Missteps

[executioner]

Hahahaha. D&K tunes......hilarious. I like some of D&K....mostly the early stuff and then their last record. Everything commercial from them was bleh to me. Their double live LP was the best thing they did IMO.

Yes that last D&K album(To Extremes) was by far their best. If you like guitars with low end grind than you would love it.

[executioner]

If the Elefante albums have not aged well, then what can be said about ALL the previous albums. You know, the records that sounded dated and cheap upon release? IMO the earlier albums are an aquired taste, and BTTR pretty much is my anecodotal evidence. As for WUC- it does sound good to this day, but the songs are so....bleh to me. Many of them sound more like D&K tunes rather than the Petra we were used to at the time. It might just be me but I remember BB and OF sounding better back in the day than the cd's do today. I still maintain the first misstep is with WUC, with a few others to follow.

I think the only albums that have aged well are: WUC, PP2, and JAH. I do think if you didn't know when these 3 albums were made, you would think they were current as in 2011.

[neonpachyderm]

re: underscores surrounding album titles, as in _More Power to Ya_, versus the song title "More Power To Ya."

This is a hold-over from when I was writing a lot of album reviews for the Phantom Tollbooth. Reviews were emailed in and had to be sent as plain text. Underscores were used to denote underlining or italics, for album titles and such. It's a habit I got into and I've never broken it.

[bjh]

Ahh, so much to comment on, but I'll keep with the topic...

Missteps
1) J&H was way too SHORT!!! (barely 30 minutes???) Good grief, at least do a real version of "Breathe In" or "The Longing" ... see point 2.

2) DoubleTake.... In 1987 it was "THIS MEANS WAR!", in 2000, it became "this means war." It sounded tired and the album was followed up by J&H (see 1), I wasn't surprised to see "Farewell".... see point 3.

3) CP Live. Petra's live albums have traditionally marked the END of an era, not the beginning. Yes, there are Youtube videos, and TBN is finally getting their act together to air the concert. However, rather than getting a concert tour going on the "homefront", they do an overseas tour... what a lot of "retired" bands have been doing long after they "retired"... Guardian and Petra (w/ John) to name a couple. Strangely, there are issues getting the next "remake" album going. I'd love to hear it, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hmmm... a live album after WUC. That might have been a good idea. Not that I don't enjoy some of the songs from the albums that followed, but it was a different group.

[rexreed]

It's kinda hard to judge CP as a misstep since it is playing out right now, unless you know something the rest of us don't?

[bjh]

It's kinda hard to judge CP as a misstep since it is playing out right now, unless you know something the rest of us don't?

Not necessarily CP, but CP Live. It is just my opinion, but it's based on what's come before (CITAS & Farewell) and how I see things playing out now - if you'll pardon the pun.

Please, I'd love to be proven wrong, but "actions speak a little louder than words."

Ha! After I wrote that I checked the CP site to see if there were any updates to concerts. More on the east coast than the last time I looked. Maybe they are just getting started... we'll see.

Wonder when they're getting a little closer to home - Cornerstone last night might have been fun, but the drive was a bit much to make it to work, today.

[executioner]

It's kinda hard to judge CP as a misstep since it is playing out right now, unless you know something the rest of us don't?

I for one don't see it as a misstep, but I see it lacking a market that I think CP needs to get going full throttle again. They need a WOW album like they had with MPTY, BTS, and BB in order for CP to have any market longivity.

[fcollazo]

has anybody forgot petras biggest mistake: firing louie.
that put the nail on petras coffin

[p-freak]

I'm wondering if Bob would have come to the rescue if John and Louie were still struggling on. And I think basically since after the GF tour things had been going down as far as touring was concerned. So I think in some way Louie's dismissal might have been a way to put some new life into the band and give us Farewell Petra (which I like very much!). It's sad Louie had to go, but it's great to see him back now in Classic Petra. So I'm not sure if firing Louie was a misstep. I think many of the events leading up to this were more detrimental to Petra's staying power than Louie's dismissal.

[executioner]

has anybody forgot petras biggest mistake: firing louie.
that put the nail on petras coffin

I think if you knew the whole story you would think different about it being a misstep. Care to PM?

[bjh]

It's kinda hard to judge CP as a misstep since it is playing out right now, unless you know something the rest of us don't?

I for one don't see it as a misstep, but I see it lacking a market that I think CP needs to get going full throttle again. They need a WOW album like they had with MPTY, BTS, and BB in order for CP to have any market longivity.

A WOW album... yes, that's true. There was a little bit of WOW with BTTR, but perhaps only with "never say die" fanboys (and girls).

Market - that's a dirty word for some around here, it seems. Of course, "sales" means people are listening and people are liking.

[rexreed]

Firing Louie was not a popular move amongst anyone here- well almost everyone. It may be a misstep, but certainly is not a best step as alluded to in a previous post. On a related note- Coke changing their formula in the 80's was a misstep. Of course when they brought it back as Coke Classic sales went through the roof. Bringing it back was a best step. Some people give Coke best step credit for changing the formula, not so fast, that was a legitimate mistake. So firing Louie to only bring him back for CP is a little too future knowing to be a best step.

[fcollazo]

I think whatever little fans they had left, went away when louie was fired. Even with e new lineup, new record company backing, new music, they still could not survive such a low blow. Why bring john, louie and bob together for the revival cd and documentary on inpoop, presented as the core of petra, then for j&h, just a record later, those words said on the revival documentary meant just doodle.

[Dan]

Firing Louie was not a popular move amongst anyone here- well almost everyone. It may be a misstep, but certainly is not a best step as alluded to in a previous post. On a related note- Coke changing their formula in the 80's was a misstep. Of course when they brought it back as Coke Classic sales went through the roof. Bringing it back was a best step. Some people give Coke best step credit for changing the formula, not so fast, that was a legitimate mistake. So firing Louie to only bring him back for CP is a little too future knowing to be a best step.

Louie's axing from the band was no doubt the most damaging thing since Bob leaving originally in 95'. I don't think we would have got J&H unless Louie went so I guess that was a benefit to some degree. I really think that nothing thats been done before or since the 88-93 period could ever match the caliber of world exposure during this time. I am just glade that we had the motley crew we had even up until 2005, because I needed the lyrics & music that I wasn't getting from anything else within the Christian music scene.

[fcollazo]

Why do you think Louie would not have played J&H? LOUIE has the chops to prove it. Do believe the fable that Louie wanted another PP album?