The Petra Zone

Only a week and a half after the release of Petra: The Ultimate Collection, Bob Hartman has confessed that he had help in picking the songs that were included.

�I did pick them,� Bob confessed in a press conference at his summer home in Palm Springs, �...well, sort of. I mean, I picked which albums to put my iPod, and then I wrote down the first 33 songs that played when I set it on random.�

Bob was surprised when one reporter commented that most of Petra�s albums had been represented, apparently by accident. �Well, I�m not too big on the CDs from the past couple of years, except Jekyll. It rocks!� Bob was shocked to find out that there were no tracks from Petra: Farewell on the CD: �`Judas' Kiss� came up on the iPod� they didn�t put the wrong version on there, did they?� When asked about Petra Praise 1, Captured in Time & Space, and Come and Join Us, which are also not represented, Bob replied, �Don�t like �em. Not in my playlist. I have the new Van Halen CD on there, though!�

When asked for comments at his home in Franklin, Tennessee, John Schlitt said only �I�m just glad they put �Just Reach Out� on there so I�ll get some cash out of this deal!�

Haha - April Fools!

Bob listening to Van Halen's LAST CD? Right. I think about 100 people did that. It wasn't worth owning.

What was Van Halen's last CD? I bought "Balance" back in 95' but have since lost track of them. I thought the song "Don't Tell Me" off of Balance had some of the greatest guitar work I've ever heard.

executioner wrote:What was Van Halen's last CD? I bought "Balance" back in 95' but have since lost track of them. I thought the song "Don't Tell Me" off of Balance had some of the greatest guitar work I've ever heard.

Van Halen's last full-length album was Van Halen 3, released in 1998 and featuring ex-Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone. It was highly experimental, and did not sound like a "Van Halen" record. Michael Anthony did not play bass on some of the album (Eddie played bass on several tracks), and his trademark backing vocals are also missing from most tracks. Although there are some moments of brilliance in terms of the guitar playing, the songs generally lack the catchy hooks and choruses for which VH has been known. The production quality was disappointing, and the mixes sounded muddy. Gary's vocals also sounded very strained and un-natural in various places throughout the album.

Despite all of this, I believe that Gary could have worked out better as vocalist had the material been stronger, but that is my own opinion. His lyrics were more mature, intellectual and thought-provoking as compared to much of Van Halen's previous works (there are even references to certain passages of Scripture - note the lyrics "Rudder of ship, which sets the course/Does not the bit, bridle the horse/Great is the forest, set by a small flame/Like a tongue on fire, no one can tame" from the song "Fire In The Hole" and refer to James 3:3-8 ), which have proven to be a double-edged sword: some fans applauded the increased lyrical maturity, while many continued to regard Van Halen as a "party band" and felt that Cherone's lyrics were very out-of-place.

The latest Van Halen release is the 2-CD compilation Best Of Both Worlds, which was released in 2004 and featured 3 new tracks with Sammy Hagar on vocals. A couple of the songs are catchy and feature a more "modern" sounding Van Halen, but the music is not among Van Halen's strongest. Some of the lyrics are quite lame, especially considering the fact that they came from the same vocalist who wrote lyrics to songs such as "Right Now." In other words, to my ears the 3 new songs sound rushed and not up to some of the band's standards as used on previous tracks.

I'm not trying to bash Van Halen, as that band was one of my main early sources of musical inspiration. The song "Eruption" and the album Balance were what inspired me to pick up a guitar for the first time. I still enjoy much of the music for the quality of composition and guitar playing. I also thought that the band's last 2 full-length albums with Sammy Hagar were among the band's best recordings (from a MUSICAL perspective - check out the arrangements and the guitar work). I also enjoy some of the David Lee Roth-era VH, and regard the first 2 Van Halen records as classics (again, in terms of the MUSIC - Eddie changed the way the guitar was played with the first album especially, and also inspired countless musicians - both Christian and non-Christian - who followed in his footsteps).

Very cute, Lirpa Loof. You got me laughing... even if I'm a few days late.

Doh! I just realized that Lirpa Loof is an anagram for

April Fool....

Didn't really pay attention to the name.

Lirpa has posted several of these on April Fool's Day... click on her profile and then the "find all posts" link over on the right to read the others.

I always copy and paste them into the news area on the Guide. You can only see any of them on April 1.