Forty Year Friday (1983) – TRIUMPH “NEVER SURRENDER”

Welcome (back) to Forty Year Friday after a six-year break. Each week in 2017 I discussed my favorite albums from 1977, and now I turn my focus to another one of my favorite years of music, 1983. I originally came up with the concept for Thirty Year Thursdays on my personal Facebook page in 2013, where I wrote brief posts (one or two paragraphs) on every key album for me from ’83, starting with 30+ albums I enjoyed back then, followed by ’83 releases I discovered later on. Throughout 2023 I will share those posts here every Friday, along with some follow-up comments as needed. Since I wrote those posts in the approximate order they were released that year, I begin this series with a record I eagerly picked up in January 1983, Never Surrender by Triumph, the incredible Canadian trio of guitarist/singer Rik Emmett, drummer/singer Gil Moore and bassist Mike Levine.

Posted on my Facebook page Jan. 17, 2013:

It’s Thirty-Year Thursday. My featured album today is Triumph “Never Surrender.” Released in January 1983, it was the first new release of the year that I loved, and even though it’s not their best album (that honor would go to 1981’s Allied Forces or 1979’s Just A Game), it features some great songs, especially the ones written & sung by guitar god Rik Emmett. For anyone who may not know Canada’s second best power trio, this title track is as good an introduction as anything they’ve done. Enjoy.

I kept that Facebook post very brief, barely discussing the album. There are a number of highlights, especially the title track, “When The Lights Go Down,” “Writing On The Wall” and “A World Of Fantasy.” Even though I only mentioned Emmett’s contributions in the original post, Moore’s drumming & vocals are equally impressive. I should also point out that their subsequent album, Thunder Seven, is in the running for their strongest release, along with the aforementioned Just A Game and Allied Forces.