The Petra Zone

Let's not muck this one up....hotay?

I just watched it. I preferred the interviews to the concert. The concert was fine. Wish it would have been live the same way that CITAS was live. Lots of obvious studio tracks, which is common now. It is obvious that they had to do some DAW voodoo on the live vocals to get them to gel with the studio vocals, which created an obvious chasm between sung and spoken words. Lighting was great. John Schlitt Petra never had a light show like that, and that makes me mad. This is how the retirement video should have looked. It is obvious that the rebirth of Classic Petra and the retirement of Petra were not handled with the same care, love and affection by people who actually gave-a-crap. That makes me mad. That said, I had a big goofy grin on my face when the intro of the first song rolled. I love that these guys have their heads and hearts on straight and have a Second Wind. The list of bands so deserving is short and Petra deserves to be first on that short list. Second Wind, which I have never liked before, Grave Robber, which I really couldn't give a care about before, and Clean, which I never cared for before, spoke the most to me at this period in my life, with lots of physical, spiritual and emotional transitions on the horizon.

Classic Petra's members are clear, that their relationships and music minister to them. The ministering to others ministers to them. The conversions minister to them. These guys are going out on their passion and ministry in music, which is not financially viable to most. Viability is illusive in this economic climate. They would be fools to do this for a buck IMO. The unity that they are revealing now is unlike what I have seen and perceived in the last versions of the band.

Hats off to TBN. I think it is funny that Greg, Bob and Mark were talking about people busting their chops, making a big deal about backward masking, etc. Those idiots on the "circuit" were on TBN. Paul Jr and mom and dad Crouch did several shows about this. They have had the very ministers who bashed Petra, Stryper (maybe rightfully so) and others on TBN. So, maybe this is a payback. Maybe this is someone coming to their senses. Maybe this is God's idea of a blessing/reaping. God does lay up the wealth of the wicked for the just. God blesses those who bless him. I got a chuckle out of it. While I will not listen to any teaching on TBN, I would give a donation to them to make more of these types of shows. Maybe Bob Hartman could systematically be instrumental in changing TBN....through the very rock music they despised for years.

Here is a beauty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf0M1G1At28

It was interesting to listen to the interviews and get an overview of their history. I don't know anything about video production, but I loved hearing the old songs, and they are the ones right for Greg's voice. I wish they had done Judas' Kiss, nobody does that like Greg, but I can understand why it wasn't included for this. Good stuff.

I have ordered the DVD, and I have also seen the TBN broadcast (and captured it). I will not post it, because I want people to buy the DVD instead. The interviews are nice and the show is good. Personally I would have wanted a more "live" show. It sounds very much the same as the CD.
There is a short part about John Schlitt that disturbs me. At 33:20 there's a man talking about John Schlitt entering Petra. He says that: "They continued quite well for quite a while". Then they're saying that Petra for the next 10 years had varying degrees of success with their different band incarnations". TEN years? It should be more like Twenty years.
The fact is that Petra had even more success after John Schlitt entered the band.

I think they were measuring success by industry standards and the amount of time Bob remained in the band. They said that the selection of John was best for the band. I don't think that there were any motives there.

You also must remember that Classic Petra and the bands previous were instrumental for birthing a movement, a ministry, and a business that had previously not existed. The memories, emotions, and associations with people interviewed will be different and much more grand to those people than those of the transition from Greg to John. John came after the battle had already been won so to speak and the baby had become a teenager and was on to new things.

Was that Greg Bailey leading the orchestra?

Well, A. I don't think the greater heights of success after John Schlitt joined the band were because of John Schlitt. If it was because of anything it was because Bob decided to change the sound of Petra to the type of sound that took off in the late 80's and early 90's. Petra also saw some of it's lowest lows while John Schlitt was the lead singer. Would you have liked them to point that out as well? B. This was a documentary focused on Classic Petra and not John Schlitt Petra, so the fact that John's version of Petra was only given a passing mention is probably appropriate. I do agree that they goofed with the ten years business, don't know what happened there.

All ball headed guys look the same to me.... Looks like him.

brent wrote:All ball headed guys look the same to me.... Looks like him.

Yes that is Greg Bailey.

trodLAN wrote:
The fact is that Petra had even more success after John Schlitt entered the band.

Absolutely! I totally believe the increased success was mostly because of John; and secondly to Bob's ability to write songs that fit his voice.

***I thought they were very gracious toward John and it was clear they were glad he'd come on board.

Jan wrote:

trodLAN wrote:
The fact is that Petra had even more success after John Schlitt entered the band.

Absolutely! I totally believe the increased success was mostly because of John; and secondly to Bob's ability to write songs that fit his voice.

***I disagree. They had great success because by the time John came along they were already famous and well-loved thanks to all the foundation laying and hard work of the CP era.

Also, about having *more* success, please remember that by the time John came along there were many more outlets for success thanks again to the CP era and other bands that helped build the Christian Rock genre. Parents were no longer so scared of rock music so more kids were encouraged to listen to it over the secualar stuff, more churches were on board, etc. The CP guys achieved great success while under attack, being actively bad mouthed by Christian leaders, etc. John got to come in, ride the wave of the prior success and the change in the industry. I'm not a big John fan (just his voice, not him as a person. I'm sure he's great), but I'll give him his due and I'm thankful he came on board and helped to carry on the ministry of Petra, which is the truly important thing. But please quit with the people liked him more than Greg because sales or trophies when the times were different and opportunities were not equal in the different eras and Petra was respected in the industry due to the many years they'd already been fighting the good fight.

Very well stated.

Disagree in what? That Petra became bigger as a band in the late 80's and early 90's ?
I was there in 1982, - I have grown up with Volz.
No need to explain for me what CP did. Classic Petra were pioneers.
But when Petra got John Schlitt from Head East on board, they did a scoop.

The Schlitt Petra had a snappy show during the Unseen Power days. I think it rivals the setup on the TBN concert, especially since the UP tour you got that day after day. It's clear that the CP light and stage isn't traveling to every city.
I wonder how much film is left from the UP video? That stuff looked great. The budget on the Farewell video looks to have been zero compared to the CP video.

Could I request that we stop getting defensive (and yes, the folks who prefer Greg over John are as guilty of that as anyone else, so shoot me) and just have a calm discussion? This isn't a whose-era-is-bigger contest. It's a discussion board. So what if someone mentioned John? John was mentioned in the program; it's okay to say something about what was said about him. Greg and John have both made big contributions to Petra.

Back on topic: The lighting was well done as Brent pointed out, you could see everything clearly, although I don't know how they went about setting up the lighting for the program. And it was good to see them laughing and having a good time.

Folks are always going to compare the two. That's what happens with member changes in a band.