The Petra Zone

Petra has done so much over the years. Here are some of my random thoughts about them.

I've been listening to Never Say Die and Beyond Belief alot lately. I am grateful that I found BB (my sister had taken it), because that cd is just sooo good. Thats Bob Hartman at some of his best IMO.

Never Say Die is an awesome album also, with incredible songs like The Coloring Song, Never Say Die, and, the incredible, spectacular Angel of Light. Angel of Light is, IMO, one of the best rock songs ever recorded Christian or secular. The only beef I have with this song is I wish the guitar was a bit "heavier," but its still awesome.

Also, sort of a question/thought. Did John ever sign songs Greg sang when he first joined Petra?

Yes, John does some of the older material live. I remember the first concert I saw when John had just joined Petra. It was Feb. 1986 and he had only been with the group for a month or two, all the material at that show was old stuff except for 2 new songs off of BTTS, and those were Thankful Heart and You Are I Am.

An interesting tidbit here is that BTTS was completely recorded(except lead vocals) in August 1985. This was 2 months before Greg announced he was leaving Petra and 4 months before John joined the band.

Very interesting. I've always felt that album marked a strong musical change in Petra, and it woulda been interesting to hear Greg sing those songs.

To me that record had Greg all over it. I can hear him singing almost every song. But then again, it is hard to change directions completely with one record and not hack off your fans.

Personally, I think that Greg had written the melody line for Thankful Heart. There are quite a few songs of his, where the simularities are undeniable.

Actually the lyrics were written Bob and Dino, and the music was written by John Elefante. I personally believe Bob never intended for Greg to sing on BTTS. That is how CITAS came about; They were required to do one more album with David Brown and Greg. It is funny though that BTTS was recorded before CITAS.

Sonically, I miss the work of JDB. Greg dates Petra. But JDB's mixes hold up over time. The Elepetra sound I could live without. I like the tunes, not the sonics.

Could it be that after Petra has exhausted the resources at Inpop that they will head over to the Elefonte's new label?

JDB is still out there and still producing.

In fact, he has his OWN album - that he wrote, produced AND sang on.

It's a very lush album, with lots of instrumentation. He has a wonderful voice - I'd have to find the link to his site and see if it's still for sale, if anyone is interested.

I felt like the Elefantes producing was good, but lacked good drumming, until Unseen Power came along. Unseen Power and God Fixation was Elefantes best produced albums from Petra IMO.

I'd be interested in buying it...I'll check Yahoo and Google for his web site but if you have the link go ahead and post it too.

There are probably a lot of producers out there with good voices who should be singing, LOL.

Yeah, I have it. It's called "Sinners in the hand of an angry God". He sent it to me a year or two ago. It may be purchased here:

http://www.yahwehmusic.com/JDB.htm

I saw him at a studio I was renting gear to in OKC, www.upstairsproductions.com while he was tracking his new band. He is producing/managing anyway.

What I meant was that I miss his work on the Petra stuff. I know it will never happen for obvious reasons, but it would be a great sound.