The Petra Zone

Let the personell changes begin!

With the recent ending of Petra's 33 year music ministry I thought it'd be kind of interesting to start a series of polls on favorite songs. Starting with their first album and working to the last. I figured I'd do an album each week.

So for those interested, get out your petra CD's and start listening. Do it now!! Listening is NOT optional!!!

Voting for last weeks album "Wake Up Call" has completed.

Here be the results...

Just Reach Out (#1 Single) [8]
Midnight Oil [6]
Underneath The Blood [6]
Sleeping Giant [4]
Good News [1]
Praying Man (#1 Single) [1]
Believer In Deed [1]
Marks Of The Cross [1]
Strong Convictions [0]
He's Been In My Shoes [0] (Do slippers count?)

"Just Reach Out" took the lead by an arms length with 8 votes. "Midnight Owl", uh er, "Midnight Oil" and "Underneath The Blood" tied in 2nd with 6 votes. Sleeping Giant "Hey! Hey! Hey!" never woke up at 4 votes.

Next Up. "No Doubt" released in 1995. On a side note John released his first solo album "Shake".

Tidbits

1) The Elefante' brothers are back!
2) Bob Hartman decides to stop touring with the band.
3) Dave Lichens comes on board for lead guitar.
4) John Schlitt takes over some administrative duties (busy guy).
5) John Lawry departs.
6) Jim Cooper takes his place.
7) Bob only penned both lyrics AND music on 3 songs. The rest was a group effort.
Bob felt that although change was not over, that Petra was much closer to where they needed to be.

Who's this Brian Wooten guy?

No room on the poll for 11 songs (again) so I removed "We Hold Our Hearts Out To You". If you wanna vote for that song, just post a msg right here in this thread.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with the personell changes over the next few weeks of polls.

Alrighty then! Have at it!

Wooten played most notably with White Heart.

My vote goes to No Doubt as my favorite song. It just has special meaning to me.
It took along time for me to "like" this CD, but, now it's among the ones I play the most.

For me I voted for "No Doubt" This is a classic Petra ballad, but also in my mind about the only song on the album that actually sounds like Petra. If you would have taken the vocals away I really don't think I would have known it was Petra. IMO the weakest album they have ever done; Here is a list a things that really stand out for me on the this effort or lack there of.

1. The drums sound electronic and very shallow; probably the biggest disappointment since they were so strong on WUC.

2. Bob only penned 3 songs.

3. Not enough rock songs. Only 3 real rock songs on the album(Enter In, Heart Of a Hero, and Right Place).

4. The production quality is NOT there. Some vocals you can't understand or hear, the guitar is mixed real low than all of a sudden the guitar is blasting through the speakers.

I felt that this album was rushed and that the only reason the went with John & Dino on this was because they didn't have any other offers. I no longer possess this album in my collection and is the only Petra album I do not have in my collection. I sold it at a used CD shop for 50 cents.

I HATE IT! I HATE IT! I HATE IT!

On another note I saw them 2 times on this tour and the best thing on this tour was that White Heart opened for them(WH blew them away) I think it had alot to do with having 2 new members and also Ronnie wasn't his same ole self. It seemed they were just going through the motions here(including John). They were off on both shows I saw.

Jonathan wrote:Wooten played most notably with White Heart.

Doi!! I shoulda known that...

executioner wrote: 4. The production quality is NOT there. Some vocals you can't understand or hear, the guitar is mixed real low than all of a sudden the guitar is blasting through the speakers.

That would probably explain the audio weirdness I was experiencing last night while listening. At first I was thinking it was my cheap pc speakers cause I know a couple songs fiddle with the left/right channels.

executioner wrote:3. Not enough rock songs. Only 3 real rock songs on the album(Enter In, Heart Of a Hero, and Right Place).

Think Twice doesn't count as a rocker? That's the song I voted for.

BriGuyPEI wrote:

executioner wrote:3. Not enough rock songs. Only 3 real rock songs on the album(Enter In, Heart Of a Hero, and Right Place).

Think Twice doesn't count as a rocker? That's the song I voted for.

Not the rock Petra is known for.

I actually liked this album more than Wake Up Call when it first came out. Now I like them about equally. I did think the drums were very weak on this album. Seems like I remember CCM saying something about this as well as the drums were electronic drums, plus they seem to be mixed low as well.

I really liked the songs lyrically on this album as well. No Doubt, Think On These Things and More Than A Thousand Words are awesome songs. I do wish that one or two of them would have rocked.

I love the lyrics for Enter In. Great song all around.

I know my fantasy baseball buddy and fellow Texan executioner disagrees with me, and that's ok, but I vote for Right Place. I have always thought this song jammed.

I'll Go Ahead and vote for the next 3 albums since I will most likely be gone for at least 2 of them and maybe 3. Read the post on off topics about picking up our adopted son if you want to know why I'll be gone.

First Petra Praise Two. Overall I like the songs on this album, but again I wish it would have rocked a little more. I love the guitar on I Waited for the Lord on High and Be of Good Cheer is an awesome song lyrically as well. Be of Good Cheer gets my vote on this one!

God Fixation is probably Petra's most underrated album IMHO. I thought Pete Orta's guitar work on this one was superb. I love his solo part on It's A Matter of Time. Falling Up is just a great song, and St. Augustine's Pears is a very catchy tune. It's A Matter of Time gets my vote here.

And Double Take. I think most people took a Double Take or maybe a triple take after hearing this one. I still listen to this occasionally, when I'm in a "less rocking" mood. Beyond Belief gets my vote on this one.

I'm going to vote for No Doubt. If I had to pick a single favorite Petra song, it would be this one.

Heart of a Hero has always been a fav of mine, but for some reason Right Place is really rocking with me right now. So I have to think about it.

Like executioner mentioned, I first saw Petra live on the NO DOUBT tour...at the Iowa State Fair (tickets were only $5.00!). Whiteheart opened for them, and I remember being impressed with Rick Florian's pipes. WH did a fantastic version of U2's "In the Name of Love".

I first heard the song "No Doubt" at this concert. I had already heard "Think Twice" on some Christian music radio station around Carroll, IA (where I was living at the time).

"No Doubt" gets my vote.

No Doubt was very much a transitional record for Petra. First, Bob and John Lawry were gone and they tried a new musical style. This I see was their trasition into alt rock and it worked with mixed results. To me, there are only three songs on this record worth listening to. They re Enter In, which gets my vote, No Doubt, and a very underrated ballad We Hold our Hearts Out to You. This is my least listened to John-Petra record and I really had hoped they put both No doubt and Enter In on the Ultimate Collection so I would not have to listen to it at all. I agree with the first couple of people. There is something wrong with the mixing and the sound. Enter In gets my vote because of the strong lyrics. I especially love the line, "We don't have to be afraid to seek His face. We can enter in". How much more do we have to be thankful for.
I saw this tour three times. It was a decent set list, but the new members were just getting used to each other. I am not surprised Lichens only survived one tour. I think this was the record that a lot of my Petra fan friends began to question the direction of the band and began to explore new waters for other bands to listen to.

As I've mentioned before, to me the lyrics of this album moved away from straight ahead power theology (yeah!) to the sappy sentimentality (No!) that I often derided in other groups, never thinking Petra would stoop to it. More Than a Thousand Words and Sincerely Yours I believe qualify as two of the most twee songs Petra ever did.
Still, it's better than most of the other stuff in the morass of emotionalism that CCM became (this album was released right around the time I stopped listening to much of CCM because it had gotten so frickin cheesy).

I also voted for Think Twice. No, it does not really sound like Petra, but it's a fun one to listen to nonetheless.

I think this was the record that a lot of my Petra fan friends began to question the direction of the band and began to explore new waters for other bands to listen to.

Wouldn't doubt it. I actually ended up hanging with them until God Fix, around the time I was leading worship for a youth group in Florida. A humble, quiet, unassuming 18 year old kid came in as a guest speaker. When he gave the altar call, he didn't want the worship band to play anything. Instead, he set up a small boom box and put in a CD by some group called Delirious and put a song called 'Obsession' on repeat.

After which, it was like... 'Petra who?'

I don't think I even own anything post God Fix, and the only reason I even heard Jekyll and Hyde was because I thought it was nifty that my buddy Justin was playing with them at the time...

Regardless, Petra certainly had a role in the forging of my teenage rededicated Christianity and I wouldn't even be a musician today if it wasn't for Mr. Lawry...