The Petra Zone

I was just given a CD of Back To The Street for my last birthday, and it seems to be a genuine original, but the date marked on the disc is 1987. It also has blue printing on the disc, a black spine, and the "comminucations" typo on the back. Does anyone know why it has the wrong year on the CD? I noticed that there was one just like it at http://www.trodland.com/petraspective/p ... treet.html, so it's not like there isn't more of them...

The date has nothing to do with the original release date. Albums can have multiple dates, due to labels buying catalogs, distribution, etc. For instance, if your album was released by the original US label when it was first released, it will say 2006. Those were US releases. If there was a secular company used for distribution in a foreign country, the date used would be the date pressed. They did not press in the US and ship globally. They press in the countries they have distribution, or darn close.

There may be other changes like liner notes, CD disc art, etc. Sometimes this has to do with being a re-release or negotiated deal where a retailer buys x number of copies at a discounted price, with a different sku. You might not have any notes in those cases.

Then there are bootlegged copies. I personally have seen my own projects show up in Russia, South America, Brazil (especially Brazil) with typos, changes in dates so people will buy it, etc. People will not think the music is current and pick it up with an old date on there. So, you cannot go by the date and it should not bother you. It does not make the disc any more collectible.

The original Back To The Street CD release was pressed in Japan and released in a digipak in 1986, with Word, Incorporated as distributor. In 1987 Star Song made distribution deal with the newly formed Sparrow/Star Song distribution and they started releasing Petra's back catalog on CD, including Back To The Street.

Previously there had been CD pressings of Beat The System (from Japan) and MPTY, NOTW and BTS (all three from the UK) for the US market. The first Sparrow/Star Song distributed CDs were pressed in Japan (two versions of TMW), but later in 1987 they switched to Discovery Systems in the USA. So while the album Back To The Street was copyright 1986, the first US pressings on CD were done by Sparrow/Star Song in 1987. That's where the copyright year on the disc comes from. And even though the Sparrow/Star Song deal expired in (I guess) 1990, they subsequently didn't change the copyright year on later pressings with different distributors.

I have a couple of other BTTS CD pressings that aren't listed yet on the site (but will be soon, follow me on twitter to find out about new additions), but they all have copyright 1987 on the disc itself and copyright 1986 on the backsleeve.

brent wrote:The date has nothing to do with the original release date. Albums can have multiple dates, due to labels buying catalogs, distribution, etc. For instance, if your album was released by the original US label when it was first released, it will say 2006. Those were US releases. If there was a secular company used for distribution in a foreign country, the date used would be the date pressed. They did not press in the US and ship globally. They press in the countries they have distribution, or darn close.

There may be other changes like liner notes, CD disc art, etc. Sometimes this has to do with being a re-release or negotiated deal where a retailer buys x number of copies at a discounted price, with a different sku. You might not have any notes in those cases.

Then there are bootlegged copies. I personally have seen my own projects show up in Russia, South America, Brazil (especially Brazil) with typos, changes in dates so people will buy it, etc. People will not think the music is current and pick it up with an old date on there. So, you cannot go by the date and it should not bother you. It does not make the disc any more collectible.

Most of the foreign Beat The System releases have 1985 as copyright year. In the past quite a few album would be released overseas with some delay. Nowadays, there's hardly any difference anymore, since people will buy it from Amazon if the release in their own country is pushed back.

I've actually never seen any Petra bootlegs printings. I know there is an Asian laserdisc release of the CITAS video and I would be very interested in adding that to my collection as a curiosity, but I don't think I've ever seen any other Petra bootlegs that could pass for genuine.

I actually recently bought a Bride bootleg by mistake. I bought their new Incorruptible album through their own website and it came in a digipak, released on Retroactive Records. When I saw a jewel case release on eBay, I bought it, assuming this was a second pressing. When I asked Retroactive Records about it, they said that it definitely wasn't theirs. It is an official factory-pressed CD and there would be no way to tell that it's not official but for the fact that it comes in a jewel case instead of a digipak. I've reported it to eBay, but they don't seem to be doing anything about it. I've seen four or five copies show up and none of those auctions were canceled and the same sellers come up with the same bootlegs every time. There is a seller from Belarus that sells cheap BTTR CDs on eBay. I might have to get one of those to check if it's a bootleg.

I know I've seen a 1987 Back To The Street pressing but never owned it, but I have owned a 1985 Beat The System CD with a 1984 cassette version. In the Town I lived in at the time I got all my music from a little shop that had a lot of these different date versions from just about all the bands and always thought it had to do with different pressings and distributors. Doesn't the A&M versions of Petra have something to do with it also? Thanks for the info Brent & PFreak; I knew both of you would be able to clear it up.

Ha. Someone went back in time to make a cassette a year earlier and didn't bother to fix the Obama election results, 911, or the end of McDonalds McRibs while they were at it? Someone wasn't thinking.

executioner wrote:I know I've seen a 1987 Back To The Street pressing but never owned it, but I have owned a 1985 Beat The System CD with a 1984 cassette version. In the Town I lived in at the time I got all my music from a little shop that had a lot of these different date versions from just about all the bands and always thought it had to do with different pressings and distributors. Doesn't the A&M versions of Petra have something to do with it also? Thanks for the info Brent & PFreak; I knew both of you would be able to clear it up.

The A&M Records distribution deal only started in 1985. At that time they decided to release the entire back catalog through A&M Records, so all album from Petra through to Beat The System exist as A&M Records LPs and cassettes. They all got the original year as copyright date, but they were all released in 1985. I'm still looking for the A&M Records cassette for Never Say Die, but I have all the other LPs and cassettes. When Star Song switched to Sparrow/Star Song Distribution, they stopped pressing all the albums on A&M, so they were in print for just 2-3 years. BTS, CITAS and BTTS are easy to find, but the other ones are not easy to track down, due to such a short period of being in print.

Dayspring also had an A&M Records distribution deal before they switched to Epic. PP1 and BB have been released to the secular market on both A&M Records and Word/Epic.

Have you guys seen the 8-Tracks from Africa? "Word" is Petra was on 8 Track over there.

brent wrote:Have you guys seen the 8-Tracks from Africa? "Word" is Petra was on 8 Track over there.

Also, didn't Lipra Loof say that in Africa, Lucas McGraw was a sensation? I think it made Lucas McGraw the top christian rock song of all time ...

I hear that in 70 more years Petra's debut album will officially get released in IRAN. That will have a new copyright year on it.

bakersfieldpethead wrote:I hear that in 70 more years Petra's debut album will officially get released in IRAN. That will have a new copyright year on it.

There is no need for that, because in 2069 the first Petra album will be public domain.

Isn't everything public domain with the internet? Hahahahaha.

Not legally no.

http://www.thepiratebay.se/

Sweden's finest public domain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay_trial

One of the founders is also convicted for hacking and fraud:
http://www.livemint.com/Companies/vy6mL ... -2-ye.html

...which kind of shows what kind of people these "pirates" are.