The Petra Zone

Hey people, I often wonder how 1983 Petra band would have sounded if produced by the Elefantes, and 1990 Petra would have sounded produced by JDB....which would have worked better? Would the great 2nd wind success of the Schlitt era have never occurred? Would the '83 line-up have been considered the "dream team", selling out the huge arenas? I have no real opinion either way...I love both eras, but I probably lean more towards the Volz era....????...

Since a handful of producers were making the majority of music in the 80s, it's hard for me to hear JDB working outside of this era and the "sound" of his records. He was never a hard rock guy.

I lean more toward the Schlitt/dream team era, but the JDB stiff was really progressive imo. Examples: the Stand Up Keyboard/Drum/Guitar solo, Angel of Light in its whole was impressive, as was Chameleon, the whole NOTW album, the whole BTS album.... If these thongs were combined with the vocals of John, John Lawry's keyboard skills (although JS was very, very good), Ronnie Cates high energy bass. More acoustic drums, with some digital overdubs (Louie or a session drummer, which ever worked better), JDBs vision... I could get into that. What if John Elefante & JDB collaborated on a dream team production. Imagine the combined image for Beyond Belief or Unseen Power or even BTTS. Imagine Peter Furler as a consultant/studio drummer. NOTW meets Beyond Belief meets Jekyll & Hyde. That would be amazing!

Rusty wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 08, 2018 7:38 am

Hey people, I often wonder how 1983 Petra band would have sounded if produced by the Elefantes, and 1990 Petra would have sounded produced by JDB....which would have worked better? Would the great 2nd wind success of the Schlitt era have never occurred? Would the '83 line-up have been considered the "dream team", selling out the huge arenas? I have no real opinion either way...I love both eras, but I probably lean more towards the Volz era....????...

I think the closest we'll ever get to hearing a JDB record with John Schlitt is the Brown Bannister produced Wake-Up Call, which is a great sounding album.

blayze5150 wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 08, 2018 7:27 pm

What if John Elefante & JDB collaborated on a dream team production.

They have such drastically different and even mutually exclusive producing styles that I can't even wrap my head around how such a collaboration would work.

The Elefante work was very cookie cutter, v1, Chris, v2, chorus, bridge, solo, repeat chorus. JDB did a bit more to me instrumentally. There was some great keyboard work by John Lawry on a lot of Elefante tracks (Whole World, Creed, In the Likeness of You), and the BGVs were powerful and defined (John Elefante was no doubt a HUGE contributor- I love his voice). Rhythm gutars were on point- especially in Unseen Power. I just think those elements combined with the outside the box thinking on the earlier JDB stuff would be awesome. The canned drums would not work for it, though. I know it was Def Leppard like, which was popular at the time, but it seems really week and lacks the punch a acoustic set or mix would provide. And again, I’m no pro, and am just arm chair quarterbacking as a fan. Ronnie Cates brought a bunch of energy to the John and Dino stuff. I am a GXV fan, but not over John Schlitt. I would go heavier on the guitar sound, though. IDK, I guess I just want to hear a Dream Theater like Petra album. Bob’s not really a shredder, but his knowledge and touch more than compensate- it makes him better. John Lawry is the best keyboard player I’ve ever heard, and I know he’d excel in that style. John Schlitt’s power vocals would be amazing, and I’d love to see what Ronnie could do with more freedom (or Mark Kelly for that matter- both are excellent bass players). I loved Peter Fullers drum work on J&H. I haven’t heard enough of Louie’s actual playing to judge one way or another, but I don’t think that’s his style. Paul Simmons was amazing on the Farewell tour, and Greg Bailey impressed me a lot, too. Another topic for another day... but that lineup was a dream team in itself.

If the Elefantes were producing early 80s Petra, we never would have had Visions, which is epic in its Vangelis-like majesty!

Visions is incredible and might even be better than anything Vangelis recorded (and I say that as someone who is a huge fan of Vangelis). Kinda makes you wish John Slick had done a solo album, doesn't it?

Mountain Man wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 11, 2018 4:53 pm

Visions is incredible and might even be better than anything Vangelis recorded (and I say that as someone who is a huge fan of Vangelis). Kinda makes you wish John Slick had done a solo album, doesn't it?

Actually... yeah. I loved Lawry’s (in all its synthesized glory!).