The Petra Zone

First let me say, I respect John Lawry and John Slick's contribution to the band. I sometimes wonder how much more some songs would've have rocked if they were more guitar driven. I'd love to hear a guitar driven version of It is Finished. The medly on Farwell got me thinking about this. What are some songs that come to your mind?

All The Kings Horses (as awesome as it is) would have been even more awesome without the heavy keyboard influence and rather a much more up front guitar.

Preacherman777 wrote:All The Kings Horses (as awesome as it is) would have been even more awesome without the heavy keyboard influence and rather a much more up front guitar.

I think this true of all the rockers on TMW.

Keyboard rock was huge in the 80's, so IMO the rocker songs would be the same.

All the rockers from "Back to the Street" all the way to "Unseen Power" could have been bigger if there was less keyboard and more guitar. But there again as rex said, that's the way it was back then.

I think the CD the would sound awesome without them would be This Means War! Most of the CD is just put your fist in the air and shout type feeling.

It was definitely a production thing. On Fire! rocks just fine with keyboards, but that's because the guitars are foremost in the mix. Back to the Street and This Means War! are just very synthy. I'd love to hear both these albums redone with the guitars more prominent; unfortunately, that's pretty much impossible for the various reasons that have been explained here before.

As a youth in the 80s, I was into keyboards, so I loved big heavy synth sounds along side the big crunchy guitars! In college I slowly transitioned from playing keys to guitars, though I still occasionally dabble on keys. But I never really lost my love for keys...albeit alongside toneful guitars!

In fact, one of my complaints about the new album is that they replaced the big synth sounds from the originals with a Hammond B3 (or some kind of organ) sound on BTTR. While I also love the Hammond/organ tones in rock (Boston, anyone??) I would have preferred to hear the heavy synth sounds of the originals on BTTR.

In Opposite way, what I would like to listen to is J&H with keyboards.

The guitars of the keyboard era could be heaviers, but keyboards in my oppinion are essentials !!!

JAH is perfect the way it is, I wish more Petra albums sounded that way.

J&H isn't perfect- perfect would have some guitar solos.

rexreed wrote:J&H isn't perfect- perfect would have some guitar solos.

There are a few solos on there, but are subtle. Stand, Would've,Should've, Could've, and LAWKI all have an assortment of solos.
Having the type of solos you'd want would have ruined the vibe of the album. I remember Bob saying at one time you just don't throw a solo in a song just for the sake of having a solo.
I think if Bob wanted a solo in a certain solo and it flowed with the vibe of the song than I think they would be there; Bob knows best IMO. This is how Petra should have sounded after Lawry left in 1993.

I agree - as much as I missed the "guitar solo per song" formula that lasted even past the 'dream team' era, J&H in particular is a rhythm driven album - the guitar is big, fat, aggressive. I'm no expert in music styles but IMHO the classic solos Bob plays so well would have felt very 'forced' in J&H. The memorable thing about that album are the huge riffs, especially in the title track, Test of Time, All About Who You Know... just about all of them really. The lead guitar complements the riffs, rather than taking the stage.

I love the keyboard work John Lawry added while he was in the band - but I really think the guitar needed to be much hotter in BTTS and TMW. The title track of the latter one especially needed more guitar; at least on my stereo that song is noticeably heavy on the keyboards, and the guitar really doesn't come into its own except for a few phrases. I liked the Farewell version much better - shame the full song was never performed (or recorded) that way.

zak89 wrote:I agree - as much as I missed the "guitar solo per song" formula that lasted even past the 'dream team' era, J&H in particular is a rhythm driven album - the guitar is big, fat, aggressive. I'm no expert in music styles but IMHO the classic solos Bob plays so well would have felt very 'forced' in J&H. The memorable thing about that album are the huge riffs, especially in the title track, Test of Time, All About Who You Know... just about all of them really. The lead guitar complements the riffs, rather than taking the stage.

I love the keyboard work John Lawry added while he was in the band - but I really think the guitar needed to be much hotter in BTTS and TMW. The title track of the latter one especially needed more guitar; at least on my stereo that song is noticeably heavy on the keyboards, and the guitar really doesn't come into its own except for a few phrases. I liked the Farewell version much better - shame the full song was never performed (or recorded) that way.

The last paragraph states the point of this thread perfectly.

You can't mess with the classics. If you change the sound of how they were recorded then maybe they wouldn't have been as influential to people. Maybe that would sound good based on todays musical sound but I was very satisfied they way were at release.