Highest note sung?

Talk about Petra albums, songs, and concerts.
executioner
Extreme Pethead Fanatic
Extreme Pethead Fanatic
Posts: 3947
Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2003 10:56 am
#1 Album: JAH
Pethead since: 1980
Location: Earth
x 56

Re: Highest note sung?

Post by executioner » Fri Jun 06, 2014 8:53 pm

fiendik wrote:In his time, Volz would have been considered a rock singer; highly polished voices were respected then for that genre in the 80s. But eventually the rougher sound that Schlitt had took over, and by now we look at Volz as being unfit for rock music.

I've never heard Schlitt seriously try to do a Volz song, but I'd say that they both did best when they had music written specifically for them. That's why Back To The Street sounded so odd; The songs were written with Volz in mind, but then were recorded with Schlitt, a decent disaster. Volz certainly couldn't do "Minefield" or anything like that; and for that matter, Schlitt couldn't do "Beat The System" and still sound good.
I guess I could agree with your first paragraph, but do not agree with the idea that John couldn't do "Beat The System". I will say that Back To the Street was not written with Greg in mind; Greg & Bob had agreed not too long after Beat The System was released to part ways so they knew in late 1984 that Greg would do the tour and that would be it. In fact Back To The Street was mostly recorded without the vocals in August 1985 about 2 months before CITAS was filmed & recorded, and the only reason why CITAS was ever done was because of a contract obligation that JDB had with Star Song with some stipulation he had to do one more album with Petra. JDB & Greg were a packaged deal of some sorts; it was either both of them or neither hence the reason to bring in the Elefante's for Back To The Street.
0 x
FORGIVE! FORGET! & LET GO!

User avatar
Mountain Man
Pethead Fanatic
Pethead Fanatic
Posts: 1387
Joined: Fri Oct 10, 2003 9:11 pm
#1 Album: Wake-Up Call
Pethead since: 1983
x 266

Re: Highest note sung?

Post by Mountain Man » Fri Jun 06, 2014 9:09 pm

fiendik wrote:In his time, Volz would have been considered a rock singer; highly polished voices were respected then for that genre in the 80s.
This is precisely why I call him a quintessential classic rock vocalist. He was one of the best of the best in his day.
0 x

User avatar
Mountain Man
Pethead Fanatic
Pethead Fanatic
Posts: 1387
Joined: Fri Oct 10, 2003 9:11 pm
#1 Album: Wake-Up Call
Pethead since: 1983
x 266

Re: Highest note sung?

Post by Mountain Man » Fri Jun 06, 2014 9:20 pm

executioner wrote:Back To the Street was not written with Greg in mind; Greg & Bob had agreed not too long after Beat The System was released to part ways so they knew in late 1984 that Greg would do the tour and that would be it.
While it's true that "Back to the Street" wasn't written for Greg Volz specifically, I suspect that it was written with someone like him in mind as opposed to John Schlitt.
0 x

wildmanpetra
Pethead
Pethead
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:13 pm
#1 Album: WUC
Pethead since: 1985
x 34

Re: Highest note sung?

Post by wildmanpetra » Sat Jun 07, 2014 8:22 am

". I also think it's absurd to say that Volz was holding the band back considering they were in the middle of their most successful tour to date when he announced his departure."

Anyone know how the BTS tour compares with BB?
0 x

executioner
Extreme Pethead Fanatic
Extreme Pethead Fanatic
Posts: 3947
Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2003 10:56 am
#1 Album: JAH
Pethead since: 1980
Location: Earth
x 56

Re: Highest note sung?

Post by executioner » Sat Jun 07, 2014 9:41 am

Mountain Man wrote:
executioner wrote:Back To the Street was not written with Greg in mind; Greg & Bob had agreed not too long after Beat The System was released to part ways so they knew in late 1984 that Greg would do the tour and that would be it.
While it's true that "Back to the Street" wasn't written for Greg Volz specifically, I suspect that it was written with someone like him in mind as opposed to John Schlitt.
No, Bob has made the point several times that they wanted to go to more of a sound with an edge and purposely avoided someone that was in the GXV style department; I will say its known in Petra's close ring that BTTS was completely experimental sound wise and they felt it was better rock wise but was still not where they wanted to go.
0 x
FORGIVE! FORGET! & LET GO!

executioner
Extreme Pethead Fanatic
Extreme Pethead Fanatic
Posts: 3947
Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2003 10:56 am
#1 Album: JAH
Pethead since: 1980
Location: Earth
x 56

Re: Highest note sung?

Post by executioner » Sat Jun 07, 2014 10:07 am

wildmanpetra wrote:". I also think it's absurd to say that Volz was holding the band back considering they were in the middle of their most successful tour to date when he announced his departure."

Anyone know how the BTS tour compares with BB?
I'm getting my info from a promoter who has been a long time friend and also has done since the 80's promoted a lot of Petra and other CCM shows. This promoter also did some of the CP shows in 2010-2011.

Beat The System was very successful attendance wise and also sold a lot of albums for the record company; probably up until that time the only other CCM artists to a have a tour this size were Amy Grant & The Imperials, but Star Song paid very little or nothing in way of getting the tour together and just about all the money made from the tour paid a huge amount of debt Petra had because of the tour. My understanding is that the whole tour was 2 legs with about 75 official dates.

The Beyond Belief tour was more successful on most all fronts because Word put up the financial backing for the tour; I know they came to Houston & Dallas 3 times each(If you count "The Why Wait Tour") that happened right in the middle of the Beyond Belief Tour. This tour was 3 legs with about 120 official dates over a 15 month time. The PP1, Unseen Power & Wake Up Call tours were also very successful, but a little smaller then both BTS & BB tours. During the 1988-1993 period the band made more money, sold more albums, and did more concert dates than at any other time in their history.

Like both lead singers you can't really compare these eras because of all the different circumstances and basically the band was in a different stage of their history.
0 x
FORGIVE! FORGET! & LET GO!

Thief
Pethead
Pethead
Posts: 271
Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2006 6:08 pm
Pethead since: 1990
Location: Puerto Rico
x 2
Contact:

Re: Highest note sung?

Post by Thief » Mon Jun 09, 2014 6:59 pm

I also think it's absurd to say that Volz was holding the band back considering they were in the middle of their most successful tour to date when he announced his departure.
I do think there's a bit of a truth in the statement. Intentionally or not, it is known that Beat the System was an album crafted mostly by Volz and producer Jonathan David Brown, who we all know was close to Volz. Even Mark Kelly spoke against the way the album was crafted saying it was "a producer's album", and how he didn't feel the band had much of an input on it.
0 x

User avatar
fiendik
Pethead
Pethead
Posts: 132
Joined: Sat May 10, 2014 11:48 am
#1 Album: Beat The System
Pethead since: 2010
x 1

Re: Highest note sung?

Post by fiendik » Mon Jun 09, 2014 9:20 pm

Thief wrote: I do think there's a bit of a truth in the statement. Intentionally or not, it is known that Beat the System was an album crafted mostly by Volz and producer Jonathan David Brown, who we all know was close to Volz. Even Mark Kelly spoke against the way the album was crafted saying it was "a producer's album", and how he didn't feel the band had much of an input on it.
From what I've heard, Beat The System was not very well liked in the band due to the fact that it's electronic elements eliminated parts on many songs for Weaver and Kelly, and put the guitar in the background. This is probably why J. D. Brown went with Volz for the solo effort; Those two probably got along better musically... The River Is Rising actually sounds a lot like BTS. BTTS had a lot more band input, and a lot weirder sound :)
executioner wrote:
Mountain Man wrote:
executioner wrote:Back To the Street was not written with Greg in mind; Greg & Bob had agreed not too long after Beat The System was released to part ways so they knew in late 1984 that Greg would do the tour and that would be it.
While it's true that "Back to the Street" wasn't written for Greg Volz specifically, I suspect that it was written with someone like him in mind as opposed to John Schlitt.
No, Bob has made the point several times that they wanted to go to more of a sound with an edge and purposely avoided someone that was in the GXV style department; I will say its known in Petra's close ring that BTTS was completely experimental sound wise and they felt it was better rock wise but was still not where they wanted to go.
When I said that Hartman wrote BTTS with Volz in mind, I didn't mean he though Volz would sing it... It was written for a new singer, but still has points that Hartman would have put in almost habitually for a Volz-type singer. Point is, BTTS was written around 1985, before they had any idea who the new singer would be, and Hartman would have used his ordinary songwriting technique, which would have been for their older sound. I've written songs, and can visualize this to some extent.
0 x
"Fiends are a gift from above, fiends are devoted and true..."

User avatar
Dan
Pethead Fanatic
Pethead Fanatic
Posts: 2529
Joined: Thu Oct 09, 2003 4:17 am
#1 Album: This Means War!
Pethead since: 1987
Location: USA
x 80

Re: Highest note sung?

Post by Dan » Tue Jun 10, 2014 9:00 am

How does so many people have secret knowledge of the inner workings of the band 30 years ago?
0 x

User avatar
Mountain Man
Pethead Fanatic
Pethead Fanatic
Posts: 1387
Joined: Fri Oct 10, 2003 9:11 pm
#1 Album: Wake-Up Call
Pethead since: 1983
x 266

Re: Highest note sung?

Post by Mountain Man » Tue Jun 10, 2014 11:18 am

Thief wrote:
I also think it's absurd to say that Volz was holding the band back considering they were in the middle of their most successful tour to date when he announced his departure.
I do think there's a bit of a truth in the statement. Intentionally or not, it is known that Beat the System was an album crafted mostly by Volz and producer Jonathan David Brown, who we all know was close to Volz. Even Mark Kelly spoke against the way the album was crafted saying it was "a producer's album", and how he didn't feel the band had much of an input on it.
I remember that. He said in a CCM interview at the time that he and Louie "didn't play a lick" on the album, which by all accounts seems true.

It's still one of my favorite Petra albums, though.
0 x

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 69 guests