{"id":48624,"date":"2015-03-11T18:25:14","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T23:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=48624"},"modified":"2015-03-11T18:25:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-11T23:25:14","slug":"jim-peterik-with-lisa-torem-through-the-eye-of-the-tiger-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2015\/jim-peterik-with-lisa-torem-through-the-eye-of-the-tiger-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Peterik with Lisa Torem | Through the Eye of the Tiger<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"ThroughtheEyeoftheTiger_FrontCover\"Through the Eye of the Tiger: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Life of Survivor’s Founding Member<\/em><\/p>\n

Survivor\u2019s \u201cEye Of The Tiger\u201d and \u201cBurning Heart\u201d, 38. Special\u2019s \u201cRockin\u2019 Into The Night\u201d, Sammy Hagar\u2019s \u201cHeavy Metal\u201d \u2026 we all know these songs so well, word by word and note by note. And even if 30 years ago one could have easily dismissed them by saying they\u2019re just radio-friendly Top 40 hits \u2013 as time goes by, it becomes clear there\u2019s a certain timeless quality to them, way more than just a catchy chorus or well-crafted melody. But apart from this fact, there\u2019s also another that has to be mentioned; all these songs and a countless number of others that once ruled the charts and radio airwaves were penned by one man, Berwyn-born Jim Peterik or Jimbo, as he is called. Forty four years after his song \u201cVehicle\u201d hit the Top 3 of the Billboard Hot 100 Chart \u2013 and thirty two years after the enormous success of \u201cEye Of The Tiger\u201d \u2013 Peterik decided to take a look back on his career and personal life. Co-written with a Chicago-based journalist Lisa Torem and entitled Through the Eye of the Tiger: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Life of Survivor’s Founding Member<\/em>, his autobiography hit the book store shelves in 2014 via BenBella Books.<\/p>\n

Even though the book is a collaborative effort of Peterik and Torem, it\u2019s the Survivor\u2019s lynchpin that is the only \u201cvoice\u201d of the story. Thus, the first person narration used throughout its entirety adds much to the overall impression of authenticity. Through the Eye of the Tiger is not a strictly chronological sequence of events, but rather a set of individual, personal experiences. The reminiscence process is smooth and natural, with relatively unrestrained flow of Jimbo\u2019s thoughts, frequent shifts in time, retrospectives and flashbacks, digressions and personal commentary. A book of considerable length, it is divided into 30 chapters, each titled with either a straight citation or a wordplay based around Peterik-penned songs. A preceding foreword was provided by REO Speedwagon\u2019s Kevin Cronin. \u201cI want to know his secret\u201d, Cronin writes, and this is something every reader actually aims at while reaching for this autobiography.<\/p>\n

For the \u201880s AOR and Melodic Rock fans, Survivor fans in particular, the book is an essential read as it provides a reader with a deep insight into the dynamics of the band, shedding light on how the hit-making machine worked from the inside and who were the people behind the personas their audience saw on stage. A candid and open storyteller, Peterik not only elaborates on the band\u2019s success but also doesn\u2019t avoid broaching the \u2018sensitive\u2019 topics. Not only are the personal changes within Survivor\u2019s line-up or the conflicts between the band members depicted in painstaking detail \u2013 also the latter, not-so-glorious part of the group\u2019s history is not to be omitted. However, it\u2019s certainly not a book on Survivor as the band is only a part of Jim Peterik\u2019s output, acts such as The Ides Of March or Pride Of Lions being equally important to the story. Through the Eye of the Tiger therefore shows many different dimensions to the persona behind the multitude of \u201880s hit singles.<\/p>\n

In spite of the book\u2019s clich\u00e9d subtitle, however, there\u2019s not much on \u2018rock ‘n’ roll life\u2019 in its content \u2013 at least, in the sense that\u2019s embedded in popular imagination, gallons of alcohol beverages and notorious backstage antics included. What a reader is presented with is a candid, lengthy account of a working musician\u2019s life from his childhood through the \u201860s to the modern era rather than a sensational vignette on sex, drugs and rock\u2019n\u2019roll. And even though there are plenty of intimate details from Peterik\u2019s personal and family life elaborated on, they serve to establish the perspective rather than shock. However, it doesn\u2019t mean that Through the Eye of the Tiger lacks vividness or humor. There\u2019s hardly a Jim Peterik fan, or a music fan in general, that will not enjoy this tale comprised of funny childhood memories, familiar juvenile experiences and the big years of forging a successful career in the music industry.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s towards the very end of the book that the history comes full circle \u2013 as Peterik reminisces upon his recent collaboration with his early favorites The Beach Boys, the impression is that it\u2019s the young Berwyn-based music fan rather than the acclaimed, mature musician\/songwriter who becomes the narrator. And that was, perhaps, the true purpose of writing this memoir \u2013 to show that neither the fame and fortune, nor shameful failures could have ever quelled a real passion for writing and performing music. It\u2019s absolutely true in Jim Peterik\u2019s case, as his autobiography ends on him being not a leather-clad rock star (although he developed more eccentric sense of style recently!) but rather a happy and fulfilled husband, father and artist who doesn\u2019t need sold-out arenas and limos to pursue his lifelong love for music and songwriting. Through the Eye of the Tiger: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Life<\/em> of Survivor’s Founding Member by Jim Peterik and Lisa Torem is thus a perfectly crafted memoir as it not only deals with the past, but also links it to the present and still leaves the door open for the future. It\u2019s an account of Jim\u2019s personal and artistic struggle, but also of fruitful and sometimes turbulent collaborations and relationships \u2013 and, to some extent, a nod to absent friends: Fergie Fredriksen and Jimi Jamison, whose untimely death was close in time to the book release date. All things considered, it\u2019s an excellent reading that should be recommended.<\/p>\n

ISBN: 978-1-941631-27-0<\/p>\n

Publisher: BenBella Books<\/p>\n

Website: http:\/\/www.benbellabooks.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Senior Columnist — Through the Eye of the Tiger: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Life of Survivor’s Founding Member Survivor\u2019s \u201cEye Of The Tiger\u201d and \u201cBurning Heart\u201d, 38. Special\u2019s \u201cRockin\u2019 Into The […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":48625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12394],"tags":[8719,10924,10925,10927,10926],"class_list":{"0":"post-48624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2015","8":"tag-book-review","9":"tag-jim-peterik","10":"tag-lisa-torem","11":"tag-the-rock-n-roll-life-of-survivors-founding-member","12":"tag-through-the-eye-of-the-tiger"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}