Customer Reviews

Never Say Dinosaur

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album came about in an interesting time in my musical history. Petra was one of the first bands that I really got into as a kid, but when this album came out I had moved away from arena rock (which was Petra's style at the time) and more into alternative. This album contains covers of older Petra songs (only one from the John Schlitt era if I remember right) from many of those bands that I was listening to at the time.

Some of my favorites are The Walter Eugenes' "Judas Kiss," Galactic Cowboys' "Not of This World," and Sixpence None of the Richer's "Road to Zion." A stand-out track on this album is Grammatrain's cover of "Wake Up," which is the first track from Petra's self-titled debut album from 1974. Listening to Grammatrain's cover, which is note-wise fairly close to the original gave me an appreciation for the original song that it became one of my favorite Petra songs.

If you are looking for note-for-note recreations of Petra songs and don't like the musical styles on this album, it's not for you. If, on the other hand, you are open to interesting interpretations of those songs in a wide variety of styles, this is a great album.

It's funny, because I was always under the assumption that a "tribute" album was supposed to "honor" the individual artist or band it was covering. That is SO not the case here. I guess I should start with the worst song on the album since there's not one good song on it. Galactic Cowboys' version of "Not of This World" earns the Chase Them Down With Pitchforks and Torches and Run 'Em Out of Town award. The song is lousy enough without the employment of a recorder - A RECORDER!!!!

Not so much a runner up as it is a head scratcher is the ridiculous "Louie's Solo" which is a song about Louie Weaver's drum solo from the "Captured In Time and Space" album; kudos to Passafist for having enough respect for Petra by not butchering one of their songs. I even tried to love Sixpence None the Richer's cover of "The Road To Zion," but that too is lackluster at best, especially coming from such a great band as Sixpence.

Petra's departure from Star Song a few years prior to this nonsense must have been a colossal blow as Petra was the most recognizable name the company had. Before the release of this dreck, Star Song had already released scads of best of Petra albums (most using the same songs), and were still looking for ways to milk their biggest cash cow. With the release of "Never Say Dinosaur," it was eveident that there was some major resentment oozing from the Star Song brass towards a band that deserved a lot better than this. Tribute album? No. Extended middle digit to a band that used to make a lot of money for the record company that released this? YES! This went into the garbage after I completed one listen to the entire set. Save yourself the money and avoid this like the light in "Poltergeist."