport, singing our little lungs out about “the eye” in funny little falsetto voices.
Ah, the past. Nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there… *shiver*
Eye of the Tiger was on my radio last week, and I’m rather embarrassed to admit that I was singing along at the top of my lungs. All the sudden, my 17 month old realized what I was singing and starting shouting “ROAR” from the back seat. Thankfully, I did not crash into the car in front of me in my laughter.
I hope your 17 month old did the tiger claws at the same time. “Grrrrrrrr!” or even “Mrrrrowwww!”.