Album: The Future (2021)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is the lead single from The Future, an album written during lockdown. It finds Rateliff reflecting on the public perception that he's "some great survivor" when he's struggling just like everyone else.
  • Ratelifff wrote the song with his songwriter friend Sam Cohen (Alexandra Savior's "The Archer," Curtis Harding's "Our Love") and Night Sweats drummer and bassist Patrick Meese. He told The Sun that Cohen helped him "crack the code on the structure, which allowed me to finish writing the lyrics."
  • "Survivor" trades Rateliff and the Night Sweats' bluesy soul sound for a more funky, disco-like feel. Rateliff chose to lead the album with this song because of its new sound. "It isn't too far of a departure from what we've done, but it shows our growth," he explained. "So that why it ended up as the single."
  • The song topped Billboard's Adult Alternative Airplay chart, becoming Rateliff's fifth leader on the tally and his fourth with the Night Sweats.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17Songwriter Interviews

Martyn talks about producing Tina Turner, some Heaven 17 hits, and his work with the British Electric Foundation.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.