Larry Norman
Encyclopedia
Larry David Norman was an American Christian musician, singer, songwriter, record label
owner, and record producer
, who worked with Christian rock
music. Since Norman's first professional release in 1967, more than 100 of his own albums
have been released through such commercial record labels as Capitol
, MGM
, Verve
, and his own independent labels
: One Way Records
, Solid Rock Records
, Street Level Records
, and Phydeaux Records
.
In January 1973 Cashbox named Norman as one of the Best New Male Artists of the year. In 1989 Norman was awarded the Christian Artists' Society Lifetime Achievement Award. On 27 November 2001 Norman was inducted into the Gospel Music Association
's Hall of Fame
in a ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium
, and was voted into the CCM Hall of Fame in January 2004 by the readers of CCM magazine. In 2007 Norman was inducted into the San Jose Rocks Hall of Fame, both as a member of People!, and as a solo artist. At that time Norman reunited for a concert with People! In 2009 Norman was among those honored in a tribute segment of the Grammy Awards.
, the oldest son of Joe Hendrex "Joe Billy" Norman (9 December 1923 – 28 April 1999), who had served as a sergeant in the US Army Air Corps during World War II
and worked at the Southern Pacific Railroad
while studying to become a teacher, and his wife, Margaret Evelyn "Marge" Stout (born in 1925 in Nebraska). After Norman's birth his parents joined the Southern Baptist church, which prohibited dancing, going to the cinema, and "almost everything that didn't occur inside [the Church]". Because of his religious convictions, Norman's father discouraged any interest in music by his children. Norman noted, "We were poor and I had no children's records in Texas. But I listened to my parents' radio whenever they turned it on. I developed an appreciation for swing music, big band
arrangements and solo singers like Frank Sinatra
and Bing Crosby
". Also from an early age, he listened to the "blues
and Negro spirituals on 78s his grandfather [Burl W. Stout] had collected". Other musical influences he later acknowledged included gospel singer Mahalia Jackson
, Belgian jazz
musician Django Reinhardt
, American concert singer Paul Robeson
, and Black comedian Bert Williams
. Norman was strongly influenced also by classical music
, jazz, blues music, and black gospel music, but "didn't like country and western ... because of the nasal, twangy vocals", or "some kinds of fast-paced jazz".
In 1950 Norman and his parents moved to San Francisco, California
where the family attended a Black American Pentecostal church, later they attended the First Baptist Church at 22 Waller Street where Norman became a Christian in 1952 at the age of five. He began composing songs around this time. He stated, "I started to write music when I was four or five and didn't realise I was composing tonally because I was simply using the piano". He recalled: "When I was five I wrote a song about the rain because I loved the San Francisco drizzles, and later I wrote about a dog because I couldn't have one, and a clown because my uncle was a circus performer, and when I was eight I wrote a song ["Riding in the Saddle"] about a cowboy in the desert watching the stars at night and thinking about God because I often looked at the stars and tried to picture Heaven", inspired by seeing Roy Rogers
and hearing Dale Evans
give her testimony
at the civic auditorium. Among his earliest songs was "Lonely Boy" (1956), "The Man From Galilee" (1956) "inspired by Sunday School stories", the unreleased "Bopping With My Girl"; "My Feet are on the Rock" (1958), "The Thanksgiving Song" (1959); "Country Church, Country People" (1959), was written for his grandmother Lena.
From 1956 Norman was fascinated with the music of Elvis Presley
. According to Norman, his father banned him from listening to rock and roll music on the radio. Norman frequently accompanied his father on Christian missions to prisons and hospitals. In 1959, he performed on Ted Mack's syndicated CBS
television show The Original Amateur Hour. In 1960 his father accepted a teaching job in San José, California
. The family lived in Campbell, California
, Later, while a junior at Campbell High School, he was the youngest person voted into the Edwin Markham
Poetry Society, and won first place in the Society's student poetry contest. Norman won an academic scholarship to major in English at San Jose State College. By the fall of 1965 Norman left the family home and rented an apartment in Downtown San Jose
. After one semester, he "flunked out of college and lost [his] scholarship".
held at Campbell High and throughout San José. After graduating from high school, Norman became involved in the local rock music scene in San José, opening for both The Doors
and Jimi Hendrix
.
at the Asilomar Conference Grounds
in Pacific Grove, California
.
Norman became the band's principal songwriter, sharing lead vocals with Gene M. Mason.
Capitol Records
signed People! to a record deal at the beginning of 1966. As Norman was legally underage, he required parental permission and court approval to sign.
People! performed about 200 concerts a year, appearing with Van Morrison
and Them
, The Animals
, The Dave Clark Five
, Paul Revere & the Raiders
, The Doors
, The Who
, Janis Joplin
, Jimi Hendrix
, Moby Grape
, and San Jose bands Syndicate of Sound
, and Count Five
.
In 1967 Capitol released People!'s first single "Organ Grinder/Riding High", with both songs co-written by Norman and Mason, and produced by their manager, Mikel Hunter "Captain Mikey
" Herrington. It failed to chart. In 1968 Capitol released People!'s second single, also produced by Captain Mikey, an extended cover version
of The Zombies
' non-chart song "I Love You
", backed by "Somebody Tell Me My Name". After extensive promotion by the band and its manager, and industry advertising by Capitol, including the creation of a promotional film that appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand
, "I Love You" became a hit single, selling more than one million copies. It reached reaching a peak of #14 on the Billboard
Hot 100, and #13 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles Chart in June 1968,. It became a #1 single in several markets, including Italy, Israel, and Japan. People! continued to tour extensively, appearing three times on Dick Clark's American Bandstand
, and also on Johnny Carson
's Tonight Show.
Despite the success of "I Love You", and despite favorable reviews, the subsequent album, named after their hit single and released in July 1968, only reached No. 138 on the Billboard charts. In August 1968 Capitol released People!'s third single "Apple Cider", backed with "Ashes of Me", but it failed to chart.
By the time the I Love You album was released and the band undertook its first major tour of the USA in the summer of 1968, Norman had left People!. Norman and Mason reunited in 1974 for a benefit concert for Israel at UCLA, later released in 1980 as the live album Larry Norman and People!—The Israel Tapes—1974 A.D. Norman, Fridkin and Mason came together in August 2006 for a People! reunion concert in the G. Herbert Smith Auditorium on the Willamette University
campus in Salem, Oregon
.
, and a week later was invited by Herb Hendler
to come to Hollywood to write musicals for Capitol Records. Norman recalled in 2007 that he "just prayed and prayed and prayed. And I had no peace about joining YFC. And a lot of peace about Hollywood. But God was silent".
In July 1968, Norman moved to Los Angeles and rented "a tiny, one-room, flophouse
apartment, with the rent paid on a monthly basis and no lease, water or electricity costs required" at Apartment 406 at 1140 North Gower Street, Hollywood
. near the corner with Santa Monica Boulevard, across the street from the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery.
In 1969 Norman auditioned for a role in the Los Angeles production of the rock musical Hair
, which was playing at the Aquarius Theatre at 6230 Sunset Boulevard
, and which was directed by Tom O'Horgan
and produced by Michael Butler
and the Smothers Brothers
. As co-creators James Rado and Gerome Ragni
and half of the cast were leaving the production to join the Acapulco
production, Norman and his friend, Teddy Neeley
, were offered the replacement parts as George Berger and Claude Bukowski respectively.
Norman indicated in a July 2007 interview, "When I got [to Los Angeles], there were auditions for Hair. And I thought, I'm going to try out for Hair just to see if I have what it takes. Because maybe I'm just some lame person and I shouldn't be in music at all. So I tried out for Hair, and they gave me a callback and they said 'You're it. Come down on Saturday, there's a contract waiting for you to sign'. Believing God had something more important for him to do, and that "Jesus is the only personal, social and political answer for this generation or any other", Norman rejected the role because "of its glorification of drugs and free sex as the answers to today's problems". Norman decided "I couldn't do it when I found out what it was about. I just didn't agree with what it had to say. So I turned it down". Neeley accepted the role of Claude, but the role offered to Norman eventually went to Ben Vereen
. Norman, who was broke, went home to his apartment, locked his guitar in the closet, and cried.
Years later Norman would recall that "It was a beautiful time of my life because it was just me and Jesus. And I had to depend on him, which I wanted to, because nothing else was happening. I wasn't performing, I'd given up music. 'Cause I wanted to be pure". In 2006 Norman recalled: "Even after one of my recordings had charted, I continued to live a spartan existence, slept on the floor, got my teeth fixed without a shot of Novocaine, chose to have no car and walked everywhere – trying to toughen myself for whatever vicissitudes the future might bring. I wasn't concerned with the ephemeral, wasn't really emotionally geared up for wide public acceptance; I was busy getting ready for the end of the world." According to Norman, about this time he wrote his most covered song, "I Wish We'd All Been Ready", "right after I gave up music completely so I could talk to people on the streets. I felt that rock music and love and peace was all a big lie". In a 2001 interview, Norman indicated: "The Bible says we should go into prisons and hospitals and witness to people and also bring them encouragement. ... I wanted to go out into the streets and witness to the people on Hollywood & Sunset Boulevard whether they were prostitutes or homosexuals or drug users and bring them into the kingdom. I remember getting a lot of irritated responses because they thought I wanted to turn the church into a half-way house
. No I didn't – I wanted to turn the church into a house that brought people all the way through to the kingdom
". Norman recalled: "One night I was singing on stage and Janis Joplin
was sitting behind the front curtain watching the concert with a bottle of Southern Comfort
in one hand and she was sipping whiskey from a paper cup. She was drunk and really unhappy. And every now and then, she would start yelling at me. I wrote "Why Don't You Look Into Jesus" about Janis. I felt really sad for her. I felt sad for all of them. They seemed so unhappy and so lost. I couldn't easily break through the haze of drugs by using music. I felt like the only time I had any real effectiveness was in personal conversations. At one point I even felt that maybe music was of no use at all. So I gave it up. All I did was street witness."
After Norman moved to Los Angeles in 1968, he "spent time sharing the gospel on the streets of Los Angeles", especially along Hollywood Boulevard
. Norman described his street witnessing: "When I left my band in 1968 and moved to Los Angeles, I didn't feel awkward about witnessing anymore – I felt directed. I chose my ground and worked my beat. I walked up and down Hollywood Boulevard several times a day; at first alone, then with Richard Gerstle and later Sarah Finch, witnessing to businessmen and hippies, and to whomever the Spirit led me. I spent all of my Capitol Records' royalties starting a halfway house and buying clothes and food for new converts. Each Friday and Saturday I borrowed cars and drove almost 150 miles to pick up certain kids and take them to a church in a home in Santa Ana. Our meetings usually lasted five hours on Friday and eight hours on Sunday.
After he moved to Los Angeles in 1968, Norman was associated initially with the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, California, and its Salt Company coffee shop outreach ministry, which operated in the upstairs loft of a converted apartment building located behind the Hollywood Presbyterian Church. Glenn D. Kittle believes that "rock-gospel music was born at the Salt Company Coffeehouse" by Norman. According to Don Williams, who founded the Salt Company coffeehouse in the summer of 1968, Norman "heard ‘The Agape,’ a hard rock Christian group, play songs about Jesus", which "convinced Larry that he could use his rock music to communicate the gospel".
After several months of musical inactivity, Norman began writing songs again. He recalled: "And months later the music started coming to me in my sleep. And I realized that somehow, perhaps because I was willing to give it up, the music had changed." One of those songs was "I've Searched All Around the World", which Norman says was "written in 1968 after walking up and down Hollywood Boulevard almost every day for a year talking to the runaways, pushers, bikers, prostitutes and homeless winos". According to Philip Cooney: "Norman's songs often contain a series of self-contained vignettes
that (he hoped) would give the passers-by something to think about, or that might hook them in to hear more of the gospel message. The audience for these songs was not those already saved, it was those to whom church was a foreign language. He understood the ability of music to get behind people's gates, to draw them in with a beautiful melody and good words, to make people drop their defensive position to the gospel—even if for a short time—and allow God to speak to them in that moment....Norman's songs sought to have a relevance to life on the street, establishing a rapport with the musical and social culture around him, and leading his listeners to look to Jesus for the answers in their search for meaning."
Norman had a "passion for the pavement [and] he took his signature voice and his beat-up nylon-string guitar to festivals, coffee shops, and major theaters", including concerts at The Troubador and The Hollywood Bowl, "witnessing before and after the performances on the streets during the day and to the customers after the gigs." Norman appeared with the Salt Company band in a concert at the Vogue Theater in 1970.
In 1969 Norman was involved writing the rock opera
Lion's Breath. His work on this musical "caught Capitol's attention and they lured him back in 1969, promising him total control over his next album, Upon This Rock".
Norman's next musical was Love on Haight Street, also written in 1969, and another project that involved Norman was Bailey; Some songs from these unreleased musicals appeared later on various albums.
, now headed by Mike Curb
, to honor his original 1966 contract with the understanding that he would have complete artistic control. Believing that "Kids just don't want to listen to God's empty songs anymore", in December 1969 Capitol released Norman's first solo rock album, Upon This Rock, "the first major label record to marry rock music with the gospel", "the Sergeant Pepper of Christianity", widely regarded as "the album that first recruited rock in the service of salvation", later cited as being "one of the roots of the current Contemporary Christian Music"; and now considered to be the first full-blown Christian rock album". Upon This Rock, whose music was "a blend of folk
, psychedelic
, and rock
influences", combined "street language and gritty imagery".
While Norman was denounced by television evangelists
like Bob Larson
; Jimmy Swaggart
, who called rock music "the new pornography
"; and Jerry Falwell
; and others within the conservative religious establishment, who considered the development of Christian rock-and-roll, "a sinful compromise with worldliness and immoral sensuality", his music gained a large following in the emerging counter cultural movements.
In February 1970, two months after Upon This Rock was released, Capitol dropped Norman from their label, as the album was deemed a "commercial flop" as it had failed to reach the sales target Capitol expected, telling Norman that "there is no market for your music." Norman analyzed its poor reception in a 1972 interview: "It was too religious for the rock and roll stores and too rock and roll for the religious stores." In April 1970 Capitol leased Upon This Rock to Heartwarming
/Impact Records for two years a small sum. While Norman decided to leave Capitol Records in protest, because he had a different audience in mind, he cooperated with the re-release of Upon This Rock.
Upon This Rock received increased sales due to its distribution in Christian bookstores, and "became Benson's most acclaimed release", selling 23,000 copies when it was eventually released in England in 1972 through Key Records. In 1971 Upon This Rock was submitted unsuccessfully for Grammy Award
nomination. By May 1970 Capitol released a single (Capitol 2766) with both songs from Upon This Rock: "Sweet Sweet Song Of Salvation" backed with "Walking Backwards Down The Stairs".
By October 1969 Norman was a regular performer at the Salt Company, "a combination of late Victorian and early Salvation Army
", which held concerts on weekends in the upstairs loft of a converted apartment building in downtown Hollywood. Norman would frequently show up at the Hollywood Palladium
unannounced and unscheduled on Sunday afternoons and sing to as many as 4,000 people at the Jesus People Festivals organized by Duane Pederson
. At the "Rock of Ages Folk Festival" held on 26 February 1970 in Northridge, California, Norman appeared as part of the Larry Norman Experience. In March 1970 Norman performed at the Youth for Christ
-sponsored Faith Festival, the first major Jesus music festival
, at Evansville, Indiana
, which attracted 6,000 people to hear him, Pat Boone
and his family, Christian folk singer Gene Cotton, and Jesus rock artists Danny Taylor, Crimson Bridge, and e, a band that included Greg X. Volz
. In October 1970 Norman and Randy Stonehill, who had only become a Christian in August, were among those who performed at an Earth Harvest concert at Thy Brother's House, a Jesus coffee house near the campus of California State University
at Fullerton, California
.
In a 1970 concert Norman wrote "The Tune", which one reviewer described as "probably ... Larry's finest achievement as a songwriter and recording artist", while improvising on the piano. While some claim "The Tune" was inspired by Bill Gaither and Gloria Gaither
's 1969 song "God Gave the Song", Norman claims in a 1981 article in Contemporary Christian Music magazine: "Bill Gaither's music first came to my attention in 1973 when a friend played me 'God Gave the Song'. I was shocked; perhaps for personal reasons more than reasons of musical taste. 'God Gave the Song' seemed striking and yet very familiar." On the Phydeaux website, it reads: "'The Tune' was written by Larry in 1971 (sic). During the next two years an author, [Calvin Miller] from the town where Larry first performed this, wrote a book called "The Singer" and another book called "The Song." The books were gigantic sellers. And the biggest gospel artist [Bill Gaither] from the Southern gospel
end of Christian show biz (who shall remain nameless) took "The Tune", kept the tempo and the flavor and re-titled it "God Gave The Song." It was one of the biggest hits the artist had up until that point. When Bill and Gloria Gaither created their 1973 musical Alleluia!: A Praise Gathering for Believers, "the first album from a Christian record company to achieve this honor", which was certified gold by the RIAA, and nominated in 1974 for a Dove Award for Gospel Song of the Year, their arranger Ronn Huff added the prefatory words to "God Gave the Song" that are similar to those in "The Tune". While "The Tune" was played frequently in concerts since its composition, it was first recorded in a studio in 1977, backed by 45 piece orchestra, and only released in 1983.
Norman, along with Pat Boone
; Arthur Blessitt
; Duane Pederson; Jack Sparks, a founder of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project
; and other Jesus People leaders were prominent participants in the Spiritual Revolution Day march and rally in Sacramento, California
on 13 February 1971. By 1971 Norman was playing at Calvary Chapel
in Costa Mesa in Orange County
, where other Jesus music
pioneers (and future Maranatha! Music
artists) Love Song
, Chuck Girard
, The Way
, and Children of the Day
were also performing.
from Capitol in 1970 for songs he had written for People!, Norman moved from the "rat-hole" apartment at Gower Street and established a half-way house
on North Beachwood Drive, Hollywood, where he "housed and fed various groups of people, supervised their Bible studies and drove them to church on Fridays and Sundays". However, after he "ran out of money", Norman negotiated to write songs on demand for Capitol and was paid $80 per month subsistence advanced against future earnings, for his work polishing and refining songs for H.R. Pufnstuf
, Hawaiian singer Alfred Alpaka, and Tennessee Ernie Ford
, and was even asked to write English lyrics for the Japanese song "Sukiyaki
". Norman claims he contributed 87 songs the first year of this arrangement, but was never compensated
By August 1970 Norman had moved to a three room "little white cottage" at 6007 Carlos Avenue, Hollywood, near the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. About that time Norman was in negotiations to sign with Elektra Records
, but "it fell through when the president of the label was confronted by someone who gave him a copy of the Hollywood Free Paper. He feared that I was part of an abrasive subculture
and took back his offer". On 3 September 1970 Norman began writing a regular column called "As I See It" in the Hollywood Free Paper, an evangelistic newspaper founded by Duane Pederson
, one of the leaders of the Jesus People in Hollywood and Los Angeles."
Seeking to make a "more earthy sounding album which I could hand out to the street people I talked to on Hollywood Boulevard", in 1970 Norman established One Way Records
with his own money, which was described as "an underground experimental" label, which was headquartered initially at his rented home at 6007 Carlos Avenue, Hollywood. When Norman left Capitol he took with him "demos
" of songs he had recorded between 1966 and 1969, some of which were released on his One Way albums. Norman recorded, produced and released two independent albums of his own music through his One Way Records: Street Level (1970) and Bootleg (1971). Both albums "would feature grainy, underground looking black and white artwork. Both would also be ... mixing live concert recording, studio demos of previously unreleased songs and future classics. These albums would also reveal the smart and piercing humor Norman would always be noted for. Norman concerts were part rock and roll show, part revival meeting
and part stand up comedy. This facet of his life and ministry would be introduced on these two albums. According to Norman, One Way "used secular sub-distributors or "rack jobbers" and "one stops" to disseminate its records". Additionally Creative Sound, owned by Bob Cotterell, released and distributed Street Level, as well as Stonehill's Born Twice.
In 1970 One Way Records released Street Level
, which had on side one "a [1969] live concert recorded at Hollywood's First Presbyterian Church which ran a nightclub called the Salt Company". As the first version of Street Level was "too confusing to the Christians", Norman recorded "a second version for the church kids" in 1971 that completely replaced side two with one recorded with a band called White Light. After its release in 1970, the Hollywood Free Paper described Norman as "a combination of lyricist, composer, performer, backwoods preacher [and] poet." In 1971 Norman produced an album (Born Twice
) for Randy Stonehill
, who had been converted in August 1970 in Norman's kitchen.
In 1971 Norman started Street Level Productions, Inc., a legal corporation with the mission to "reach intro the streets; to avoid the lofty climes and the commercial heights and to labor instead at street level." Street Level (and One Way Records) was headquartered at 7046 Hollywood Boulevard. Also headquartered at that address was New Generation Artists, which managed Norman at that time.
In early 1972 One Way Records released Bootleg
, a double album retrospective covering the previous four years of Norman's career compiled from demonstration recordings made while at Capitol, private recordings from his friends, and various interviews and live performances. In 1999 Norman explained the unpolished nature of Bootleg: "Many songs which ended up being released on Bootleg, ... weren't really finished but I had to release the album immediately so it wouldn't violate the terms of my MGM contract which was soon going to be in effect. ... I just didn't have time to finish it. ... I didn't have the budget to make it a real album, I just used songs laying around to fill it up, which I regretted".
, who had decided to sign Norman on the basis of his work on Street Level and Bootleg, but Norman accepted a publishing agreement with Capitol. By 1971 Norman was associated with Chuck Smith
's Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa
. By 1973 over 200 "covers" had been recorded of Norman's songs, including by Cliff Richard
, Jack Jones
, Petula Clark
, Sammy Davis, Jr.
, Pat Boone
, The Imperials
, and The Oak Ridge Boys
.
In November 1971, Norman recorded "Without Love You Are Nothing" (also known as "Righteous Rocker") and "Peace, Pollution, Revolution" in Los Angeles for MGM.
In 1971 Norman visited England for the first time, and lived in a house at 153 Park Lane, Carshalton
, where he wrote a number of songs including "The Great American Novel", and the as yet unreleased "Living on Park Lane". Norman had an influence on the emerging English gospel music scene. Early in 1972 Upon This Rock was released in England, and sold 5,000 copies in its first three months, making it the top selling religious album in England. In March 1972 Norman performed 38 concerts in 35 days, including a concert at the Royal Albert Hall
in the Spring of 1972, for which he claims he was only given about $700 by the tour promoter. His song "Stop This Flight" describing the vicissitudes of touring and record companies was inspired by this tour.
In June 1972 Norman was one of the featured performers at "probably the high-water mark of the Jesus Movement", Explo '72
, the "Jesus Woodstock", "Godapalooza", or "Godstock", which attracted 80,000 young people to the Cotton Bowl
in Dallas, Texas
, On 17 June, the final night of Explo' 72, with "the thousands who showed up included everything from short-hairs out of conservative Bible colleges to hair-to-your-waist devotees of Larry Norman, Christian rock, and the Jesus People". Norman performed a fifteen minute set before his largest ever crowd at the eight hour Jesus Music Festival that attracted an estimated 180,000 people to a speedway at the uncompleted Woodall Rodgers Freeway near Dallas, Texas. At the conclusion of his set, which included "I Wish We'd All Been Ready", the "laconic lament" of the Jesus Movement, Norman encouraged those attending: "Don't let this week of love pass away – let it be for a lifetime". Norman is included on the subsequent commemorative album, Jesus Sound Explosion, which was sent free to 170,000 viewers of the television program, singing his "Sweet, Sweet Song of Salvation". On 21 June 1972 Beware! The Blob
(also known as Son of Blob), in which Norman appeared briefly, was released in the USA.
On Saturday, September 2, 1972 Norman also performed at the Festival of Light
-sponsored Festival for Jesus held in Hyde Park, London
, which was filmed and released as a 50-minute documentary Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?, which featured Norman's 1972 song of the same name, which was written in response to the criticisms of Christian Rock music by American evangelist Bob Larson
, whom Norman regularly lampooned
at his concerts. Norman's 1969 apocalyptic song, I Wish We'd All Been Ready”, was also featured in the 1972 Christian end times
film A Thief in the Night, which was watched by an estimated 50,000,000 people, but sung by an obscure group known as The Fishmarket Combo.
, the first album in a projected trilogy, in George Martin
's London AIR Studios
. Only Visiting This Planet, which was "Initially coordinated by George Martin", and was produced by The Triumvirate of British producers Rod Edwards, Roger Hand, and Jon Miller, often ranked as Norman's best album, "mixed his Christian message with strong political themes", and "was meant to reach the flower children disillusioned by the government and the church" with its "abrasive, urban reality of the gospel". In 1990 CCM magazine voted Only Visiting This Planet as "the greatest Christian album ever recorded".
On January 6, 1973 Norman was one of three named as Best New Male Artist of the year by Cashbox. and performed in two sold-out concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. After a tour of South Africa in June and the UK in July, and the release in July of his "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?", a songbook featuring some of Norman's songs from both Upon This Rock and Only Visiting This Planet.
, which was produced again by Edwards, Hand, and Miller. According to John J. Thompson, "lyrically, as the title suggests, the album reflects on the nature of the human condition. The songs deal with characters ... knee deep in the madness of life without God". By 1 October 1973 these recording sessions were completed and the recordings were submitted to MGM. However, financial problems at MGM, which would result in its collapse within fifteen months, "couldn't adequately promote or advertise the album. The corporate attention was focused on more pressing things like survival and solvency". According to Norman, the record company dropped several Christian songs, including "Butterfly," "If God Is My Father," "Kulderachna", and "I Hope I'll See You In Heaven", in favor of more lightweight love songs like "Fly, Fly, Fly," the album's opening track", and "Christmastime', both previously released as singles.
The release of So Long Ago the Garden in November 1973 caused controversy in the Christian press primarily due to its album cover, which some insisted featured a naked Norman, and that this was proof he had fallen away from God. As John J. Thompson explains: "The cover featured a seminude Norman with a photo of a lion superimposed on his skin. The symbolism
(an Old Testament
prophecy
referred to the Messiah
as 'the lion of the tribe of Judah
,' and C.S. Lewis' Narnia series made a Christlike figure out of a lion named Aslan
), as well as the obvious insinuation of Adam
in the Garden of Eden
, flew over the heads of many people, who focused on a patch of grass covering Larry's nether parts".
Steve Turner adds: "The songs which examined the fall
were mostly written from the perspective of the scarred and his public just could not take the idea of an artist taking another persona
to make a point. To them he was a backslider who had broken with his wife and was seeking fame (the ideas being taken from his songs)". Turner indicated that Bible bookstores, especially in the southern and midwestern States of the USA, refused to sell his albums, and that all of his concerts were canceled until Noel Paul Stookey invited him onto stage during one of his concerts eighteen months later.
However, believing that MGM was interfering with the subject matter of his records, by 1974 Norman left MGM due to "a squabble with MGM over song choices for his next album, ... So Long Ago the Garden". Not long after this decision, MGM Records folded due to economic difficulties.
to produce records for Christian artists who, like himself, had "no commercial value." Norman intended Solid Rock to be "a "musical L'Abri", and "more than business though, it was community." "Solid Rock became an important moment in the history of Christian rock music since it was the first truly artist-driven label". According to Norman, the purpose of Solid Rock was "to help other artists who didn't want to be consumed by the business of making vinyl pancakes but who wanted to make something 'non-commercial' to the world".
In 1974 Norman and Kenn Gulliksen started a Bible Study in the living room of Norman's apartment at Doheny and Sunset in Los Angeles that was only for musicians and actors, including regulars Jerry Houser
and Julie Harris
, which after six months, was named "The Vineyard", and later, with another Bible study at the home of Chuck Girard
, became part of the founding congregation of the Association of Vineyard Churches
. This Bible Study met at his home until 1977, when Norman and his wife left on a seven-month world tour. By March 1975 Norman was attending the Little Brown Church in Studio City.
, who agreed to distribute Solid Rock's records. According to Norman, Orphans From Eden, his first album submitted to ABC, which included collaborations with his sister, Kristy, was never released. Another album recorded in 1974 that was rejected by Word Records was Streams of White Light Into Darkened Corners, a documentary
album that took "a satirical look at the early 1970s 'religious pop music' trend from 1970 to 1974", written by celebrities who had "jumped on the `70s spiritual bandwagon", and featured Norman singing cover
s of religious songs by Norman Greenbaum
, Paul Simon
, George Harrison
, Eric Clapton
, the Beatles, Randy Newman
, Leon Russell
, Jackson Browne
, and the Rolling Stones, and was not released until 1977 by AB Records.
In 1975 Norman recorded In Another Land
, the third album in his trilogy, which was released in 1976 through his own Solid Rock label and distributed through Word Records, making it "the first of his albums to be released on a Christian label". However, according to Norman, "In Another Land, was executorially censored by the "mother company" which insisted on removing any music they felt was "too negative" or "too controversial." In Another Land was Norman's best-selling album ever, and had the best reception of any of his albums from the Christian establishment. By 1985 In Another Land had sold 120,000 copies in the USA alone, compared with average sales of less than ten thousand for other gospel albums,
, and they switched Norman to its Word subsidiary. infusing it with $17 million in capital. Until 1980 Solid Rock records would be distributed by Word, giving them a more direct distribution into Christian bookstores. After In Another Land, Norman had completed his first cycle of seven albums, and wanted to change musical directions, but, according to Norman, "the record company was not interested in anything less than Part Four of The Trilogy; an impossibility, conceptually and emotionally". Norman indicated in 1991 that he had wanted to postpone Something New under the Son
, the first album in a projected second cycle of seven albums, but to record:
However, Le Garage Du Monde was "considered too far over-the-edge for the American youth gospel market and never released". In 1976 Norman recorded songs for his proposed Red, White and Blues trilogy, a projected American anthology of three albums for the United States Bicentennial
, that would focus on the roots of American music. Known as the "Black and White" sessions, because they "explored both American black music from Slavery
to the present, and American white music from early traditional music to modern folk songs
". Norman revealed that "I recorded "This Land Is Your Land
" and "They Laid Jesus Christ in His Grave
" with a guitar I borrowed that was Woody Guthrie
's; found broken in a field with a bird nest inside. I included a song of my own called "When The Moon Shines On The Moonshine" along with other songs like "Turn, Turn, Turn", and "The Eve Of Destruction". ... Neither the album of black music nor white music was approved for release on Solid Rock Records and I finally resolved to abandon both albums. Some of the Bicentennial music was later gathered together with other unreleased songs under the title Rough Mix 2", which covered material from 1972 to 1978, and which also contained "other projects which had been censored, rejected, or never heard for various other reasons", was only released officially in April 2011.
In 1976 Norman acquiesced and recorded Something New under the Son
, a blues
-rock concept album
that some regard as his tour de force, and as "one of the roughest, bluesiest, and best rock and roll albums of his career or the whole industry", that took its title from "an ironic inversion of a phrase in Ecclesiastes
", namely: "there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9b). While Norman explicitly denied this album was autobiographical in the accompanying lyric songbook, many years later some critics challenged this claim, arguing "Norman was struggling through his own divorce and identity crisis at the time". In 1999 Norman responded by arguing that when he completed the album in 1976, he was married happily and that several of the songs were written before he had met his wife. Norman indicated that the songs chronicled "Pilgrim's" journey into faith.
Norman had intended to release this as a double album
with his 1971 song "The Tune" on the second album (and a blank fourth side or a side with a lengthy version of "Watch What You're Doing"). However, Word rejected Norman's wishes as they believed two separate albums would be more profitable, censored some of the songs, and delayed the album's release until 1981. The full length (almost 12 minutes) version of "The Tune" was recorded in Hollywood in 1977, but not released until 1983 on the album The Story of the Tune, which is called "the continuation of Something New Under The Son on the back cover".
By December 1976 Norman had signed a one-year agreement to allow four albums to be manufactured and distributed through Sonrise Manufacturing Co,, which was owned by Bob Cotterell. In 1977 Norman signed an agreement to release some Solid Rock Records through AB Records of Hollywood, an affiliate of Bob Cotterell's Sonrise Records, which released Streams of White Light Into Darkened Corners in 1977, and Mark Heard
's On Turning to Dust
in 1978.
Frustrated by resistance and censorship from Word, after May 1977 Norman left the studio and commenced a seven-month world tour, that included concerts in the USA, Canada, Australia, Scandinavia
, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, United Kingdom, Israel, Lebanon, India, Hong Kong, and Japan. During this tour, Norman wrote and recorded another album, Voyage Of The Vigilant,
which was a combination of live recordings with hotel tapes and studio stopovers, but was not released by Word as with "songs like "Three Million Gods," and "Cats Of The Coliseum," discussing the Hindu religion and the early martyrdom of Christians in Rome, this album was not acceptable because it was considered too "avant garde". Another song written for Voyage of the Vigilant was "Letter to the Church", which Norman said was "a Letter to the Church of Mass Media
and Prosperity....It's a letter to the Me-Generation, the Upwardly Mobile
, and especially to those who think of themselves as Christians". While Norman acknowledged that others saw it as being about "a certain televangelist ... [or] about a certain Christian artist or celebrity, ... it was written about all kinds of things that were happening in the American church, in the gospel music industry, and what I was seeing around me as I toured and performed in 1977". During this tour, Norman encountered the ministry of the Calcutta Mission of Mercy in India, and began to support them.
During his September 1977 tour of Australia, an eponymous compilation album (also known unofficially as Starstorm) that contained unreleased versions of previously released songs, was released by Starstorm Records, and distributed by Rhema Records, which was owned by his then Australian promoter, David Smallbone, the father of CCM singer Rebecca St. James
. In 2005 Norman released an album called Snapshots From The '77 World Tour, which contained recordings of some of his performances on the world tour. At this time, Philip Mangano organized three book deals for Norman: a biography by English journalist Steve Turner
, which would be published by Word; a book of Norman's photographs; and another with photographs of Norman. Turner accompanied Norman for part of the world tour, but Norman eventually rejected the projects.
In 1978 Norman started Street Level Records as an alternative label to release albums which Word had no interest in distributing. Paul N. Lindner's Consolidated Gospel Inc. distributed Street Level Records to stores in America and Europe. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the release of I Love You, in 1978 Street Level Records advertised the release at Christmas of The Compleat Trilogy, containing all forty songs intended for Norman's Trilogy, making it the "unedited, uncensored, unexpurgated, complete" version. The Compleat Trilogy as advertised still has not been released.
, when he was injured in an accident as United Airlines
flight 215 landed at Los Angeles International Airport
at the end of his world tour. In later years Norman claimed in concerts that "part of the roof of the cabin hit him with such force that he suffered mild brain damage and that this accident stopped him from working coherently after the late '70s". Philip Mangano, who was then Norman's manager, who considers Norman "a genius, no doubt, who changed the direction, the content, and frame of "Christian" music", who was seated in the next seat to Larry, denied that it was that serious. However, Norman believed that the subsequent damage to his brain left him unable to complete projects and focus artistically. In a 1989 interview Norman indicated that it was several years before his condition was diagnosed: "At the time they didn't call it anything. They didn't know what it was I didn't think to have X-rays because I thought I was okay. Now, what they have isolated it as is a bi-polar trauma, which means the accident caused an interruption in the information from one side of my brain to the other the neurons spark but sometimes don't make a connection." William Ayers wrote in 1991: "As family, friends and fans watched, his life spiraled downward. He was unable to record a bonafide album from the time of his airplane accident in 1978 until, with the help of therapy and chemical treatment to increase electro-neuron brain activity, he attempted to release the badly produced Home At Last. He never expected to be healed and thought he would have to continue chemical therapy until the day after John Barr came into his life and layed hands on him.
, a British Christian festival of "arts, faith and justice" held annually since 1974, that was held that year in the grounds of Odell Castle
in Bedfordshire
, Norman took Randy Stonehill with him, and introducing him to his own established audiences. Greenbelt 1979 attracted 16,000 people, and made Stonehill "a major Christian Artist in Europe". After seeing Norman perform, British festival promoter Tony Tew, said, "The pioneering music of Larry Norman has crossed the water, and we've learnt that it really is possible to be a Christian and a rock 'n' roll singer." Norman subsequently appeared at Greenbelt in 1980, 1981 and 1984.
On 9 September 1979 Norman performed for US president Jimmy Carter
and about 1,000 guests at the Old Fashioned Gospel Singin concert held on the south lawn of the White House
. During the concert, which also included veteran gospel singers Barry McGuire
, The Archers
, The Happy Goodman Family
, The Speer Family, James Blackwood
, James Cleveland
, Doug Oldham
, Mighty Clouds of Joy
, and Shirley Caesar
, Norman sang his "The Great American Novel", "a Dylanesque
protest song
", which he admitted "wasn't received with much enthusiasm". Norman explained this choice of song:
to Street Level Productions and also to his Street Level Artists Agency. Daniel Amos had almost completed Horrendous Disc
, their third album, co-produced by Mike "Clay" Stone, when under contract to Maranatha! Music
. When Maranatha! released them, as it was changing direction to children's and praise music, Horrendous Disc still needed to be mixed. Norman asked the band to replace two songs, had the album mixed and took new photos of the band for the album's cover to replace those he deemed too controversial for the Christian market, and in September 1979, Norman released a test pressing. In mid-May 1980 Norman released Daniel Amos from their management contract with Street Level Productions, resulting in an estrangement in their relationship. Just before the finalization of his divorce from Pamela, in August 1980, Norman performed at the Kamperland Youth for Christ
Music festival (now the Flevo Totaal Festival
) in Zeeland
the Netherlands with Daniel Amos
band backing him. Due to the laryngitis
of Terry Scott Taylor
, lead singer of Daniel Amos
, Norman sang their songs from Horrendous Disc
with the rest of Daniel Amos backing him so that Daniel Amos could be paid.
At the Greenbelt Festival
held a few days later, Daniel Amos refused to back Norman as previously agreed due to their unfolding legal action against Norman, forcing Norman to recruit another group of musicians. During this performance, Norman sang for the first time, "May Your Feet Stay On The Path", as a beatific benediction
to the Solid Rock artists he had released. Norman explained in 2001: "It's a song I wrote for all my artists because I wasn't going to work with them any more. So I stayed up one night praying all night and working on this song asking God to help me bless the artists one more time so that they would know that I loved them even if I didn't want to work with them". Despite being advertised as soon available in November 1979, Horrendous Disc was not finally released by Solid Rock until 10 April 1981, ten days before the band's follow-up ¡Alarma!, was released on Newpax Records
. In 2000 Norman sang "Hound of Heaven" on the Daniel Amos tribute album, When Worlds Collide: A Tribute to Daniel Amos
.
In addition to his own recordings, Norman produced music on his Solid Rock label for Randy Stonehill
, Mark Heard
, Tom Howard
, Pantano/Salsbury, David Edwards
, and Salvation Air Force. Norman also produced artists who were signed to other labels, such as Malcolm and Alwyn
, Bobby Emmons and the Crosstones, and Lyrix. While Norman received production credits for two songs on Sheila Walsh's first album Future Eyes
, he remixed several songs that were already recorded. In 1977 Norman signed James Sundquist to Solid Rock, which produced some of the songs on Sundquist's Freedom Flight, an album that blended ragtime
and ballads, that was later released by Pat Boone's Lamb & Lion label. About 1978 Norman produced an album, Moving Pictures, for British poet and musician Steve Scott
that was never released.
Norman and Mangano severed their business association, with Norman selling his interest in Street Level Artists Agency to Mangano, who subsequently resigned in October 1980 to start a new career in working to help the homeless, and becoming the Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness for seven years from March 2002,
American Christian rock historian John J. Thompson identifies several factors in the collapse of Solid Rock, including possibly an over reliance on Norman's celebrity; Norman's confrontational lyrics and music, which alienated both the Christian and mainstream music industries; Norman's over-commitment, including producing almost all of the Solid Rock albums, contributing songs, and singing backing vocals; and "by releasing high-quality music by the best bands, Norman doomed his label to almost certain failure. He was simply way ahead of the curve". American professor of religious history Randall Balmer
believed that the causes of the demise of Solid Rock were "Idealism, marital difficulties, and financial naivete — as well as changing musical tastes". Norman acknowledged in a 1984 interview: "I've never been really good in the business side of it. I haven't had a problem with creativity but I've never had the business side of it together." In a 1998 letter to Randy Stonehill, Norman indicated:
By October 1981 Norman was still represented by Word and the only artist signed to Solid Rock. In a 1982 interview with British Christian musician Norman Miller, then Executive Director of Word Europe, Norman discussed both the original purpose for Solid Rock and its future:
s of his own music. Norman reported that some his vinyl
albums had sold for up to $400(USD) among collectors. According to Norman's liner notes,
In March 1981 Norman was featured on the cover of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) magazine, and was the subject of an extended interview by CCM magazine founder John A. Styll entitled "Trials, Tribulations and Happy Endings".
after the break up of his first marriage. As Chapel Lane was unable to pay royalties to Norman at one time, Norman was given free studio time, in which he was able to record thirty new songs in a fortnight, and eventually had recorded seventy songs.
While at the Chapel Road studio, in about 1981, Norman, backed by the Barratt Band
, recorded songs for Before and After, a tribute album of Bob Dylan
covers scheduled to be released in 1982 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Dylan's recording career. One of Norman's musical influences was fellow American singer songwriter Bob Dylan, whom he knew personally but not well. After Dylan's conversion to Christianity
in 1979, In 1984 Norman praised Slow Train Coming: "I thought Slow Train Coming was the finest gospel album ever written. I'll never write one as good as that, He'll never write one as good as that, – nobody will. It touched me in every area. You know men in conflict, like Dylan was when he was dying to self and becoming a Christian are very interesting. And because he wrote that album when he was a baby in his crib, but he had a lot of knowledge from the world, it was an album that he can never reproduce. He can never re-experience those songs. I first heard it over here in '79 and all weekend I was on a cloud. I thought This is the greatest album I've ever heard. We were all afraid that he would be overly affected by the evangelical simplicity of American mindlessness and write an album that wasn't really worth his gift for poetry. That album is like a prayer, it's a beautiful prayer, a social communion. It's a communion for all the disenchanted people that are angry." When asked to identify his favorite Christian singers, in 1985 Norman indicated: "For music, I would say that Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming
is the best Christian album ever recorded. I've certainly never written anything that says as much and I'd be most impressed if he ever surpasses it himself. I wish every Christian who likes modern Gospel music would buy a copy of "Slow Train". Then they'd have an idea of what Christian music is capable to communicating".
On 9 May 1981 Norman performed at the Dominion Theatre in London, "one of the defining moments in his career", which was recorded and released later that year as Larry Norman And His Friends On Tour. About the same time Barking At The Ants, containing four Norman songs, plus songs from British musicians Steve Scott
, Alwyn Wall
, Sheila Walsh, Mark Williamson, The Barratt Band
, and Bryn Haworth
was released. While in England in 1981, Norman wrote "A Woman of God" based on Proverbs 31.
The Calcutta Mission of Mercy was one of the causes to which Norman was committed, as result of his visit to India on his 1977 world tour. In 1983 Norman released two albums with all royalties
for the benefit of the Calcutta Mission: The Story of the Tune, and Come As a Child, which was an acoustic live solo album.
(including 2 co-written by Randy Stonehill), 2 by Norman, and 2 instrumental étude
s also by Norman, through Stress Records, which was a division of Phydeaux, Inc., and distributed through Gospel Media in the USA. and through David Smallbone's DTS Records in Australia. On 15 June 1984 Norman performed a concert at the Dallas Brooks Hall in Melbourne, Australia, which was recorded and released as his 1985 album Stop This Flight, with all new songs. In 1985 Norman was profiled in Manna Music Australia, an Australian Christian magazine. In 1984 Norman recorded songs for Behind the Curtain, the as yet unreleased first album in a projected Second Trilogy, which he described as "a personal triptych
. It deals with the body, soul, and spirit".
At the beginning of 1985 Norman announced that he and his second wife, Sarah Finch, who was now pregnant with their son, Michael, would return to the US to live, and that he and the Young Lions would undertake a 200 city tour of all fifty of the United States during 1985 and 1986. On 7 April 1985 Norman appeared on Rockspell, a BBC
television special hosted by Cliff Richard, with whom he sang "The Rock that Doesn't Roll".
, South African Victor Phume, and Swedish white metal
band Leviticus
, Norman signed an agreement with Royal Music of Sweden to distribute in Europe, and with a newly established Christian distribution company for North American distribution.
Included in this Thirty Years collection was Norman's 1986 album Down Under (But Not Out), which was a retrospective of "thirty years of artistry", through both Phydeaux and Royal Music. A cassette version had earlier been given free to new subscribers to On Being, an Australian Christian magazine. This album, which included songs from his years with People! through to the mid-1980s, contained the autobiographical song, "Why Can't You Be Good?", which references the difficulties in his first marriage.
White Blossoms from Black Roots: The History and the Chronology: Volume One, was planned to be the first of five albums that would a chronological retrospective that would showcase the evolution of Norman as a songwriter, featuring a juxtaposition of styles from 1956 to 1986. However, soon after the CD pressings of White Blossoms from Black Roots had been sent to the distribution company, "the FBI arrested the head of the company for check forgery and seized all of the merchandise", resulting in loss of access to his artwork, and digital tape masters, as well as to the material prepared for other Solid Rock Imports artists. The collapse of the distribution company affected other Christian artists and smaller gospel labels. While White Blossoms was released in 1989, it would be re-released in 1997 as part of a 40th anniversary The Best of Larry Norman project, with some songs removed and others added.
Also in 1986, Royal Music released Rehearsal For Reality (also known as Rehearsal 4 Reality), a compilation album that included some previously released songs, but also six new songs, including three instrumentals, and "More than a Dream" written by British poet Steve Scott.
, and made a cameo appearance
in a music video with Christian artist Geoff Moore and the Distance
for a cover version of his song "Why Should the Devil (Have all the Good Music?)". Norman "almost found belated American CM acceptance", and attended the conservative Dove Awards in 1987. In August 1988 Norman toured the USA with Swedish Christian metal
band Leviticus
opening for him.
During 1986 Norman recorded Home At Last
, which was not released until 1989, due to legal problems (which Norman described euphemistically as "transitional circumstances" in 1989). In 1989 Norman explained why Home at Last, the third album in his Second Trilogy, was released before the other two albums: "When it was suggested that my "comeback", after ten years absence, might be a difficult passage back into the public arena, it was decided that Stranded in Babylon might be too radical a message for the first release. Behind the Curtain was perhaps too chilling a look at the modern church, social conditions, and personal dilemmas". Home At Last, Norman's first album on a major US CCM label, was a double album that was promoted by its distributor, Benson Records
, as Norman's "comeback album", announcing "Larry Norman's Back". Rather, it was a personal and "autobiographical album" that contained "a loose collection of songs written between 1956 and 1989...[that] covered the years of ground between his childhood, career, divorce, and dysfunctional family life", including several previously unreleased songs that focused on his family and his sense of home, which was distributed through Benson Records
. Recorded in 1986, Home At Last featured Norman singing "Letters to the Church" with his then wife, Sarah Finch, which was a retitled version of "Letter to a Friend"; two other songs about his relationship to Randy Stonehill: "Queen of the Rodeo" and "He Really Loves You". In response both to televangelist Jimmy Swaggart
's June 1987 book Religious Rock 'N' Roll: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, which had criticized the music of Norman and other Christian rock artists, and Swaggart's February 1988 admission of adultery with a prostitute, Norman wrote the song "Selah", which had its last verse censored by Benson, which was: "My songs are spiritual fornication,/ that's what this television preacher said./ I guess he knows a lot about fornication
,/ I heard he wrote some sermons in a prostitute's bed." The song "Somewhere Out There", which was written for his infant son Michael, reached #12 on Christian radio charts in 1989.
Despite extensive promotion by Benson, Home At Last generally received negative reviews, including that of Rupert Loydell who described it as "a disorganised, half-produced, and ultimately unsatisfying hotchpotch of songs". It was also criticized for its lack of political statements. Norman himself later dismissed this album in a Belgian press conference as "just a collection of tapes I had... some were even recorded before the plane accident." In 1989 Norman wrote that he was "extremely happy with Benson. I've never had so much support and commitment from a record company before".
, after a concert in Tallinn
, Estonia
, on 15 November 1988, Norman and his brother Charles, and the Finnish band Q-Stone were scheduled to play a show in Leningrad
. Norman relates that he and his brother became ill after eating a meal that had been prepared as a "special menu" for them. Shortly afterwards, a trio of nurses ("built like football players") appeared in his room and wanted him to go to the hospital. Norman became suspicious and refused. The concert was canceled by (Soviet) army personnel twenty minutes after the band began to play. After this incident, Norman and Charles were ill for a year. When they had recovered, Norman returned in April 1990 and sold out four concerts in the private military hall in Kiev
and seven concerts at Moscow's 35,000 seat Olympic Stadium
. After these successful shows at the stadium, Norman decided to open a branch of Solid Rock Records in the city.
In February 1989 Norman collapsed during the JAM (Jesus and Music) '89 Festival at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl
in Melbourne, Australia. In 2008 the tour promoter Australian Kevin Cooper recalled that Norman "collapsed on the stage mid-song, and most of the audience thought that he was playing around. When I called out from the back that he needed help, the stage crew and other artists were quick to get to him with some drinking water and they were able to revive him. He was never well on that tour, and on that very hot day, I think he had heat exhaustion to contend with, on top of his other health issues". After Cooper took Norman to the hospital, and after he received the correct medicine, Norman recovered, but Cooper indicates that he was still concerned at whether the tour could continue.
In 1989, Norman said: "I love the church and my sisters and brothers, but I didn't always feel welcome. And the church never felt like home". In 1989 Norman was awarded the Christian Artists' Society Lifetime Achievement Award in a surprise ceremony at Estes Park, Colorado
.
home of Ze and Dave Markee, who had been the bass player in Eric Clapton
's band, Norman received prayer for his long-term health problems from Pastor John Barr (died January 2001), the Senior Pastor of the Elim Way Fellowship
in Canning Town
, London, and the Director of Freedom Road Ministries. Norman maintained that through this prayer God repaired the damage to his brain and he was able to function again. In 1993 Norman stated: "A man prayed for me. I heard a lot of noises in my head, a lot of heat and from that day the man prayed for me my brain has become so clear, so I've been excited, wondering how quickly can I make a new record now I have my old brain back, it's a good brain, not the damaged brain that I had. That's also a comparison that now my brain is healed so I can make music like I used to make." William Ayers described Norman's healing in 1991: "He felt like twelve years of his life had been spent at the bottom of a black hole. He tried hard to climb out of it, watching it engulf and destroy his private life and diminish his personal ministry. Now, after meeting John Barr, he feels like he is back from the dead. He doesn't need medicine. He's been healed."
which saw him collaborate with his younger brother Charles "Charly" Norman. After four months in the recording studio in Sweden, and overdubbing
in Norway by the Albino Brothers (Norman and his brother, Charly), in 1991 Norman released through Spark Music the European version of Stranded in Babylon, an album which was recorded in Sweden in 1988. Hailed by both critics and fans as one of his best albums, it was praised as "a superb new album which sees a return to the form he showed to full effect on those classics like 'Only Visiting This Planet' and 'So Long Ago The Garden' back in the mid seventies" with 13 new "songs [that] are cleverly arranged and produced, with plenty of pertinent lyrical imagery and the sly wit of yore amongst the electric guitar solos and breezy (sampled?) saxophones" by Norman and his brother, Charly, who share all of the musical duties. Stranded in Babylon was named Album of the Year by Christian rock journals. Stranded in Babylon was conceived as the second album in a projected Second Trilogy that was planned to include (in order) a still unreleased Behind the Curtain, and the previously released Home at Last. Included on this album is "God Part III", which draws on John Lennon
's "God
" and the U2
riposte
("God II"); "Come Away", written about his 1973 meeting on the streets of Shepherd's Bush
with prostitute Holly Valentine, who later became a Christian; and the autobiographical "Under The Eye", "which tells how Larry has, despite the last decade, always been watched and cared for". "Under the Eye" references "all the trouble and strife/And the things which went wrong and lasted so long", and
"The mystery of love, the push and the shove/ Of friendship betrayed, of plans I mislaid,/ The oceans I crossed, the things that I lost/ And the world in my hand as dreams turned to sand", including his 1978 plane accident and his subsequent brain damage: "
I crashed in a plane, I really damaged my brain/ And then I layed in my bed with all this music in my head./ The years have rolled by, I've watched the past die/ But feelings remained like mercy much strained./ Like a seed left unsown, like a leaf that was blown/Like a man who was blind, there was a lock on my mind", but also his 1991 healing: "Then a man came to me and he held out the key/ And the lock hinge was blown, I had never been alone". Norman's February 1992 heart attack delayed the release of the US version of this album until 1994.
After the release of Stranded in Babylon in Europe in 1991, Norman and his band toured Europe on the "Babylon Tour", performing concerts in Sweden, Finland, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Holland, Norway, Belgium, USSR, and Poland, before returning to the USA.
. In 1991 Norman recorded a live concert he gave to raise funds for CCPC, which was released in 1994 as Children of Sorrow, which featured cover art drawn by his son, Michael Norman.
by the staff at Cedars Sinai Hospital, and resulted in a near fatality and permanent heart damage. As his medical insurance had been canceled in 1988, Norman sold Solid Rock to help pay for his medical bills. Norman did not perform again until June 1992, when, still needing to raise funds for his medical expenses, Norman performed an acoustic "unplugged
" concert in Texas (where he had been born) what he then believed might be his last ever concert. This concert was recorded and released in 1994 as Totally Unplugged Two days after the concert, Norman collapsed on the sidewalk, and was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital
, where he was hospitalized for almost two weeks. According to the 1995 Phydeaux Newsletter: "It was discovered that some of the medicine prescribed for him during the first hospitalization, like Prilosec, was actually weakening the beat of his heart. He had suffered heart failure. After it was felt that he had recovered sufficiently, he was released back into the care of a Los Angeles physician. He was advised to do no more concerts unless the change in medicines improved his ability to breathe and helped him regain the strength to walk without feeling faint.
After these coronary events, Norman struggled to perform live. At the April 1993 Ichthus Music Festival
in Wilmore, Kentucky
, Norman announced that he would be soon be unable to perform future concerts due to his declining health. On 19 June 1993, after a concert in Drachten
, Holland, Norman was hospitalized for ten days. costing him his entire tour fees of $10,000. Norman indicated at this time: "I've had three different types of heart attacks. I've had the first kind, which was myocardial infection
(sic) where my heart stopped and I lost forty per cent of the tissue, it's dead. The next time I had problems with congestive heart failure
, and this time I had ventricular arrhythmia tachycardia
which is where the heart beats very fast. It gets confused and pushes the blood away from the heart so you can't breathe very easily, you're not getting enough oxygen, and you're not getting enough blood." On 16 July 1993 Norman performed his first concert since his most recent hospitalization in the Netherlands, which again Norman believed would be his last with a band, in an outdoor area in the forests of Sweden with a group of local musicians that Norman recruited and named the Judaic Vikings. Among the songs performed, was a recently composed "Goodbye Farewell', which addressed his health concerns but also expressed his faith in God: "The light grows dim but in this hour/ I have no tears to cry./ My heart is full, my joy complete. /Goodbye, my friends, goodbye./ I feel no loss of hope as I've grown older./ Only this world's weight upon my shoulder./ My heart beats to a slower song,/ So softly in my veins./ The night is warm, but in my sleep/ I dream of heaven's reign". In 1994 this concert would be released as the album Omega Europa, and sold as "Larry's farewell rock and roll band concert".
In February 1994 Norman was hospitalized in Los Angeles. After his discharge, and as a consequence
of the January 1994 Northridge earthquake, which damaged his Los Angeles apartment, Norman moved into a small room in his parents' house in Salem, Oregon
so that he could help take care of his father who had developed Alzheimer's disease
, and who would eventually require admission to an adult care facility. Soon after Norman moved to Oregon, Norman campaigned to raise votes for the Stop Child Pornography issue on the Oregon State Ballot, and "celebrated his seventh year of ministry to the runaways and abused kids who are helped through the proctor homes and foster care of the CCPC outreach".
Despite his physical limitations, during 1994 Norman did "a handful of concerts to try and raise money for his heart operation", According the 1995 Phydeaux Newsletter, Norman "had to fly in two or three days early, to rest – then do the concert, and stay an extra two or three days to rest. Even with rest, these trips were very hard on him but he felt he had no choice but to try and raise money for his operation." In addition to his Children of Sorrow album, on 12 June 1994 Norman released A Moment in Time, a concept album
which contained rough mixes of ten new songs (including "Long Hard Road" co-written with Dizzy Reed
) written while he was in hospital and recorded in the studio for the as yet unreleased Pushing Back the Darkness album, that also raised funds for CCPC to fight child pornography
.
In 1994, a limited edition lithograph print of a "Simpson-ified" Larry Norman performing "Why Should the Devil Have all the Good Music?" was drawn and signed by Bill Morrison, the illustrator of the Simpsons comic books, to raise funds for Norman's medical fund. In addition to the Simpsons Comics release, a Simpsons watch was also produced featuring the yellow, three-fingered likeness of Larry Norman.
In the aftermath of Cornerstone magazine's 1992 exposure of popular Christian comedian Mike Warnke
, who had claimed falsely to be an ex-Satanic priest, in 1994 "a certain journalist speculated that Larry probably hadn't been in an airplane accident in 1978, and inferred that he also probably hadn't really suffered a serious heart attack. There was a lot of confusion. This started a series of rumors. Then the rumors began to snowball into different variations and people were confused about sending a donation for his heart operation." In a 1995 interview in Visions of Gray magazine, Norman addressed these rumors, with specific details about both his 1978 accident and his heart problems. In answer to the allegations, Norman responded:
By early 1995, Norman had been hospitalized thirteen times. Norman had a defibrillator implant inserted in his chest, which enabled him to perform occasional small concerts. However, Norman was accused of occasionally exaggerating the truth to get attention. During an interview, Christian reporter Bob Gersztyn expressed his skepticism to Norman about him having a defibrillator: "I started to doubt that he really had a defibrillator. But when I voiced my concern, he opened his shirt in the middle of the restaurant we were sitting in, to reveal the implant in his chest. I felt like Thomas
, in the 20th chapter of John".
In August 1995 ForeFront Records
released One Way: Songs of Larry Norman, a tribute album that included covers of 14 Norman's classic songs by ForeFront artists, including dc Talk
; Audio Adrenaline
, Grammatrain
; and Rebecca St. James
, whose father , David Smallbone, booked and promoted Norman's first concerts and distributed Norman's early records in Australia, including his eponymous 1977 album, (which is also known as Starstorm). In April 1998 Norman indicated he was a member of Andrae Crouch
's church, the Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ
then located in Pacoima, California, although he did not attend regularly since he moved to Salem, Oregon
.
Of the nine songs "Turn" was written by Charly Norman, with two others being co-written by him with Larry, and Charly's band, then called Softcore, providing the musical backing. Intended to be a pre-release to Behind the Curtain, the as yet unreleased first album in Norman's Second Trilogy, first mentioned in 1983, Tourniquet was described by Dougie Adam as "perhaps Larry's deepest, most articulate album ever ... [and] even more hard hitting than 'Only Visiting This Planet
' or 'Stranded in Babylon
'". In his latter years whenever Norman made rare live performances, it would often be accompanied by his brother's band, Softcore (later renamed Guards of Metropolis).
In November 2001 Norman underwent a quadruple-bypass heart surgery. On 27 November 2001 Norman was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame
in a special ceremony held at the Ryman Auditorium
in Nashville, along with Elvis Presley
, Keith Green
, Kurt Kaiser
, Doris Akers
, The Rambos
, Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters
, and Albertina Walker
. As Norman was still in hospital and unable to attend the ceremony, his son Michael accepted the honor on his behalf. The Gospel Music Association
said:
, a set of seven Norman albums, with 142 songs (including 16 previously unreleased songs), which comprised: Instigator, which included rough mix versions of two previously unreleased songs, "Butterfly" and "Kulderachna", both removed from 1973's So Long Ago the Garden; Agitator, which included three unreleased bonus tracks, "Sweet Silver Angels", "God, Part 2", and "People In My Past"; Liberator, which included songs that were aimed at "liberating Christians who felt trapped inside the church and also providing a cultural doorway to allow those who felt dismissed and isolated by Christianity to find their way into fellowship with Christ regardless of the church's response toward them"; Collaborator, which featured songs representing "the combined efforts of Charles and Larry [Norman] from lyrics and melodies to arrangements and production", including three unreleased songs: "Perfect World", "Don't Wanna Be Like You", and "Jesus Is God", recorded about 2000; Emancipator, included two unreleased songs of Norman singing with Randy Stonehill: a Christian version of the folk song "He Was a Friend of Mine
", which had been popularized by The Byrds
and Bob Dylan
, which was re-titled "He is a Friend of Mine", and "I Love You", the song Stonehill and Norman co-wrote in 1971 for Stonehill's Born Twice album; Infiltrator, which sees love as "the most powerful infiltrator in the world", is a collection of Norman's love songs, and includes two new releases: a cover of David Noble's "Waves of Grace", and "Stranger, Won't You Change"; and Survivor, included the full 8-minute version of "Dark Passage", an unreleased third verse of "Baby Out of Wedlock", and "One Star Remains", which is Judee Sill's "My Man On Love" from her 1971 eponymous debut album
.
In 2002 Norman continued to request prayer and financial assistance from his fans. Billed as "Larry Norman's Last Concert", on 18 October 2003 the Church of the Nazarene
in Beaverton, Oregon
organized a concert to celebrate Norman's 45 years in music, and to raise funds for Norman's medical bills. At the concert, his first in two years, "a very thin and frail" Norman performed "stripped down versions" of his classic songs in a solo set, followed by a set backed by Charles Norman, Jason Carter, Kristin Blix and Karson Swedberg. Additionally, his sister, Nancy Jo Norman-Overmeyer, sang with him on two songs, and his son, Michael Norman, also sang along. The concert was recorded and released as The Final Concert in 2004, but re-released later in 2004 as 70 Miles From Lebanon, as well as with a DVD of the same name. In January 2004 Norman had a new defibrillator and pacemaker installed. The 2004 Sessions album, which had six previously unreleased Norman songs (including covers of an old hymn, a traditional folk song, and songs by Bob Dylan
, and Emmylou Harris
) that were backed by Mark Lemhouse
and Charles Norman's Softcore, as well as rare songs by Jesus Music
veterans Dave Mattson, Randy Stonehill
, Tom Howard
, Keith Green
, Steve 'N' Stonebrooke, and Daniel Amos
, was sent to those who contributed $100 or more to his medical fund.
By 2006 Norman was almost blind in his right eye due to dozens of retinal hemorrhages, causing him to crash his car on 31 October 2006.
Norman performed his last official solo concert on 4 August 2007 in New York City, which was recorded and released as the FINALé DVD.
Among the last songs Larry Norman recorded were two (Back To The Dust and Walking Backwards) with the German Christian singer/songwriter Sarah Brendel
for her record "Early Morning hours". Brendel has long adored Larry Norman for his unique and unblemished style. She was able to meet him in the summer of 2007 in Berlin and talked with him about a record session together. At the end of July 2007 Larry recorded a song called "Ya Gotta Be Saved" with The Crosstones, which was released in January 2010.
s with God's hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home. I won't be here much longer. I can't do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. [...] I want to say I love you. I'd like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. [...] Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again". After a public memorial service held March 1, 2008, at The Church on the Hill, Turner, Oregon
, Norman was buried in Salem's City View Cemetery
, and his tombstone reads: "Larry Norman Evangelist Without Portfolio 1947–2008 Bloodstained Israelite
".
's Hall of Fame
in a ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium
, and was voted into the CCM Hall of Fame in January 2004 by the readers of CCM magazine. In 2007 Norman was inducted into the San Jose Rocks Hall of Fame, both as a member of People!, and as a solo artist. At that time Norman reunited for a concert with People! In 2009 Norman was among those honored in a tribute segment of the Grammy Awards.
Universe Pageant, then a stewardess for Northwest Orient Airlines
. Pamela indicated in September 1972 that she had been involved in "the fast life of the jet set
" which included illegal drug use.
After "a brief whirlwind courtship", Norman and Pamela were married on 28 December 1971 in Minnesota. During their honeymoon, Norman and Pamela stayed in a barn at the Love Inn (now called Covenant Love Community), a ministry started in 1967 by Scott Ross
and his wife Nedra
, formerly of the Ronettes, in Freeville, New York
. Other stops on their honeymoon included L'Abri
, a Christian community started by Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer
, who had a profound influence on Norman.
After their wedding, Pamela worked as both a model and actress in commercials. In 1978, Norman and Pamela separated, and on 2 September 1980 they were divorced. Norman discussed his first marriage in several interviews: Buzz Magazine (1981); Australian Christian magazine On Being in 1985; and in a June 1989 article. Norman attributed his marital problems to Pamela's frequent infidelity, her pre-existing drug addiction, and deception. According to Norman, they were divorced because "My wife had decided she wanted to marry somebody else." In Fallen Angel Pamela shifts blame for their divorce to Larry, and confirms that it was Larry who served divorce papers on her. In November 1981 Pamela married musician Joey Newman. Pamela subsequently appeared as an actress in several television programs. She lives in Carmel, California with her husband, Joey, and runs a modeling agency.
. Sarah was the sister-in-law of Stephen J. Cannell
and had previously been married to Randy Stonehill
from 1975–1980. They first met at the Los Angeles First Congregational Church's Cedar Lake Camp at Big Bear, California in 1969, and later dated when she was still a high school student at the Marlborough School
in Los Angeles.
Norman described his marriage to Sarah in an interview in On Being magazine in 1985:"In April I married a wonderful Christian woman...She was raised in a wealthy family and privately educated. She's a really creative musician from a family of artists...When she became a Christian she turned her back on that world and began working with troubled children at a Montessori school. She was married to a man who liked his liquor and other women more than her. He squandered her life's savings and then left her for another woman. He got remarried two months after his divorce. She's been mending a broken heart for years. She refused to date anyone because she wasn't interested in ever getting married again, and I felt the same way. I just couldn't imagine starting a relationship with anyone ever again."
In August 1985 Norman and his wife Sarah had their only child, Michael David Fariah Finch Norman, who was born ten weeks prematurely in Los Angeles, After Michael's birth Sarah was diagnosed with post-partum depression, which inspired Norman's song "Baby's Got the Blues", which was released on Stranded in Babylon in 1991.
By 1995 their marriage ended in divorce. Sarah subsequently re-married.
Norman was engaged briefly to Heidi Bartruff in the 1990s.
, sometimes described as the Lennon/McCartney
of Christian rock, was a controversial one during its more than forty years from its inception in 1967 until Norman's death in February 2008. For over a decade Randy Stonehill
was Norman's protégé, colleague, collaborator, and one of his best friends, but disagreements about finances and relationships resulted in a twenty-year estrangement, and a brief reconciliation.
, which was broadcast live on the Gospel Music Channel
. On 8 February 2009 Norman was among those honored in a tribute segment of the 51st Grammy Awards
broadcast on the CBS television network
.
magazine described the album as "compelling proof Christian rock doesn't always turn out cheery or charmless or swaddled in yellow and black
".
magazine reported that Norman had fathered a child with an Australian woman Jennifer Wallace (née Robinson) during a tour in Australia in 1988 that she organized. According to McCallum, she has made the information public because Norman had broken a "promise" to include the young man, Daniel Robinson (born July 1989), in Norman's will
. British Celtic Rock
singer Sammy Horner wrote and released a song "Larry's Son" soon after Wallace went public with her claims.
. Originally Frisbee included many of Norman's songs, but EMI, who owns most of Norman's songs, did not grant release to the filmmaker. Norman refused to cooperate also in the making of Fallen Angel, as did Norman's second ex-wife Sarah. Fallen Angel includes interviews by many who were close to Norman more than thirty years ago including his first wife, Pamela Newman, Randy Stonehill
, Terry Scott Taylor
, and Philip Mangano, the business manager of Solid Rock. The OC Weekly reports that Norman himself refused to be interviewed for the project. A cease and desist
notice initiated by Norman's family temporarily prevented the public display of Fallen Angel, and prompted Di Sabatino to file his own lawsuit against Norman's Solid Rock on 20 March 2009. On 6 July 2009 the case was settled out of court, thus allowing the film to be shown. One reviewer sees the film depicting Norman as "Machiavellian, particularly in his dealings with his artists".
On 30 December 2008 Randy Stonehill's album Paradise Sky, the official soundtrack
to Fallen Angel, was released by Bryan Duncan
's Red Road Records, which was advertised as Paradise Sky: A Tribute to Larry Norman, attracting some criticism: "It’s hard to see how Randy Stonehill recording new versions of his own songs, but this time without the involvement of the late Larry Norman, is in any sense a tribute. One has to wonder about the wisdom of stirring the pot by even going there, when this could have simply been promoted as Stonehill revisiting his early work for the sake of the music, period. While ten of the 11 songs were originally on albums produced by Norman, the other "Even the Best of Friends", is the one written that alludes to the breakdown in his relationship with Norman.
In April 2010 authorized Norman biographer Allen Flemming, who has described himself as a close friend of over 30 years, created the website "Failed Angle: The Truth Behind Fallen Angel" to dispute some of the claims made in the movie with material such as e-mails, letters, tape recordings, and legal documents, kept by Norman.
According to American Christian music historian John J. Thompson:
, has been contentious for a number of years. In September 2007 Norman wrote: "I love God and I follow Jesus but I just don't have much affinity for the organized folderol of the churches in the Western World". Sarah Pulliam indicates that: "Although Norman left a large footprint, he also became estranged from the music industry because of strained relationships. He was eventually diagnosed with bipolar trauma". According to Portland news/radio station KXL, Norman's early social positions caused a stir among many conservative Christians. Norman's songs were wide-ranging, addressing such matters as politics (The Great American Novel), free love
(Pardon Me), the passive commercialism of war–time journalists (I Am The Six O'Clock News), witchcraft and the occult (Forget Your Hexagram), alienation (Lonely by Myself), religious hypocrisy (Right Here In America) and many topics largely outside of the scope of his contemporaries. Norman's views against racism and poverty caused him to receive multiple death threats in the 1970s. Barry Alfonso described Norman's message and its reaction:
In 2006 Norman reflected on the difficulties he had with the Church over the years:
A widespread ban on Norman's music existed in some Christian stores. This ban was due not only to Norman's social positions, but his preferred company as well. Said Norman in a separate interview: "The churches weren't going to accept me looking like a street person with long hair and faded jeans. They did not like the music I was recording. And I had no desire to preach the gospel to the converted. In 2008 Philip Cooney attempted to explain the causes of Norman's problems with some Christians:
Norman denied he was trying to start a revolution with his music, he just wanted "to learn how to explain God without using any of the language or ideas that had been taught in the church". In a 1979 interview Norman explained: "I would like the work that I do, and all my artists do, to break down the limited concepts of what Christian music should be and show what it can be and must be if it's ever to reach people like us. Basically Randy [Stonehill] and I write songs, that we can recommend to street people, harlots, junkies, politicians, ... businessmen". In an interview in Campus Life magazine, Norman defended his approach: "My primary emphasis is not to entertain. But if your art is boring, people will reject your message as well as your art".
By 1982 Norman had gained some acceptance as a substitute for secular rock artists. For example, The Encyclopedia of Christian Parenting recommended: "If your child develops an interest in TV star magazines or rock records, you may want to encourage a Christian orientation by giving Campus Life or Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, or Barry McGuire
records as gifts".
In an interview after Solid Rock records had broken up, "Norman said that he was very unhappy about the reaction of Christian artists to their success. He faulted most of them for basking in acceptance (and money) from Christians. ... Norman felt that many artists were becoming Christian celebrities and ignoring their mission to the unbeliever. In particular, he was unhappy that Christian artists were unwilling to play clubs and other secular venues, and he was very put off that artists were not "preaching" between songs and making the Gospel clear—in confrontational terms." Commenting on Christian music in 1984, Norman said: "I'm pleased with what's happening in England and Europe...but I'm not totally thrilled about the commercialisation of Christian music in America." Two years prior to the 1984 interview, he had complained that Christian music generally meant "sloppy thinking, dishonest metaphors, and bad poetry" and stated that "I've never been able to get over the shock of how bad the lyrics are."
In 1989, Norman said: "I love the church and my sisters and brothers, but I didn't always feel welcome. And the church never felt like home". Also in 1989 Norman was awarded the Christian Artists' Society Lifetime Achievement Award in a surprise ceremony at Estes Park, Colorado
.
In 2008 Norman still criticised the CCM industry and some of its practices. According to Philip Cooney,
writer Chris Willman asserts that Norman's "influence outweighed his sales so much that it's comical....He really could've been a star if he were singing about something other than Jesus." British pop singer Cliff Richard
, who recorded three of Norman's songs on his 1977 Small Corners album, indicated: "Larry was one of our greatest contemporary Christian songwriters, who made it his business to prove that the devil did not 'have all the good music'!" Christian Rock historian John J. Thompson assessed the significance of Norman and his career in 2008: "It is certainly no overstatement to say that Larry Norman is to Christian music what John Lennon is to rock & roll or Bob Dylan is to folk music". and previously in his Raised by Wolves: The Story of Christian Rock & Roll:
After many years of a negative relationship with Norman, many CCM artists have credited Norman as an influence on their music, particularly in the sub-genre of Christian rock
. He is often cited as influencing both Keith Green
and Randy Stonehill
in their conversions to Christianity. Both eventually became Christian music artists. Stonehill has commented: "If not for Larry Norman, we might all be doing Christian polka or something, but not Christian rock." Susan Perlman, one of the founders of Jews for Jesus
traces the beginnings of her conversion to Norman sharing his faith with her on the streets of Manhattan
in 1972. Grammy-nominated Australian singer and songwriter Paul Colman
, who has covered Norman's Sweet, "Sweet Song of Salvation", on his 2009 album, History, acknowledges Norman's influence on his music:
Others who were influenced by Norman include American CCM musician Steve Camp
, who co-wrote "If I Were a Singer" with Norman, which appeared on Camp's 1978 debut album, Sayin' It with Love
, who describes Norman as his mentor, and with whom he lived for several months learning the craft of songwriting; Canadian CCM musician Carolyn Arends
. Songwriter Bob Hartman
, credits Norman and his 1972 song "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?" in his establishing Petra
; Peter Banks of British progressive rock
/New Wave
band After the Fire
traces his involvement in "the mainstream music business" to Norman and his album, Only Visiting This Planet. Others who acknowledge Norman's influence on their career or music include American drummer Hilly Michaels
, who recorded with Norman and Randy Stonehill in 1970; Grammy Award-winning recording artist and rapper TobyMac
, who described Norman as "socially relevant, spiritually significant and passionate about challenging his generation to new heights of love", considered Norman his "greatest lyrical influence"; Mark Salomon
, the lead singer of Christian metal
band Stavesacre
and thrash metal
band The Crucified
, who reveals that it was Norman's concert performance that connected him to Christian music; and Welsh singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph
.
Norman has granted interviews to magazines covering Contemporary Christian music and accepted industry awards. When asked about the relationship between CCM and his own music, Norman has replied "I'm happy if I've been an encouragement to other artists." British poet and musician Steve Scott
, who worked closely with Norman at Solid Rock, maintains:
Over 300 artists have covered his songs, including Sammy Davis, Jr.
Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison
and American singer-songwriters like John Mellencamp
and
David Eugene Edwards
(of 16 Horsepower
and Woven Hand
) have also claimed to be fans of Larry Norman's music.
According to rock historian Walter Rasmussen, Pete Townshend
once said that The Who
's 1969 album Tommy
was inspired by the rock opera "Epic" by People! (which he could behold every night when on tour with People!). However, Townshend has since denied the connection.
musicians in the British Isles in the mid-1970s, the post-punk band U2
was formed in Dublin, Ireland
. Active simultaneously in the local punk music scene and the "Shalom Fellowship," some members of U2 eventually became "fans" of Larry Norman's music. Both artists performed, making unannounced appearances, at the U.K.'s Greenbelt Festival
in 1981.
Charles Thompson IV
discovered Larry Norman's music at age 13 after moving to California and seeing him in concert. Thompson said of Norman during this period: "I don't think Larry Norman was necessarily respected by religious people...he had more of a rebellious rock'n'roll kind of an image." "I dressed like him, I looked like him, he was my total idol." While at college in Massachusetts
, Thompson adopted the stage name Black Francis, and formed The Pixies along with Joey Santiago
, Kim Deal
, and David Lovering. According to Kim Deal
, the title of the Pixies' 1987 EP Come On Pilgrim
, as well as a similar line from the song "Levitate Me," derive from a Norman catchphrase used during live performances. In the 1987 recording and subsequent performances of the Pixies song "Levitate Me," lead singer Black shouts "Come on Pilgrim, you know He loves you!" while imitating Larry Norman's accent. While recording the Pixies' album Surfer Rosa
, producer Steve Albini
recognized the Pixies' references and realized that he and Black both "had an affection" for Norman's music. They discussed Larry Norman at length during the recording process of the album. With the increased popularity of alternative rock in the 1990s, The Pixies earned increased recognition for their work. They were invited by U2 to join them on the Zoo TV tour in 1992. At one show, Black was introduced to Larry Norman by members of U2, who had informed him beforehand that Larry would be coming to the show. Black's solo album Frank Black and the Catholics
, recorded in 1997 and released in 1998, featured a cover of Larry Norman's song "Six-Sixty-Six." Beginning in 2004, The Pixies embarked on a reunion tour. During this time, in June 2005, frontman Black joined Larry Norman for what was expected to be his final US concert. The pair performed Norman's 1978 song "Watch What You're Doing."
Emil Nikolaisen
of indierock/shoegazers Serena Maneesh
fame has publicly stated that he is fond of Larry Norman's So Long Ago The Garden, and also took part in several tribute concerts following Larry's passing.
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
owner, and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, who worked with Christian rock
Christian rock
Christian rock is a form of rock music played by individuals and bands whose members are Christians and who often focus the lyrics on matters concerned with the Christian faith. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands...
music. Since Norman's first professional release in 1967, more than 100 of his own albums
Larry Norman discography
Larry Norman discography. Recording since 1966, first as a lead singer for the group People! and then as a solo artist, Norman is noted for his extensive career as well his attention to Christian subject matter. His music was released on both mainstream and independent labels, including his own...
have been released through such commercial record labels as Capitol
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
, MGM
MGM Records
MGM Records was a record label started by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946, for the purpose of releasing soundtrack albums of their musical films. Later it became a pop label, lasting into the 1970s...
, Verve
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
, and his own independent labels
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
: One Way Records
One Way Records
One Way Records was a record label established by Larry Norman in 1970 to distribute his own work, and that of other Christian musicians including Randy Stonehill, after he had been released by Capitol Records in 1969.-History:...
, Solid Rock Records
Solid Rock Records
Solid Rock Records is the record label of Larry Norman. It was set up in 1975 to distribute his own work, after he had been released by Capitol Records. Solid Rock had a distribution deal with Word Records until 1980....
, Street Level Records
Street Level Records
Street Level Records was a record label established by Larry Norman in 1978 to distribute his own music.-History:Street Level Records was started in 1978 as an alternative label to release albums which Norman's then distributor, Word Records, had no interest in distributing. Paul N. Lindner's...
, and Phydeaux Records
Phydeaux Records
Phydeaux Records was a record label established by Larry Norman in 1980 to distribute his own music. It was one of the very first independent Christian record labels to distribute through mail order.-History:...
.
In January 1973 Cashbox named Norman as one of the Best New Male Artists of the year. In 1989 Norman was awarded the Christian Artists' Society Lifetime Achievement Award. On 27 November 2001 Norman was inducted into the Gospel Music Association
Gospel Music Association
The Gospel Music Association was founded in 1964 for the purpose of supporting and promoting the development of all forms of Gospel music. There are currently about 4,000 members worldwide...
's Hall of Fame
Gospel Music Hall of Fame
The Gospel Music Hall of Fame, created in 1971 by the Gospel Music Association, is a Hall of Fame dedicated exclusively to recognizing meaningful contributions by individuals and groups in all forms of gospel music.-Inductees:...
in a ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium
Ryman Auditorium
The Ryman Auditorium is a 2,362-seat live performance venue, located at 115 5th Avenue North, in Nashville, Tennessee and is best known as the historic home of the Grand Ole Opry....
, and was voted into the CCM Hall of Fame in January 2004 by the readers of CCM magazine. In 2007 Norman was inducted into the San Jose Rocks Hall of Fame, both as a member of People!, and as a solo artist. At that time Norman reunited for a concert with People! In 2009 Norman was among those honored in a tribute segment of the Grammy Awards.
Early life
Larry Norman was born in Corpus Christi, TexasCorpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...
, the oldest son of Joe Hendrex "Joe Billy" Norman (9 December 1923 – 28 April 1999), who had served as a sergeant in the US Army Air Corps during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and worked at the Southern Pacific Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
while studying to become a teacher, and his wife, Margaret Evelyn "Marge" Stout (born in 1925 in Nebraska). After Norman's birth his parents joined the Southern Baptist church, which prohibited dancing, going to the cinema, and "almost everything that didn't occur inside [the Church]". Because of his religious convictions, Norman's father discouraged any interest in music by his children. Norman noted, "We were poor and I had no children's records in Texas. But I listened to my parents' radio whenever they turned it on. I developed an appreciation for swing music, big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
arrangements and solo singers like Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
and Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
". Also from an early age, he listened to the "blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and Negro spirituals on 78s his grandfather [Burl W. Stout] had collected". Other musical influences he later acknowledged included gospel singer Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson – January 27, 1972) was an African-American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel"...
, Belgian jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musician Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
, American concert singer Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, and Black comedian Bert Williams
Bert Williams
Egbert Austin "Bert" Williams was one of the preeminent entertainers of the Vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. He was by far the best-selling black recording artist before 1920...
. Norman was strongly influenced also by classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, jazz, blues music, and black gospel music, but "didn't like country and western ... because of the nasal, twangy vocals", or "some kinds of fast-paced jazz".
In 1950 Norman and his parents moved to San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
where the family attended a Black American Pentecostal church, later they attended the First Baptist Church at 22 Waller Street where Norman became a Christian in 1952 at the age of five. He began composing songs around this time. He stated, "I started to write music when I was four or five and didn't realise I was composing tonally because I was simply using the piano". He recalled: "When I was five I wrote a song about the rain because I loved the San Francisco drizzles, and later I wrote about a dog because I couldn't have one, and a clown because my uncle was a circus performer, and when I was eight I wrote a song ["Riding in the Saddle"] about a cowboy in the desert watching the stars at night and thinking about God because I often looked at the stars and tried to picture Heaven", inspired by seeing Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye , was an American singer and cowboy actor, one of the most heavily marketed and merchandised stars of his era, as well as being the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants franchised chain...
and hearing Dale Evans
Dale Evans
Dale Evans, was an American writer, movie star, and singer-songwriter. She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.-Early life:...
give her testimony
Testimony
In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. All testimonies should be well thought out and truthful. It was the custom in Ancient Rome for the men to place their right hand on a Bible when taking an oath...
at the civic auditorium. Among his earliest songs was "Lonely Boy" (1956), "The Man From Galilee" (1956) "inspired by Sunday School stories", the unreleased "Bopping With My Girl"; "My Feet are on the Rock" (1958), "The Thanksgiving Song" (1959); "Country Church, Country People" (1959), was written for his grandmother Lena.
From 1956 Norman was fascinated with the music of Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
. According to Norman, his father banned him from listening to rock and roll music on the radio. Norman frequently accompanied his father on Christian missions to prisons and hospitals. In 1959, he performed on Ted Mack's syndicated CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
television show The Original Amateur Hour. In 1960 his father accepted a teaching job in San José, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
. The family lived in Campbell, California
Campbell, California
Campbell is a city in Santa Clara County, California, a suburb of San Jose, and part of Silicon Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Campbell's population is 39,349...
, Later, while a junior at Campbell High School, he was the youngest person voted into the Edwin Markham
Edwin Markham
Charles Edwin Anson Markham was an American poet. From 1923 to 1931 he was Poet Laureate of Oregon.-Life:Edwin Markham was born in Oregon City, Oregon and was the youngest of 10 children; his parents divorced shortly after his birth...
Poetry Society, and won first place in the Society's student poetry contest. Norman won an academic scholarship to major in English at San Jose State College. By the fall of 1965 Norman left the family home and rented an apartment in Downtown San Jose
Downtown San Jose
Downtown San Jose is the central business district of San Jose, California, United States. The area is generally located north of Interstate 280 and east of Guadalupe Parkway, which roughly parallels the Guadalupe River. The region is bound to the north by U.S...
. After one semester, he "flunked out of college and lost [his] scholarship".
Back Country Seven (1964–1965)
While still a high school student, Norman formed a group called The Back Country Seven, which included his sister, Nancy Jo; Mark A. Ebner, and high school friend, Gene Mason, who was later to be (alongside Norman) one of the lead singers of People!. The Back Country Seven played at hootenanniesHootenanny
Hootenanny is an Appalachian colloquialism that was used in early twentieth century America to refer to things whose names were forgotten or unknown. In this usage it was synonymous with thingamajig or whatchamacallit, as in "hand me that hootenanny." Hootenanny was also an old country word for...
held at Campbell High and throughout San José. After graduating from high school, Norman became involved in the local rock music scene in San José, opening for both The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
and Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
.
People! (1965–1968)
In 1966 Norman opened a concert for People!People!
People! was a one-hit wonder rock band that was formed in San Jose, California in 1965. They started out playing "Top 40" music like most artists but ended up releasing three albums of mostly original material. Their greatest chart success came with their summer hit single "I Love You", a song...
at the Asilomar Conference Grounds
Asilomar Conference Grounds
Asilomar Conference Grounds is a conference center built for the YWCA in 1913 at Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove, California. Julia Morgan designed and built 16 of the buildings on the property, of which 11 are still standing. It became part of Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds in...
in Pacific Grove, California
Pacific Grove, California
Pacific Grove is a coastal city in Monterey County, California, USA, with a population of 15,041 as of the 2010 census, down from 15,522 as of the 2000 census...
.
Norman became the band's principal songwriter, sharing lead vocals with Gene M. Mason.
Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
signed People! to a record deal at the beginning of 1966. As Norman was legally underage, he required parental permission and court approval to sign.
People! performed about 200 concerts a year, appearing with Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
and Them
Them (band)
Them were a Northern Irish band formed in Belfast in April 1964, most prominently known for the garage rock standard "Gloria" and launching singer Van Morrison's musical career...
, The Animals
The Animals
The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London...
, The Dave Clark Five
The Dave Clark Five
The Dave Clark Five were an English pop rock group. Their single "Glad All Over" knocked The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" off the top of the UK singles charts in January 1964: it eventually peaked at No.6 in the United States in April 1964.They were the second group of the British Invasion,...
, Paul Revere & the Raiders
Paul Revere & the Raiders
Paul Revere & the Raiders is an American rock band that saw considerable U.S. mainstream success in the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s with hits such as "Kicks" , "Hungry" , "Him Or Me - What's It Gonna Be?" and the 1971 No...
, The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
, The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
, Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Moby Grape
Moby Grape
Moby Grape is an American rock group from the 1960s, known for having all five members contribute to singing and songwriting and that collectively merged elements of folk music, blues, country, and jazz together with rock and psychedelic music...
, and San Jose bands Syndicate of Sound
Syndicate of Sound
The Syndicate of Sound was an American garage band that existed between 1965 and 1970. Originally from San Jose, California, the band had an edgy style that some critics have considered to be a forerunner of psychedelic rock.- History :...
, and Count Five
Count Five
The Count Five was a 1960s garage rock band from San Jose, California, best known for their Top 10 single "Psychotic Reaction".The band was founded in 1964 by John "Mouse" Michalski and Roy Chaney took over bass duties, two high school friends who had previously played in several short-lived...
.
In 1967 Capitol released People!'s first single "Organ Grinder/Riding High", with both songs co-written by Norman and Mason, and produced by their manager, Mikel Hunter "Captain Mikey
Captain Mikey
Marion Elbridge Herrington , , best known as Captain Mikey , was an American disc jockey; voice-over actor, who was the national voice for Sears; and innovative radio program...
" Herrington. It failed to chart. In 1968 Capitol released People!'s second single, also produced by Captain Mikey, an extended cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of The Zombies
The Zombies
The Zombies are an English rock band, formed in 1961 in St Albans and led by Rod Argent, on piano and keyboards, and vocalist Colin Blunstone. The group scored a UK and US hit in 1964 with "She's Not There"...
' non-chart song "I Love You
I Love You (The Zombies song)
-People! :The cover version by People!, released in February 1968 was a #14 hit in the USA and went to #1 in Japan...
", backed by "Somebody Tell Me My Name". After extensive promotion by the band and its manager, and industry advertising by Capitol, including the creation of a promotional film that appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
, "I Love You" became a hit single, selling more than one million copies. It reached reaching a peak of #14 on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot 100, and #13 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles Chart in June 1968,. It became a #1 single in several markets, including Italy, Israel, and Japan. People! continued to tour extensively, appearing three times on Dick Clark's American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
, and also on Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
's Tonight Show.
Despite the success of "I Love You", and despite favorable reviews, the subsequent album, named after their hit single and released in July 1968, only reached No. 138 on the Billboard charts. In August 1968 Capitol released People!'s third single "Apple Cider", backed with "Ashes of Me", but it failed to chart.
By the time the I Love You album was released and the band undertook its first major tour of the USA in the summer of 1968, Norman had left People!. Norman and Mason reunited in 1974 for a benefit concert for Israel at UCLA, later released in 1980 as the live album Larry Norman and People!—The Israel Tapes—1974 A.D. Norman, Fridkin and Mason came together in August 2006 for a People! reunion concert in the G. Herbert Smith Auditorium on the Willamette University
Willamette University
Willamette University is an American private institution of higher learning located in Salem, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest university in the Western United States. Willamette is a member of the Annapolis Group of colleges, and is made up of an undergraduate College of Liberal Arts and...
campus in Salem, Oregon
Salem, Oregon
Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...
.
Hollywood street ministry (1968–1969)
Soon after Norman left People!, he had "a powerful spiritual encounter that threw him into a frenzy of indecision about his life [and] for the first time in his life, he received what he understood to be the Holy Spirit". Norman moved back home to live with his parents, with no plans for his future. In answer to his father's inquiry, Norman responded: "My plans? Oh, I've got great plans. I'm going to sit down in the middle of my life and I'm not moving until God comes and gets me". Norman was offered a position with Youth For ChristYouth for Christ
Youth for Christ is the name of a number of previously unaffiliated evangelical Protestant religious campaigns which led to the creation of Youth for Christ International in 1946....
, and a week later was invited by Herb Hendler
Herb Hendler
Herb Hendler was an American record producer and lyricist.He was director of A&R and sole producer at RCA Victor Records in the 1940s. He produced Perry Como's first hit records and signed Glenn Miller to his final contract...
to come to Hollywood to write musicals for Capitol Records. Norman recalled in 2007 that he "just prayed and prayed and prayed. And I had no peace about joining YFC. And a lot of peace about Hollywood. But God was silent".
In July 1968, Norman moved to Los Angeles and rented "a tiny, one-room, flophouse
Flophouse
A flophouse , doss-house or dosshouse is a place that offers very cheap lodging, generally by providing only minimal services.-Characteristics:...
apartment, with the rent paid on a monthly basis and no lease, water or electricity costs required" at Apartment 406 at 1140 North Gower Street, Hollywood
Gower Street (Hollywood)
Gower Street is a street in Los Angeles, California that has played an important role in the ongoing evolution of Hollywood, particularly as the home to several prominent Poverty Row studios during the area's Golden Age...
. near the corner with Santa Monica Boulevard, across the street from the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery.
In 1969 Norman auditioned for a role in the Los Angeles production of the rock musical Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
, which was playing at the Aquarius Theatre at 6230 Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
, and which was directed by Tom O'Horgan
Tom O'Horgan
Tom O'Horgan was an American theatre and film director, composer, actor and musician. He is best known for his Broadway work as director of the hit musicals Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar...
and produced by Michael Butler
Michael Butler (producer)
Michael Butler is an American theatrical producer best known for bringing the rock musical Hair from the Public Theater to Broadway in 1968. During his time as Hair producer he was dubbed by the press as "the hippie millionaire"...
and the Smothers Brothers
Smothers Brothers
The Smothers Brothers are Thomas and Richard , American singers, musicians, comedians and folk heroes. The brothers' trademark act was performing folk songs , which usually led to arguments between the siblings...
. As co-creators James Rado and Gerome Ragni
Gerome Ragni
Gerome Bernard Ragni was an American actor, singer and songwriter, best known as the co-author of the groundbreaking 1960s Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical.-Early life:...
and half of the cast were leaving the production to join the Acapulco
Acapulco
Acapulco is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history...
production, Norman and his friend, Teddy Neeley
Ted Neeley
Ted Neeley is a rock and roll drummer, singer, actor, composer, and record producer. He is probably best known for performing the title role in the film Jesus Christ Superstar in 1973....
, were offered the replacement parts as George Berger and Claude Bukowski respectively.
Norman indicated in a July 2007 interview, "When I got [to Los Angeles], there were auditions for Hair. And I thought, I'm going to try out for Hair just to see if I have what it takes. Because maybe I'm just some lame person and I shouldn't be in music at all. So I tried out for Hair, and they gave me a callback and they said 'You're it. Come down on Saturday, there's a contract waiting for you to sign'. Believing God had something more important for him to do, and that "Jesus is the only personal, social and political answer for this generation or any other", Norman rejected the role because "of its glorification of drugs and free sex as the answers to today's problems". Norman decided "I couldn't do it when I found out what it was about. I just didn't agree with what it had to say. So I turned it down". Neeley accepted the role of Claude, but the role offered to Norman eventually went to Ben Vereen
Ben Vereen
Ben Vereen is an American actor, dancer, and singer who has appeared in numerous Broadway theatre shows. Vereen graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts.- Early years :...
. Norman, who was broke, went home to his apartment, locked his guitar in the closet, and cried.
Years later Norman would recall that "It was a beautiful time of my life because it was just me and Jesus. And I had to depend on him, which I wanted to, because nothing else was happening. I wasn't performing, I'd given up music. 'Cause I wanted to be pure". In 2006 Norman recalled: "Even after one of my recordings had charted, I continued to live a spartan existence, slept on the floor, got my teeth fixed without a shot of Novocaine, chose to have no car and walked everywhere – trying to toughen myself for whatever vicissitudes the future might bring. I wasn't concerned with the ephemeral, wasn't really emotionally geared up for wide public acceptance; I was busy getting ready for the end of the world." According to Norman, about this time he wrote his most covered song, "I Wish We'd All Been Ready", "right after I gave up music completely so I could talk to people on the streets. I felt that rock music and love and peace was all a big lie". In a 2001 interview, Norman indicated: "The Bible says we should go into prisons and hospitals and witness to people and also bring them encouragement. ... I wanted to go out into the streets and witness to the people on Hollywood & Sunset Boulevard whether they were prostitutes or homosexuals or drug users and bring them into the kingdom. I remember getting a lot of irritated responses because they thought I wanted to turn the church into a half-way house
Half-Way House
Half-Way House, also known as The Wiseburg Inn, is a historic inn and toll house located on York Road at Parkton, Baltimore County, Maryland. It is a large, -story Flemish bond brick structure. The main part, built as an inn about 1810, was placed in front of an earlier log structure which has...
. No I didn't – I wanted to turn the church into a house that brought people all the way through to the kingdom
Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is a foundational concept in the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.The term "Kingdom of God" is found in all four canonical gospels and in the Pauline epistles...
". Norman recalled: "One night I was singing on stage and Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
was sitting behind the front curtain watching the concert with a bottle of Southern Comfort
Southern Comfort
Southern Comfort is an American liqueur made from neutral spirits with fruit, spice and whiskey flavourings. The brand was originally created by bartender Martin Wilkes Heron in New Orleans in 1874, and is now owned by the Brown-Forman Corporation...
in one hand and she was sipping whiskey from a paper cup. She was drunk and really unhappy. And every now and then, she would start yelling at me. I wrote "Why Don't You Look Into Jesus" about Janis. I felt really sad for her. I felt sad for all of them. They seemed so unhappy and so lost. I couldn't easily break through the haze of drugs by using music. I felt like the only time I had any real effectiveness was in personal conversations. At one point I even felt that maybe music was of no use at all. So I gave it up. All I did was street witness."
After Norman moved to Los Angeles in 1968, he "spent time sharing the gospel on the streets of Los Angeles", especially along Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...
. Norman described his street witnessing: "When I left my band in 1968 and moved to Los Angeles, I didn't feel awkward about witnessing anymore – I felt directed. I chose my ground and worked my beat. I walked up and down Hollywood Boulevard several times a day; at first alone, then with Richard Gerstle and later Sarah Finch, witnessing to businessmen and hippies, and to whomever the Spirit led me. I spent all of my Capitol Records' royalties starting a halfway house and buying clothes and food for new converts. Each Friday and Saturday I borrowed cars and drove almost 150 miles to pick up certain kids and take them to a church in a home in Santa Ana. Our meetings usually lasted five hours on Friday and eight hours on Sunday.
After he moved to Los Angeles in 1968, Norman was associated initially with the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, California, and its Salt Company coffee shop outreach ministry, which operated in the upstairs loft of a converted apartment building located behind the Hollywood Presbyterian Church. Glenn D. Kittle believes that "rock-gospel music was born at the Salt Company Coffeehouse" by Norman. According to Don Williams, who founded the Salt Company coffeehouse in the summer of 1968, Norman "heard ‘The Agape,’ a hard rock Christian group, play songs about Jesus", which "convinced Larry that he could use his rock music to communicate the gospel".
After several months of musical inactivity, Norman began writing songs again. He recalled: "And months later the music started coming to me in my sleep. And I realized that somehow, perhaps because I was willing to give it up, the music had changed." One of those songs was "I've Searched All Around the World", which Norman says was "written in 1968 after walking up and down Hollywood Boulevard almost every day for a year talking to the runaways, pushers, bikers, prostitutes and homeless winos". According to Philip Cooney: "Norman's songs often contain a series of self-contained vignettes
Vignette (literature)
In theatrical script writing, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting and sometimes an object...
that (he hoped) would give the passers-by something to think about, or that might hook them in to hear more of the gospel message. The audience for these songs was not those already saved, it was those to whom church was a foreign language. He understood the ability of music to get behind people's gates, to draw them in with a beautiful melody and good words, to make people drop their defensive position to the gospel—even if for a short time—and allow God to speak to them in that moment....Norman's songs sought to have a relevance to life on the street, establishing a rapport with the musical and social culture around him, and leading his listeners to look to Jesus for the answers in their search for meaning."
Norman had a "passion for the pavement [and] he took his signature voice and his beat-up nylon-string guitar to festivals, coffee shops, and major theaters", including concerts at The Troubador and The Hollywood Bowl, "witnessing before and after the performances on the streets during the day and to the customers after the gigs." Norman appeared with the Salt Company band in a concert at the Vogue Theater in 1970.
Musicals (1968–1969)
In 1968 Norman wrote several songs for the rock musical Alison, which was performed in Los Angeles, and Birthday for Shakespeare, also performed in Los Angeles. Soon after Birthday for Shakespeare was performed, Norman decided to produce his own works.In 1969 Norman was involved writing the rock opera
Rock opera
A rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include...
Lion's Breath. His work on this musical "caught Capitol's attention and they lured him back in 1969, promising him total control over his next album, Upon This Rock".
Norman's next musical was Love on Haight Street, also written in 1969, and another project that involved Norman was Bailey; Some songs from these unreleased musicals appeared later on various albums.
Upon This Rock (1969)
In 1969 Norman returned to Capitol RecordsCapitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
, now headed by Mike Curb
Mike Curb
Michael Curb is an American musician, record company executive, NASCAR and IRL race car owner. A Republican, he served as the 42nd Lieutenant Governor of California from 1979-1983 under Democratic Governor Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown, Jr...
, to honor his original 1966 contract with the understanding that he would have complete artistic control. Believing that "Kids just don't want to listen to God's empty songs anymore", in December 1969 Capitol released Norman's first solo rock album, Upon This Rock, "the first major label record to marry rock music with the gospel", "the Sergeant Pepper of Christianity", widely regarded as "the album that first recruited rock in the service of salvation", later cited as being "one of the roots of the current Contemporary Christian Music"; and now considered to be the first full-blown Christian rock album". Upon This Rock, whose music was "a blend of folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, psychedelic
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
, and rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
influences", combined "street language and gritty imagery".
While Norman was denounced by television evangelists
Televangelism
Televangelism is the use of television to communicate the Christian faith. The word is a portmanteau of television and evangelism and was coined by Time magazine. A “televangelist” is a Christian minister who devotes a large portion of his ministry to television broadcasting...
like Bob Larson
Bob Larson
Bob Larson is an American radio and television evangelist, currently based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Larson has authored numerous books on the subjects of rock music and Satanism, written from a Christian perspective.-Life and career:...
; Jimmy Swaggart
Jimmy Swaggart
Jimmy Lee Swaggart is a Pentecostal American pastor, teacher, musician, television host, and televangelist. He has preached to crowds around the world through his weekly telecast...
, who called rock music "the new pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
"; and Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
; and others within the conservative religious establishment, who considered the development of Christian rock-and-roll, "a sinful compromise with worldliness and immoral sensuality", his music gained a large following in the emerging counter cultural movements.
In February 1970, two months after Upon This Rock was released, Capitol dropped Norman from their label, as the album was deemed a "commercial flop" as it had failed to reach the sales target Capitol expected, telling Norman that "there is no market for your music." Norman analyzed its poor reception in a 1972 interview: "It was too religious for the rock and roll stores and too rock and roll for the religious stores." In April 1970 Capitol leased Upon This Rock to Heartwarming
Heart Warming
Heart Warming was a gospel record label started by Bob Benson and his father, John T. Benson Jr. Heart Warming and their chief rival Canaan Records were arguably the two biggest and best gospel labels in their time...
/Impact Records for two years a small sum. While Norman decided to leave Capitol Records in protest, because he had a different audience in mind, he cooperated with the re-release of Upon This Rock.
Upon This Rock received increased sales due to its distribution in Christian bookstores, and "became Benson's most acclaimed release", selling 23,000 copies when it was eventually released in England in 1972 through Key Records. In 1971 Upon This Rock was submitted unsuccessfully for Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nomination. By May 1970 Capitol released a single (Capitol 2766) with both songs from Upon This Rock: "Sweet Sweet Song Of Salvation" backed with "Walking Backwards Down The Stairs".
1969–1971
Norman continued playing Christian rock, mostly to audiences in California during this period.By October 1969 Norman was a regular performer at the Salt Company, "a combination of late Victorian and early Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
", which held concerts on weekends in the upstairs loft of a converted apartment building in downtown Hollywood. Norman would frequently show up at the Hollywood Palladium
Hollywood Palladium
The Hollywood Palladium is a theater located at 6215 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. It was built in a Streamline Moderne, Art Deco style and includes an 11,200 square foot dance floor with room for up to 4,000 people.-History:...
unannounced and unscheduled on Sunday afternoons and sing to as many as 4,000 people at the Jesus People Festivals organized by Duane Pederson
Duane Pederson
The Rev. Fr. Duane Pederson is a former Jesus freak and leader of the Jesus movement who, in his capacity as founding editor of the Hollywood Free Paper first coined the terms Jesus people and Jesus movement....
. At the "Rock of Ages Folk Festival" held on 26 February 1970 in Northridge, California, Norman appeared as part of the Larry Norman Experience. In March 1970 Norman performed at the Youth for Christ
Youth for Christ
Youth for Christ is the name of a number of previously unaffiliated evangelical Protestant religious campaigns which led to the creation of Youth for Christ International in 1946....
-sponsored Faith Festival, the first major Jesus music festival
Christian music festival
A Christian music festival is a music festival held by the Christian community, in support of performers of Christian music...
, at Evansville, Indiana
Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Indiana and the largest city in Southern Indiana. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 117,429. It is the county seat of Vanderburgh County and the regional hub for both Southwestern Indiana and the...
, which attracted 6,000 people to hear him, Pat Boone
Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
and his family, Christian folk singer Gene Cotton, and Jesus rock artists Danny Taylor, Crimson Bridge, and e, a band that included Greg X. Volz
Greg X. Volz
Gregory Xavier Volz is a Christian singer. He is most noted for being the former lead singer of Christian rock band Petra from 1979 to 1985 and is currently the lead vocalist of the reunited lineup.-Biography:...
. In October 1970 Norman and Randy Stonehill, who had only become a Christian in August, were among those who performed at an Earth Harvest concert at Thy Brother's House, a Jesus coffee house near the campus of California State University
California State University
The California State University is a public university system in the state of California. It is one of three public higher education systems in the state, the other two being the University of California system and the California Community College system. It is incorporated as The Trustees of the...
at Fullerton, California
Fullerton, California
Fullerton is a city located in northern Orange County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 135,161.It was founded in 1887 by George and Edward Amerige and named for George H. Fullerton, who secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway...
.
In a 1970 concert Norman wrote "The Tune", which one reviewer described as "probably ... Larry's finest achievement as a songwriter and recording artist", while improvising on the piano. While some claim "The Tune" was inspired by Bill Gaither and Gloria Gaither
Gloria Gaither
Gloria Gaither is a Christian songwriter, author, speaker, editor, and academic. She is the wife of Bill Gaither and also sang in the Bill Gaither Trio, one of the most influential groups in recent Christian music.-Early Years:...
's 1969 song "God Gave the Song", Norman claims in a 1981 article in Contemporary Christian Music magazine: "Bill Gaither's music first came to my attention in 1973 when a friend played me 'God Gave the Song'. I was shocked; perhaps for personal reasons more than reasons of musical taste. 'God Gave the Song' seemed striking and yet very familiar." On the Phydeaux website, it reads: "'The Tune' was written by Larry in 1971 (sic). During the next two years an author, [Calvin Miller] from the town where Larry first performed this, wrote a book called "The Singer" and another book called "The Song." The books were gigantic sellers. And the biggest gospel artist [Bill Gaither] from the Southern gospel
Southern Gospel
Southern Gospel music—at one time also known as "quartet music"—is music whose lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music...
end of Christian show biz (who shall remain nameless) took "The Tune", kept the tempo and the flavor and re-titled it "God Gave The Song." It was one of the biggest hits the artist had up until that point. When Bill and Gloria Gaither created their 1973 musical Alleluia!: A Praise Gathering for Believers, "the first album from a Christian record company to achieve this honor", which was certified gold by the RIAA, and nominated in 1974 for a Dove Award for Gospel Song of the Year, their arranger Ronn Huff added the prefatory words to "God Gave the Song" that are similar to those in "The Tune". While "The Tune" was played frequently in concerts since its composition, it was first recorded in a studio in 1977, backed by 45 piece orchestra, and only released in 1983.
Norman, along with Pat Boone
Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
; Arthur Blessitt
Arthur Blessitt
Arthur Owen Blessitt is a traveling Christian preacher, most known for carrying a cross through every nation of the world.-Early life and career:...
; Duane Pederson; Jack Sparks, a founder of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project
Spiritual Counterfeits Project
The Spiritual Counterfeits Project is a Christian evangelical parachurch organisation located in Berkeley, California. Since its inception in the early 1970s it has been involved in the fields of Christian apologetics and the Christian countercult movement. Its current president is Tal Brooke...
; and other Jesus People leaders were prominent participants in the Spiritual Revolution Day march and rally in Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
on 13 February 1971. By 1971 Norman was playing at Calvary Chapel
Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa
Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa is a Christian church located near the boundary between the cities of Costa Mesa and Santa Ana in Orange County. It is the original Calvary Chapel, having grown since 1965 from a handful of people led by Chuck Smith to become the "mother church" of over one thousand...
in Costa Mesa in Orange County
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
, where other Jesus music
Jesus music
Jesus music, known as gospel beat music in the United Kingdom, is a style of Christian music which originated on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This musical genre developed in parallel to the Jesus movement...
pioneers (and future Maranatha! Music
Maranatha! Music
Maranatha! Music began as a non-profit outreach of Calvary Chapel in 1971. The Jesus People of the late 1960s and early 1970s began to write new hymns and worship songs with a folk-rock style. Maranatha! Music was founded at this time in order to publish and promote this new type of Christian...
artists) Love Song
Love Song (band)
Love Song was one of the main Jesus music bands, one of the first Christian rock bands. It was founded in 1970 by Chuck Girard, Tommy Coomes, Jay Truax, and Fred Field. Additionally, the earliest members included David Ingram on keyboards, Ernie Earnshaw on drums and Jack Schaeffer on bass. It was...
, Chuck Girard
Chuck Girard
Chuck Girard is a pioneer of Contemporary Christian music. He was born August 27, 1943 in Los Angeles, California, and moved to Santa Rosa, California in his young teens...
, The Way
The Way (band)
The Way was a Jesus music band who were active from 1971 to 1976. They released two albums on Maranatha! Records and contributed four non-LP tracks to their label's compilation series and one LP track was pulled for the first label retrospective.-History:...
, and Children of the Day
Children of the Day
Children of the Day was a Contemporary Christian music group that recorded and toured from 1971 to 1979. It is considered by many to be the world's first contemporary Christian music group.-Beginnings:...
were also performing.
One Way Records (1970–1971)
After receiving his only royalty checkRoyalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
from Capitol in 1970 for songs he had written for People!, Norman moved from the "rat-hole" apartment at Gower Street and established a half-way house
Half-Way House
Half-Way House, also known as The Wiseburg Inn, is a historic inn and toll house located on York Road at Parkton, Baltimore County, Maryland. It is a large, -story Flemish bond brick structure. The main part, built as an inn about 1810, was placed in front of an earlier log structure which has...
on North Beachwood Drive, Hollywood, where he "housed and fed various groups of people, supervised their Bible studies and drove them to church on Fridays and Sundays". However, after he "ran out of money", Norman negotiated to write songs on demand for Capitol and was paid $80 per month subsistence advanced against future earnings, for his work polishing and refining songs for H.R. Pufnstuf
H.R. Pufnstuf
H.R. Pufnstuf was a children's television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in the United States. It was the first Krofft live-action, life-size puppet program. The seventeen episodes were originally broadcast September 6, 1969 to September 4, 1971...
, Hawaiian singer Alfred Alpaka, and Tennessee Ernie Ford
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Ernest Jennings Ford , better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres...
, and was even asked to write English lyrics for the Japanese song "Sukiyaki
Sukiyaki (song)
The cover version by A Taste of Honey reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also went to number 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and Soul chart)....
". Norman claims he contributed 87 songs the first year of this arrangement, but was never compensated
By August 1970 Norman had moved to a three room "little white cottage" at 6007 Carlos Avenue, Hollywood, near the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. About that time Norman was in negotiations to sign with Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
, but "it fell through when the president of the label was confronted by someone who gave him a copy of the Hollywood Free Paper. He feared that I was part of an abrasive subculture
Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...
and took back his offer". On 3 September 1970 Norman began writing a regular column called "As I See It" in the Hollywood Free Paper, an evangelistic newspaper founded by Duane Pederson
Duane Pederson
The Rev. Fr. Duane Pederson is a former Jesus freak and leader of the Jesus movement who, in his capacity as founding editor of the Hollywood Free Paper first coined the terms Jesus people and Jesus movement....
, one of the leaders of the Jesus People in Hollywood and Los Angeles."
Seeking to make a "more earthy sounding album which I could hand out to the street people I talked to on Hollywood Boulevard", in 1970 Norman established One Way Records
One Way Records
One Way Records was a record label established by Larry Norman in 1970 to distribute his own work, and that of other Christian musicians including Randy Stonehill, after he had been released by Capitol Records in 1969.-History:...
with his own money, which was described as "an underground experimental" label, which was headquartered initially at his rented home at 6007 Carlos Avenue, Hollywood. When Norman left Capitol he took with him "demos
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
" of songs he had recorded between 1966 and 1969, some of which were released on his One Way albums. Norman recorded, produced and released two independent albums of his own music through his One Way Records: Street Level (1970) and Bootleg (1971). Both albums "would feature grainy, underground looking black and white artwork. Both would also be ... mixing live concert recording, studio demos of previously unreleased songs and future classics. These albums would also reveal the smart and piercing humor Norman would always be noted for. Norman concerts were part rock and roll show, part revival meeting
Revival meeting
A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held in order to inspire active members of a church body, to raise funds and to gain new converts...
and part stand up comedy. This facet of his life and ministry would be introduced on these two albums. According to Norman, One Way "used secular sub-distributors or "rack jobbers" and "one stops" to disseminate its records". Additionally Creative Sound, owned by Bob Cotterell, released and distributed Street Level, as well as Stonehill's Born Twice.
In 1970 One Way Records released Street Level
Street Level (album)
Street Level is the title of an live album recorded by Larry Norman in 1970. The 2005 CD re-issue has the same selection of tracks as the original 1970 LP release. The second LP version released in 1971 and 1972 under the same name has a different B-side. The 2001 CD issue combines the tracks...
, which had on side one "a [1969] live concert recorded at Hollywood's First Presbyterian Church which ran a nightclub called the Salt Company". As the first version of Street Level was "too confusing to the Christians", Norman recorded "a second version for the church kids" in 1971 that completely replaced side two with one recorded with a band called White Light. After its release in 1970, the Hollywood Free Paper described Norman as "a combination of lyricist, composer, performer, backwoods preacher [and] poet." In 1971 Norman produced an album (Born Twice
Born Twice
Born Twice is the title of an album by Randy Stonehill, which was released in 1971.-Track listing:All Songs Written by Randy Stonehill, except "Hand in the Hand" by Gene MacLellan, "I Need You" by Jimmy Owens, and "He's Got the Whole World" and "He is a Friend of Mine" are Public Domain-Words & Arr...
) for Randy Stonehill
Randy Stonehill
Randall Evan "Randy" Stonehill is an American singer-songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the so-called "fathers of contemporary Christian music". His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but he has assayed other styles, with various albums focused on...
, who had been converted in August 1970 in Norman's kitchen.
In 1971 Norman started Street Level Productions, Inc., a legal corporation with the mission to "reach intro the streets; to avoid the lofty climes and the commercial heights and to labor instead at street level." Street Level (and One Way Records) was headquartered at 7046 Hollywood Boulevard. Also headquartered at that address was New Generation Artists, which managed Norman at that time.
In early 1972 One Way Records released Bootleg
Bootleg (Larry Norman album)
Bootleg is an album created by Larry Norman, released in 1972. It was originally released as a double-LP.- History :In early 1972 One Way Records released Bootleg, a double album retrospective covering the previous four years of Norman's career compiled from demonstration recordings made while at...
, a double album retrospective covering the previous four years of Norman's career compiled from demonstration recordings made while at Capitol, private recordings from his friends, and various interviews and live performances. In 1999 Norman explained the unpolished nature of Bootleg: "Many songs which ended up being released on Bootleg, ... weren't really finished but I had to release the album immediately so it wouldn't violate the terms of my MGM contract which was soon going to be in effect. ... I just didn't have time to finish it. ... I didn't have the budget to make it a real album, I just used songs laying around to fill it up, which I regretted".
MGM/Verve (1971–1974)
Despite the offer of a revised contract from Capitol Records, in 1971 Norman decided to sign with MGM RecordsMGM Records
MGM Records was a record label started by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946, for the purpose of releasing soundtrack albums of their musical films. Later it became a pop label, lasting into the 1970s...
, who had decided to sign Norman on the basis of his work on Street Level and Bootleg, but Norman accepted a publishing agreement with Capitol. By 1971 Norman was associated with Chuck Smith
Chuck Smith (pastor)
Charles Ward “Chuck” Smith, , is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and the founder of the Calvary Chapel movement...
's Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa
Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa
Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa is a Christian church located near the boundary between the cities of Costa Mesa and Santa Ana in Orange County. It is the original Calvary Chapel, having grown since 1965 from a handful of people led by Chuck Smith to become the "mother church" of over one thousand...
. By 1973 over 200 "covers" had been recorded of Norman's songs, including by Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
, Jack Jones
Jack Jones (singer)
John Allan "Jack" Jones is an American jazz and pop singer. He was one of the most popular vocalists of the 1960s.-Overview:...
, Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
, Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
, Pat Boone
Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
, The Imperials
The Imperials
The Imperials are an American Christian music group that has been around for over 45 years. Originating as a southern gospel quartet, the innovative group would become pioneers of contemporary Christian music in the 1960s. There have been many changes for the band in membership and musical styles...
, and The Oak Ridge Boys
The Oak Ridge Boys
The Oak Ridge Boys are an American country and gospel vocal quartet.The group was founded in the 1940s as the Oak Ridge Quartet. They became popular in southern gospel during the 1950s...
.
In November 1971, Norman recorded "Without Love You Are Nothing" (also known as "Righteous Rocker") and "Peace, Pollution, Revolution" in Los Angeles for MGM.
In 1971 Norman visited England for the first time, and lived in a house at 153 Park Lane, Carshalton
Carshalton
Carshalton is a suburban area of the London Borough of Sutton, England. It is located 10 miles south-southwest of Charing Cross, situated in the valley of the River Wandle, one of the sources of which is Carshalton Ponds in the centre of the village. The combined population of the five wards...
, where he wrote a number of songs including "The Great American Novel", and the as yet unreleased "Living on Park Lane". Norman had an influence on the emerging English gospel music scene. Early in 1972 Upon This Rock was released in England, and sold 5,000 copies in its first three months, making it the top selling religious album in England. In March 1972 Norman performed 38 concerts in 35 days, including a concert at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
in the Spring of 1972, for which he claims he was only given about $700 by the tour promoter. His song "Stop This Flight" describing the vicissitudes of touring and record companies was inspired by this tour.
In June 1972 Norman was one of the featured performers at "probably the high-water mark of the Jesus Movement", Explo '72
Explo '72
Explo '72 was an evangelistic conference sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ, planned and directed by Paul Eshleman. Explo '72 has been called the most visible event of the 1970s Jesus movement, and came to be associated with the same, even though its primary attendees were not directly involved...
, the "Jesus Woodstock", "Godapalooza", or "Godstock", which attracted 80,000 young people to the Cotton Bowl
Cotton Bowl (stadium)
The Cotton Bowl is a stadium which opened in 1929 and became known as "The House That Doak Built" due to the immense crowds that former SMU running back Doak Walker drew to the stadium during his college career in the late 1940s. Originally known as Fair Park Stadium, it is located in Fair Park,...
in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, On 17 June, the final night of Explo' 72, with "the thousands who showed up included everything from short-hairs out of conservative Bible colleges to hair-to-your-waist devotees of Larry Norman, Christian rock, and the Jesus People". Norman performed a fifteen minute set before his largest ever crowd at the eight hour Jesus Music Festival that attracted an estimated 180,000 people to a speedway at the uncompleted Woodall Rodgers Freeway near Dallas, Texas. At the conclusion of his set, which included "I Wish We'd All Been Ready", the "laconic lament" of the Jesus Movement, Norman encouraged those attending: "Don't let this week of love pass away – let it be for a lifetime". Norman is included on the subsequent commemorative album, Jesus Sound Explosion, which was sent free to 170,000 viewers of the television program, singing his "Sweet, Sweet Song of Salvation". On 21 June 1972 Beware! The Blob
Beware! The Blob
Beware! The Blob is a 1972 sequel to horror science-fiction film The Blob. The film was directed by Larry Hagman. The screenplay was penned by Anthony Harris and Jack Woods III, based on a story by Jack H. Harris and Richard Clair...
(also known as Son of Blob), in which Norman appeared briefly, was released in the USA.
On Saturday, September 2, 1972 Norman also performed at the Festival of Light
Nationwide Festival of Light
The Nationwide Festival of Light was a grassroots movement formed by British Christians concerned about the development of the permissive society in the UK at the end of the 1960s....
-sponsored Festival for Jesus held in Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
, which was filmed and released as a 50-minute documentary Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?, which featured Norman's 1972 song of the same name, which was written in response to the criticisms of Christian Rock music by American evangelist Bob Larson
Bob Larson
Bob Larson is an American radio and television evangelist, currently based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Larson has authored numerous books on the subjects of rock music and Satanism, written from a Christian perspective.-Life and career:...
, whom Norman regularly lampooned
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
at his concerts. Norman's 1969 apocalyptic song, I Wish We'd All Been Ready”, was also featured in the 1972 Christian end times
End times
The end time, end times, or end of days is a time period described in the eschatological writings in the three Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios in various other non-Abrahamic religions...
film A Thief in the Night, which was watched by an estimated 50,000,000 people, but sung by an obscure group known as The Fishmarket Combo.
Only Visiting This Planet (1972)
On 8 September 1972 Norman began recording his second studio album, Only Visiting This PlanetOnly Visiting This Planet
Only Visiting This Planet is the title of an album recorded by Larry Norman in 1972. The album was selected as the second album in 's The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music.-History:...
, the first album in a projected trilogy, in George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
's London AIR Studios
Associated Independent Recording
Associated Independent Recording , an independent recording company, was founded in London in 1965 by Beatles producer George Martin and his partner John Burgess after their departure from EMI....
. Only Visiting This Planet, which was "Initially coordinated by George Martin", and was produced by The Triumvirate of British producers Rod Edwards, Roger Hand, and Jon Miller, often ranked as Norman's best album, "mixed his Christian message with strong political themes", and "was meant to reach the flower children disillusioned by the government and the church" with its "abrasive, urban reality of the gospel". In 1990 CCM magazine voted Only Visiting This Planet as "the greatest Christian album ever recorded".
On January 6, 1973 Norman was one of three named as Best New Male Artist of the year by Cashbox. and performed in two sold-out concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. After a tour of South Africa in June and the UK in July, and the release in July of his "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?", a songbook featuring some of Norman's songs from both Upon This Rock and Only Visiting This Planet.
So Long Ago the Garden (1973)
On 7 August 1973 Norman entered AIR studios in London to record his favorite album, the second album in his Trilogy, So Long Ago the GardenSo Long Ago the Garden
So Long Ago the Garden is an album recorded by Larry Norman, released in 1973. It is the second album in what came to be known as his "trilogy," which began with the album Only Visiting This Planet and concluded with In Another Land. So Long Ago the Garden was controversial because Norman's...
, which was produced again by Edwards, Hand, and Miller. According to John J. Thompson, "lyrically, as the title suggests, the album reflects on the nature of the human condition. The songs deal with characters ... knee deep in the madness of life without God". By 1 October 1973 these recording sessions were completed and the recordings were submitted to MGM. However, financial problems at MGM, which would result in its collapse within fifteen months, "couldn't adequately promote or advertise the album. The corporate attention was focused on more pressing things like survival and solvency". According to Norman, the record company dropped several Christian songs, including "Butterfly," "If God Is My Father," "Kulderachna", and "I Hope I'll See You In Heaven", in favor of more lightweight love songs like "Fly, Fly, Fly," the album's opening track", and "Christmastime', both previously released as singles.
The release of So Long Ago the Garden in November 1973 caused controversy in the Christian press primarily due to its album cover, which some insisted featured a naked Norman, and that this was proof he had fallen away from God. As John J. Thompson explains: "The cover featured a seminude Norman with a photo of a lion superimposed on his skin. The symbolism
Religious symbolism
Religious symbolism is the use of symbols, including archetypes, acts, artwork, events, or natural phenomena, by a religion. Religions view religious texts, rituals, and works of art as symbols of compelling ideas or ideals...
(an Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
prophecy
Prophecy
Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
referred to the Messiah
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
as 'the lion of the tribe of Judah
Tribe of Judah
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....
,' and C.S. Lewis' Narnia series made a Christlike figure out of a lion named Aslan
Aslan
Aslan, the "Great Lion," is the central character in The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of seven fantasy novels for children written by C. S. Lewis. He is the eponymous lion of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and his role in Narnia is developed throughout the remaining books...
), as well as the obvious insinuation of Adam
Adam
Adam is a figure in the Book of Genesis. According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, he is the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by Yahweh-Elohim , and the first woman, Eve was formed from his rib...
in the Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
, flew over the heads of many people, who focused on a patch of grass covering Larry's nether parts".
Steve Turner adds: "The songs which examined the fall
The Fall of Man
In Christian doctrine, the Fall of Man, or simply the Fall, refers to the transition of the first humans from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience to God. In Genesis chapter 2, Adam and Eve live at first with God in a paradise, but the serpent tempts them into...
were mostly written from the perspective of the scarred and his public just could not take the idea of an artist taking another persona
Persona
A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. The word is derived from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask. The Latin word probably derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον...
to make a point. To them he was a backslider who had broken with his wife and was seeking fame (the ideas being taken from his songs)". Turner indicated that Bible bookstores, especially in the southern and midwestern States of the USA, refused to sell his albums, and that all of his concerts were canceled until Noel Paul Stookey invited him onto stage during one of his concerts eighteen months later.
However, believing that MGM was interfering with the subject matter of his records, by 1974 Norman left MGM due to "a squabble with MGM over song choices for his next album, ... So Long Ago the Garden". Not long after this decision, MGM Records folded due to economic difficulties.
Comedies (1971–1973)
During this period Norman wrote at least three comedies: X-Mass (1971), Also Sprach Kazoostra (1972) and The Gospel According To Moresell, Moresold (1973).Street Level Artists Agency (1974–1980)
Norman was described as "a stubbornly independent artist for three decades." During this time Norman saw the need for a booking agency to manage and book Christian artists that "could really be much more Christian. It could be much more free of financial motives and goals", and so started Street Level Artists Agency in 1974. At this time Norman and his manager Phillip F. Mangano (born 30 November 1947), "came up with a vision to raise up artists to be truly creative and take the message of Christ into a mainstream environment." Some of those he felt led to help "were on drugs so he spent time helping them with their personal life and bringing them to a converted lifestyle".Solid Rock Records (1974–1981)
In 1974 Norman founded Solid Rock RecordsSolid Rock Records
Solid Rock Records is the record label of Larry Norman. It was set up in 1975 to distribute his own work, after he had been released by Capitol Records. Solid Rock had a distribution deal with Word Records until 1980....
to produce records for Christian artists who, like himself, had "no commercial value." Norman intended Solid Rock to be "a "musical L'Abri", and "more than business though, it was community." "Solid Rock became an important moment in the history of Christian rock music since it was the first truly artist-driven label". According to Norman, the purpose of Solid Rock was "to help other artists who didn't want to be consumed by the business of making vinyl pancakes but who wanted to make something 'non-commercial' to the world".
In 1974 Norman and Kenn Gulliksen started a Bible Study in the living room of Norman's apartment at Doheny and Sunset in Los Angeles that was only for musicians and actors, including regulars Jerry Houser
Jerry Houser
Jerry Houser is an American character actor and voice actor in film and television.-Career:Houser was born in Los Angeles, California. Since 1971, he has appeared in countless films, TV series, animated series, and commercials...
and Julie Harris
Julie Harris
Julia Ann "Julie" Harris is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame...
, which after six months, was named "The Vineyard", and later, with another Bible study at the home of Chuck Girard
Chuck Girard
Chuck Girard is a pioneer of Contemporary Christian music. He was born August 27, 1943 in Los Angeles, California, and moved to Santa Rosa, California in his young teens...
, became part of the founding congregation of the Association of Vineyard Churches
Association of Vineyard Churches
The Association of Vineyard Churches, also known as the Vineyard Movement, is a neocharismatic evangelical Christian denomination with over 1,500 affiliated churches worldwide....
. This Bible Study met at his home until 1977, when Norman and his wife left on a seven-month world tour. By March 1975 Norman was attending the Little Brown Church in Studio City.
ABC Records (1974–1976)
In 1974 Norman signed to the mainstream label ABC RecordsABC Records
ABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company . ABC-Paramount Records' first president was Samuel H....
, who agreed to distribute Solid Rock's records. According to Norman, Orphans From Eden, his first album submitted to ABC, which included collaborations with his sister, Kristy, was never released. Another album recorded in 1974 that was rejected by Word Records was Streams of White Light Into Darkened Corners, a documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
album that took "a satirical look at the early 1970s 'religious pop music' trend from 1970 to 1974", written by celebrities who had "jumped on the `70s spiritual bandwagon", and featured Norman singing cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s of religious songs by Norman Greenbaum
Norman Greenbaum
Norman Greenbaum is an American singer-songwriter. He was raised in a traditional Jewish household and went to Hebrew school. His initial interest in music was sparked by Southern blues music and the folk music that was hugely popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s...
, Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
, George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
, Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
, the Beatles, Randy Newman
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
, Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
, Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
, and the Rolling Stones, and was not released until 1977 by AB Records.
In Another Land (1976)
In 1975 Norman recorded In Another Land
In Another Land (album)
In Another Land is the title of an album recorded by Larry Norman and released in 1976. It is the third album in Norman's "trilogy," which began with Only Visiting This Planet and continued with So Long Ago the Garden...
, the third album in his trilogy, which was released in 1976 through his own Solid Rock label and distributed through Word Records, making it "the first of his albums to be released on a Christian label". However, according to Norman, "In Another Land, was executorially censored by the "mother company" which insisted on removing any music they felt was "too negative" or "too controversial." In Another Land was Norman's best-selling album ever, and had the best reception of any of his albums from the Christian establishment. By 1985 In Another Land had sold 120,000 copies in the USA alone, compared with average sales of less than ten thousand for other gospel albums,
Word Records (1976–1981)
In 1976 ABC Records bought Word RecordsWord Records
Word Records is a Christian record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a division of Word Entertainment , which, itself is co-owned by Warner Music Group and Curb Records...
, and they switched Norman to its Word subsidiary. infusing it with $17 million in capital. Until 1980 Solid Rock records would be distributed by Word, giving them a more direct distribution into Christian bookstores. After In Another Land, Norman had completed his first cycle of seven albums, and wanted to change musical directions, but, according to Norman, "the record company was not interested in anything less than Part Four of The Trilogy; an impossibility, conceptually and emotionally". Norman indicated in 1991 that he had wanted to postpone Something New under the Son
Something New under the Son
Something New Under The Son is an album recorded by Larry Norman in 1977 and released in 1981. It was originally intended to be a three-sided album, however Larry's record company felt it was too negative and the project remained unreleased for four years....
, the first album in a projected second cycle of seven albums, but to record:
"a more street-orientated, guitar based, trash can orchestra of angry and honest songs I was writing and recording."
However, Le Garage Du Monde was "considered too far over-the-edge for the American youth gospel market and never released". In 1976 Norman recorded songs for his proposed Red, White and Blues trilogy, a projected American anthology of three albums for the United States Bicentennial
United States Bicentennial
The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to the historical events leading up to the creation of the United States as an independent republic...
, that would focus on the roots of American music. Known as the "Black and White" sessions, because they "explored both American black music from Slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
to the present, and American white music from early traditional music to modern folk songs
American folk music
American folk music is a musical term that encompasses numerous genres, many of which are known as traditional music or roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American...
". Norman revealed that "I recorded "This Land Is Your Land
This Land Is Your Land
"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on...
" and "They Laid Jesus Christ in His Grave
Jesus Christ (Woody Guthrie song)
Jesus Christ is a song by Woody Guthrie. The song argues that Jesus would have been shunned and possibly killed by modern capitalist society much as he was in his own time....
" with a guitar I borrowed that was Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
's; found broken in a field with a bird nest inside. I included a song of my own called "When The Moon Shines On The Moonshine" along with other songs like "Turn, Turn, Turn", and "The Eve Of Destruction". ... Neither the album of black music nor white music was approved for release on Solid Rock Records and I finally resolved to abandon both albums. Some of the Bicentennial music was later gathered together with other unreleased songs under the title Rough Mix 2", which covered material from 1972 to 1978, and which also contained "other projects which had been censored, rejected, or never heard for various other reasons", was only released officially in April 2011.
Something New Under the Son (1976–1981)
In 1976 Norman acquiesced and recorded Something New under the Son
Something New under the Son
Something New Under The Son is an album recorded by Larry Norman in 1977 and released in 1981. It was originally intended to be a three-sided album, however Larry's record company felt it was too negative and the project remained unreleased for four years....
, a blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
-rock concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
that some regard as his tour de force, and as "one of the roughest, bluesiest, and best rock and roll albums of his career or the whole industry", that took its title from "an ironic inversion of a phrase in Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes
The Book of Ecclesiastes, called , is a book of the Hebrew Bible. The English name derives from the Greek translation of the Hebrew title.The main speaker in the book, identified by the name or title Qoheleth , introduces himself as "son of David, king in Jerusalem." The work consists of personal...
", namely: "there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9b). While Norman explicitly denied this album was autobiographical in the accompanying lyric songbook, many years later some critics challenged this claim, arguing "Norman was struggling through his own divorce and identity crisis at the time". In 1999 Norman responded by arguing that when he completed the album in 1976, he was married happily and that several of the songs were written before he had met his wife. Norman indicated that the songs chronicled "Pilgrim's" journey into faith.
Norman had intended to release this as a double album
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
with his 1971 song "The Tune" on the second album (and a blank fourth side or a side with a lengthy version of "Watch What You're Doing"). However, Word rejected Norman's wishes as they believed two separate albums would be more profitable, censored some of the songs, and delayed the album's release until 1981. The full length (almost 12 minutes) version of "The Tune" was recorded in Hollywood in 1977, but not released until 1983 on the album The Story of the Tune, which is called "the continuation of Something New Under The Son on the back cover".
By December 1976 Norman had signed a one-year agreement to allow four albums to be manufactured and distributed through Sonrise Manufacturing Co,, which was owned by Bob Cotterell. In 1977 Norman signed an agreement to release some Solid Rock Records through AB Records of Hollywood, an affiliate of Bob Cotterell's Sonrise Records, which released Streams of White Light Into Darkened Corners in 1977, and Mark Heard
Mark Heard
John Mark Heard was a record producer, folk-rock singer, and songwriter originally from Macon, Georgia, USA....
's On Turning to Dust
Mark Heard (album)
Mark Heard is the title of the first solo album by Mark Heard, originally released in 1975, and re-released as On Turning to Dust on both AB Records and Solid Rock Records in 1978....
in 1978.
World Tour (1977–1978)
Frustrated by resistance and censorship from Word, after May 1977 Norman left the studio and commenced a seven-month world tour, that included concerts in the USA, Canada, Australia, Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, United Kingdom, Israel, Lebanon, India, Hong Kong, and Japan. During this tour, Norman wrote and recorded another album, Voyage Of The Vigilant,
which was a combination of live recordings with hotel tapes and studio stopovers, but was not released by Word as with "songs like "Three Million Gods," and "Cats Of The Coliseum," discussing the Hindu religion and the early martyrdom of Christians in Rome, this album was not acceptable because it was considered too "avant garde". Another song written for Voyage of the Vigilant was "Letter to the Church", which Norman said was "a Letter to the Church of Mass Media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
and Prosperity....It's a letter to the Me-Generation, the Upwardly Mobile
Yuppie
Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...
, and especially to those who think of themselves as Christians". While Norman acknowledged that others saw it as being about "a certain televangelist ... [or] about a certain Christian artist or celebrity, ... it was written about all kinds of things that were happening in the American church, in the gospel music industry, and what I was seeing around me as I toured and performed in 1977". During this tour, Norman encountered the ministry of the Calcutta Mission of Mercy in India, and began to support them.
During his September 1977 tour of Australia, an eponymous compilation album (also known unofficially as Starstorm) that contained unreleased versions of previously released songs, was released by Starstorm Records, and distributed by Rhema Records, which was owned by his then Australian promoter, David Smallbone, the father of CCM singer Rebecca St. James
Rebecca St. James
Rebecca St. James , is a Christian pop rock singer, songwriter, musician, author, and actor. She began performing in Australia in the late 1980s and released her first full-length studio album in 1991. In 1993 she was signed to the record label ForeFront Records and released her major label debut a...
. In 2005 Norman released an album called Snapshots From The '77 World Tour, which contained recordings of some of his performances on the world tour. At this time, Philip Mangano organized three book deals for Norman: a biography by English journalist Steve Turner
Steve Turner (writer)
Steve Turner is an English music journalist, biographer and poet, who grew up in Northamptonshire, England. His first published article was in the Beatles Monthly in 1969. His career as a journalist began as features editor of Beat Instrumental where he interviewed many of the prominent rock...
, which would be published by Word; a book of Norman's photographs; and another with photographs of Norman. Turner accompanied Norman for part of the world tour, but Norman eventually rejected the projects.
In 1978 Norman started Street Level Records as an alternative label to release albums which Word had no interest in distributing. Paul N. Lindner's Consolidated Gospel Inc. distributed Street Level Records to stores in America and Europe. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the release of I Love You, in 1978 Street Level Records advertised the release at Christmas of The Compleat Trilogy, containing all forty songs intended for Norman's Trilogy, making it the "unedited, uncensored, unexpurgated, complete" version. The Compleat Trilogy as advertised still has not been released.
Plane accident
In 1978 Norman was getting ready to sign with Warner BrothersWarner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
, when he was injured in an accident as United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
flight 215 landed at Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...
at the end of his world tour. In later years Norman claimed in concerts that "part of the roof of the cabin hit him with such force that he suffered mild brain damage and that this accident stopped him from working coherently after the late '70s". Philip Mangano, who was then Norman's manager, who considers Norman "a genius, no doubt, who changed the direction, the content, and frame of "Christian" music", who was seated in the next seat to Larry, denied that it was that serious. However, Norman believed that the subsequent damage to his brain left him unable to complete projects and focus artistically. In a 1989 interview Norman indicated that it was several years before his condition was diagnosed: "At the time they didn't call it anything. They didn't know what it was I didn't think to have X-rays because I thought I was okay. Now, what they have isolated it as is a bi-polar trauma, which means the accident caused an interruption in the information from one side of my brain to the other the neurons spark but sometimes don't make a connection." William Ayers wrote in 1991: "As family, friends and fans watched, his life spiraled downward. He was unable to record a bonafide album from the time of his airplane accident in 1978 until, with the help of therapy and chemical treatment to increase electro-neuron brain activity, he attempted to release the badly produced Home At Last. He never expected to be healed and thought he would have to continue chemical therapy until the day after John Barr came into his life and layed hands on him.
Roll Away the Stone tour (1979)
In 1979 Norman began his Roll Away the Stone tour. In August 1979 Norman made his first of his four appearances at the Greenbelt FestivalGreenbelt festival
Greenbelt Festival is a festival of arts, faith and justice held annually in England since 1974. Greenbelt has grown from a Christian music festival with an audience of 1,500 young Christians to its current more secular festival attended by around 20,000 - Christians and non-Christians.The festival...
, a British Christian festival of "arts, faith and justice" held annually since 1974, that was held that year in the grounds of Odell Castle
Odell Castle
Odell Castle was an 11th century castle in the village of Odell, in the county of Bedfordshire, England.The land where Odell Castle stood was originally owned by Levenot, a thane of King Edward the Confessor. At the time, the land and village were called Wahull. After the Norman invasion, William...
in Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
, Norman took Randy Stonehill with him, and introducing him to his own established audiences. Greenbelt 1979 attracted 16,000 people, and made Stonehill "a major Christian Artist in Europe". After seeing Norman perform, British festival promoter Tony Tew, said, "The pioneering music of Larry Norman has crossed the water, and we've learnt that it really is possible to be a Christian and a rock 'n' roll singer." Norman subsequently appeared at Greenbelt in 1980, 1981 and 1984.
On 9 September 1979 Norman performed for US president Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
and about 1,000 guests at the Old Fashioned Gospel Singin concert held on the south lawn of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. During the concert, which also included veteran gospel singers Barry McGuire
Barry McGuire
Barry McGuire is an American singer-songwriter best known for the hit song "Eve of Destruction", and later as a pioneering singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian Music.-Early life:...
, The Archers
The Archers
The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
, The Happy Goodman Family
The Happy Goodman Family
The Happy Goodman Family was a Southern Gospel group founded in the 1940s by Howard "Happy" Goodman.The Happy Goodman Family began to be known for their singing around 1950. During the 1940s and 1950s there were various combinations of all eight brothers and sisters, with Howard being constant...
, The Speer Family, James Blackwood
James Blackwood
James Webre Blackwood was an American Gospel singer and one of the founding members of legendary Southern Gospel quartet The Blackwood Brothers.-Biography:...
, James Cleveland
James Cleveland
The Reverend Dr. James Cleveland was a gospel singer, arranger, composer and, most significantly, the driving force behind the creation of the modern gospel sound, bringing the stylistic daring of hard gospel and jazz and pop music influences to arrangements for mass choirs...
, Doug Oldham
Doug Oldham
Doug Oldham was an American Southern Gospel singer and a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.-Musical career:...
, Mighty Clouds of Joy
Mighty Clouds of Joy
The Mighty Clouds of Joy is an American gospel quartet.-Career:The Mighty Clouds of Joy were formed in 1960 and started out in a tradition-based style. Eventually they added soul, R&B, and rock flourishes into their musical mix without diluting the essential religious essence of their material...
, and Shirley Caesar
Shirley Caesar
Shirley Ann Caesar is an American Gospel music singer, songwriter and recording artist whose career has spanned six decades...
, Norman sang his "The Great American Novel", "a Dylanesque
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
protest song
Protest song
A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
", which he admitted "wasn't received with much enthusiasm". Norman explained this choice of song:
"I wanted us to feed the poor, and to stop worshipping the space program thinking this proved that God was on our side and not the Russians' because we were superior in the space race to the moon. And to realize that our government was taking over countries in the same way that Russia was, creating satellites, but we call their communism "evil" and our democratic appropriations of foreign governments "righteous."
Daniel Amos
In December 1978 Norman signed Christian rock band Daniel AmosDaniel Amos
Daniel Amos is a rock band formed in 1974 by Terry Scott Taylor on guitars and vocals, Marty Dieckmeyer on bass guitar, Steve Baxter on guitars and Jerry Chamberlain on lead guitars. Current members include bassist Tim Chandler, guitarist Greg Flesch and drummer Ed McTaggart...
to Street Level Productions and also to his Street Level Artists Agency. Daniel Amos had almost completed Horrendous Disc
Horrendous Disc
Horrendous Disc is the title of the third studio album by the rock band Daniel Amos, that was recorded in 1978 and released in 1981 on Solid Rock Records.-Background:...
, their third album, co-produced by Mike "Clay" Stone, when under contract to Maranatha! Music
Maranatha! Music
Maranatha! Music began as a non-profit outreach of Calvary Chapel in 1971. The Jesus People of the late 1960s and early 1970s began to write new hymns and worship songs with a folk-rock style. Maranatha! Music was founded at this time in order to publish and promote this new type of Christian...
. When Maranatha! released them, as it was changing direction to children's and praise music, Horrendous Disc still needed to be mixed. Norman asked the band to replace two songs, had the album mixed and took new photos of the band for the album's cover to replace those he deemed too controversial for the Christian market, and in September 1979, Norman released a test pressing. In mid-May 1980 Norman released Daniel Amos from their management contract with Street Level Productions, resulting in an estrangement in their relationship. Just before the finalization of his divorce from Pamela, in August 1980, Norman performed at the Kamperland Youth for Christ
Youth for Christ
Youth for Christ is the name of a number of previously unaffiliated evangelical Protestant religious campaigns which led to the creation of Youth for Christ International in 1946....
Music festival (now the Flevo Totaal Festival
Flevo Festival
The Flevo Festival is an open air Christian music festival held each August in The Netherlands. The festival was first organized as the Kamperland Festival in 1978 by the Dutch arm of Youth for Christ and became a private foundation in 2002....
) in Zeeland
Zeeland
Zeeland , also called Zealand in English, is the westernmost province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. With a population of about 380,000, its area is about...
the Netherlands with Daniel Amos
Daniel Amos
Daniel Amos is a rock band formed in 1974 by Terry Scott Taylor on guitars and vocals, Marty Dieckmeyer on bass guitar, Steve Baxter on guitars and Jerry Chamberlain on lead guitars. Current members include bassist Tim Chandler, guitarist Greg Flesch and drummer Ed McTaggart...
band backing him. Due to the laryngitis
Laryngitis
Laryngitis is an inflammation of the larynx. It causes hoarse voice or the complete loss of the voice because of irritation to the vocal folds . Dysphonia is the medical term for a vocal disorder, of which laryngitis is one cause....
of Terry Scott Taylor
Terry Scott Taylor
Terry Scott Taylor is an American songwriter, record producer, writer and founding member of the bands Daniel Amos and The Swirling Eddies . Taylor is also a member of the roots and alternative music group, Lost Dogs. He is currently based in San Jose, California, USA.Taylor is highly regarded for...
, lead singer of Daniel Amos
Daniel Amos
Daniel Amos is a rock band formed in 1974 by Terry Scott Taylor on guitars and vocals, Marty Dieckmeyer on bass guitar, Steve Baxter on guitars and Jerry Chamberlain on lead guitars. Current members include bassist Tim Chandler, guitarist Greg Flesch and drummer Ed McTaggart...
, Norman sang their songs from Horrendous Disc
Horrendous Disc
Horrendous Disc is the title of the third studio album by the rock band Daniel Amos, that was recorded in 1978 and released in 1981 on Solid Rock Records.-Background:...
with the rest of Daniel Amos backing him so that Daniel Amos could be paid.
At the Greenbelt Festival
Greenbelt festival
Greenbelt Festival is a festival of arts, faith and justice held annually in England since 1974. Greenbelt has grown from a Christian music festival with an audience of 1,500 young Christians to its current more secular festival attended by around 20,000 - Christians and non-Christians.The festival...
held a few days later, Daniel Amos refused to back Norman as previously agreed due to their unfolding legal action against Norman, forcing Norman to recruit another group of musicians. During this performance, Norman sang for the first time, "May Your Feet Stay On The Path", as a beatific benediction
Benediction
A benediction is a short invocation for divine help, blessing and guidance, usually at the end of worship service.-Judaism:...
to the Solid Rock artists he had released. Norman explained in 2001: "It's a song I wrote for all my artists because I wasn't going to work with them any more. So I stayed up one night praying all night and working on this song asking God to help me bless the artists one more time so that they would know that I loved them even if I didn't want to work with them". Despite being advertised as soon available in November 1979, Horrendous Disc was not finally released by Solid Rock until 10 April 1981, ten days before the band's follow-up ¡Alarma!, was released on Newpax Records
NewPax Records
NewPax Records was founded in 1975 by Gary S. Paxton as an outlet for his gregarious ideas in songwriting and engineering. This gave Paxton the edge he needed to create music that was far ahead of its time....
. In 2000 Norman sang "Hound of Heaven" on the Daniel Amos tribute album, When Worlds Collide: A Tribute to Daniel Amos
When Worlds Collide: A Tribute to Daniel Amos
When Worlds Collide: A Tribute to Daniel Amos is an indie tribute album by a variety of artists that pays musical tribute to the band Daniel Amos and its chief songwriter Terry Scott Taylor. It was released in July 2000 by Ferris Wheel....
.
In addition to his own recordings, Norman produced music on his Solid Rock label for Randy Stonehill
Randy Stonehill
Randall Evan "Randy" Stonehill is an American singer-songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the so-called "fathers of contemporary Christian music". His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but he has assayed other styles, with various albums focused on...
, Mark Heard
Mark Heard
John Mark Heard was a record producer, folk-rock singer, and songwriter originally from Macon, Georgia, USA....
, Tom Howard
Tom Howard (musician)
Tom Howard was an American pianist, musical arranger and orchestral conductor.In 1983, Howard helped the rock band Daniel Amos form the Alarma! Records label....
, Pantano/Salsbury, David Edwards
David Eugene Edwards
David Eugene Edwards is an American musician.He is the lead singer of Wovenhand, and also the main songwriter and the principal musician on the recordings of the band. He is the former lead singer of 16 Horsepower...
, and Salvation Air Force. Norman also produced artists who were signed to other labels, such as Malcolm and Alwyn
Malcolm and Alwyn
Malcolm and Alwyn were a popular British gospel beat music group in the 1970s. They played Beatles-influenced rock music with lyrics reflecting their conversion to Christianity. The duo was composed of Malcolm Wild and Alwyn Wall, who had been performing together in a band called The Zodiacs prior...
, Bobby Emmons and the Crosstones, and Lyrix. While Norman received production credits for two songs on Sheila Walsh's first album Future Eyes
Future Eyes
Future Eyes is the title of the first solo album by the Scottish singer Sheila Walsh. Recorded in Spring 1981 at Chapel Lane Studios near Hereford, engineered and produced by Paul Cobbold. It was released in the UK in 1981 on Chapel Lane Records. Sparrow Records released a slightly modified version...
, he remixed several songs that were already recorded. In 1977 Norman signed James Sundquist to Solid Rock, which produced some of the songs on Sundquist's Freedom Flight, an album that blended ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
and ballads, that was later released by Pat Boone's Lamb & Lion label. About 1978 Norman produced an album, Moving Pictures, for British poet and musician Steve Scott
Steve Scott (poet)
Steve Scott is a poet, spoken word artist, and musician. His written work was published by PRIZM Magazine, Radix Magazine, Monolith:UK publications and STRIDE UK publications...
that was never released.
Implosion of Solid Rock
In June 1980 the Solid Rock community imploded due to concerns about delays in releasing albums, concerns about royalties and publishing rights, and rumors that Norman was not only unfaithful to his wife, Pamela, but involved in an extra-marital relationship with Stonehill's wife, Sarah, while Stonehill was on tour. One of the areas of disagreement within Solid Rock was over their philosophy of ministry. The concerns of Stonehill, Taylor and Howard and other Solid Rock musicians led to an intervention on June 17, 1980 with Norman organized by Philip F. Mangano, the Solid Rock business manager. According to Rimmer, Fallen Angel claims that "it was at this memorable meeting that Larry, rather than bowing to the concerns of his fellow artists and the Solid Rock family, chose to strike out. With accusations against his co-workers, he began the process of winding up the Solid Rock operation and the dreams of the artistic community came crashing down."Norman and Mangano severed their business association, with Norman selling his interest in Street Level Artists Agency to Mangano, who subsequently resigned in October 1980 to start a new career in working to help the homeless, and becoming the Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness for seven years from March 2002,
American Christian rock historian John J. Thompson identifies several factors in the collapse of Solid Rock, including possibly an over reliance on Norman's celebrity; Norman's confrontational lyrics and music, which alienated both the Christian and mainstream music industries; Norman's over-commitment, including producing almost all of the Solid Rock albums, contributing songs, and singing backing vocals; and "by releasing high-quality music by the best bands, Norman doomed his label to almost certain failure. He was simply way ahead of the curve". American professor of religious history Randall Balmer
Randall Balmer
Randall Herbert Balmer is an American author, professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University, an editor for Christianity Today and an Episcopal priest. He earned the Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1985...
believed that the causes of the demise of Solid Rock were "Idealism, marital difficulties, and financial naivete — as well as changing musical tastes". Norman acknowledged in a 1984 interview: "I've never been really good in the business side of it. I haven't had a problem with creativity but I've never had the business side of it together." In a 1998 letter to Randy Stonehill, Norman indicated:
"I DIDN'T DO IT RIGHT: You know I never cared about money, so it's something I never worried about. Which was probably not helpful to running a record company and keeping track of everything to the artists' satisfaction. ... I couldn't run the label without competent assistants. I trusted Philip [Mangano] to keep track of royalties, gave him an open checkbook, and never looked over his shoulder. I thought he was my other half. And Philip just wasn't that man. He made a lot of money ... and I'm sorry about your royalties, but I ran the musical side and Philip ran the business side".
By October 1981 Norman was still represented by Word and the only artist signed to Solid Rock. In a 1982 interview with British Christian musician Norman Miller, then Executive Director of Word Europe, Norman discussed both the original purpose for Solid Rock and its future:
I have very few plans for Solid Rock at all. Originally, I started Solid Rock as a way of helping other young artists become established. My plan has always been to provide them with an intense education, support their efforts with concerts and record production, and then graduate them into the mainstream where they can stand on their own feet. I've been able to get Randy Stonehill to the point where Myrrh Records has signed him directly, while others, like Mark Heard, Tom Howard, and Daniel Amos have all signed with different American companies like New Pax. I've helped about fifteen people get contracts so far, and all the old Solid Rock crowd has graduated and I'm working with new and younger artists now.
Phydeaux Records
After the demise of Solid Rock, and his September 1980 divorce from his first wife, Pamela, after almost nine years of marriage, Norman moved to England, where he was based until 1985. After fulfilling his contractual obligations, and two more years of musical censorship and unreleased albums with WORD, in 1980 Norman and his father, who had just retired from teaching after a heart attack, started Phydeaux Records (as in 'Fido'). Norman joked that "if Christian music was going to the dogs, then he wanted to remain on the cutting edge." Phydeaux was started in order to compete with a market of bootlegBootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
s of his own music. Norman reported that some his vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
albums had sold for up to $400(USD) among collectors. According to Norman's liner notes,
"Phydeaux was not a counter-measure to, but a step-in-sync with, all the bootleg tapes of his material that had been circulating. In response to illegal bootlegs like Leyton's (sic) Live At The Mac, Larry decided if collectors wanted "bad-sounding" live recordings he would pick some rarities from his own archives. He chose Roll Away The Stone – And Listen To The Rock and The Israel Tapes. He had many better sounding live recordings but thought kids wanted something more rough for their bootleg collections. He also released several high quality studio compilations but was unwilling to release a "proper record" to the stores. He was standing as far away from the industry as possible and was also enjoying the distance. Basically, he was ignoring the American distributors who had for many years ignored him. Phydeaux helped distribute Street Level Records on behalf of Street Level Prod., Inc. to stores in Europe and America and also by direct mail. Through the mail he found that he could go directly to the people who well and truly understood music and his ministry.
In March 1981 Norman was featured on the cover of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) magazine, and was the subject of an extended interview by CCM magazine founder John A. Styll entitled "Trials, Tribulations and Happy Endings".
Chapel Lane
Norman signed a distribution deal with Chapel Lane, a British label founded by Norman Miller. By the time of his fourth appearance at the Royal Albert Hall on 6 February 1981, Larry was renting a small room for £7 a week next to both the Bunch of Carrots pub and the Chapel Lane Recording studio in Hampton BishopHampton Bishop
Hampton Bishop is a village and civil parish south-east of Hereford, in Herefordshire, England. The village itself is on a wedge between the River Wye and the River Lugg, and is also not far from where the River Frome meets the Lugg....
after the break up of his first marriage. As Chapel Lane was unable to pay royalties to Norman at one time, Norman was given free studio time, in which he was able to record thirty new songs in a fortnight, and eventually had recorded seventy songs.
While at the Chapel Road studio, in about 1981, Norman, backed by the Barratt Band
Barratt Band
The Barratt Band was formed in 1980 by Norman Barratt, formerly of Gravy Train and the Alwyn Wall Band, and in its initial stages consisted of Barratt , Dave Morris , Tim Hatwell and Russ Caldwell . The band recorded their first album Playing in the City in 1981 at Chapel Lane Studios just outside...
, recorded songs for Before and After, a tribute album of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
covers scheduled to be released in 1982 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Dylan's recording career. One of Norman's musical influences was fellow American singer songwriter Bob Dylan, whom he knew personally but not well. After Dylan's conversion to Christianity
Slow Train Coming
Slow Train Coming is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 19th studio album, released by Columbia Records in August 1979.It was the artist's first effort since becoming a born-again Christian, and all of the songs either express his strong personal faith, or stress the importance of Christian teachings...
in 1979, In 1984 Norman praised Slow Train Coming: "I thought Slow Train Coming was the finest gospel album ever written. I'll never write one as good as that, He'll never write one as good as that, – nobody will. It touched me in every area. You know men in conflict, like Dylan was when he was dying to self and becoming a Christian are very interesting. And because he wrote that album when he was a baby in his crib, but he had a lot of knowledge from the world, it was an album that he can never reproduce. He can never re-experience those songs. I first heard it over here in '79 and all weekend I was on a cloud. I thought This is the greatest album I've ever heard. We were all afraid that he would be overly affected by the evangelical simplicity of American mindlessness and write an album that wasn't really worth his gift for poetry. That album is like a prayer, it's a beautiful prayer, a social communion. It's a communion for all the disenchanted people that are angry." When asked to identify his favorite Christian singers, in 1985 Norman indicated: "For music, I would say that Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming
Slow Train Coming
Slow Train Coming is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 19th studio album, released by Columbia Records in August 1979.It was the artist's first effort since becoming a born-again Christian, and all of the songs either express his strong personal faith, or stress the importance of Christian teachings...
is the best Christian album ever recorded. I've certainly never written anything that says as much and I'd be most impressed if he ever surpasses it himself. I wish every Christian who likes modern Gospel music would buy a copy of "Slow Train". Then they'd have an idea of what Christian music is capable to communicating".
On 9 May 1981 Norman performed at the Dominion Theatre in London, "one of the defining moments in his career", which was recorded and released later that year as Larry Norman And His Friends On Tour. About the same time Barking At The Ants, containing four Norman songs, plus songs from British musicians Steve Scott
Steve Scott (poet)
Steve Scott is a poet, spoken word artist, and musician. His written work was published by PRIZM Magazine, Radix Magazine, Monolith:UK publications and STRIDE UK publications...
, Alwyn Wall
Malcolm and Alwyn
Malcolm and Alwyn were a popular British gospel beat music group in the 1970s. They played Beatles-influenced rock music with lyrics reflecting their conversion to Christianity. The duo was composed of Malcolm Wild and Alwyn Wall, who had been performing together in a band called The Zodiacs prior...
, Sheila Walsh, Mark Williamson, The Barratt Band
Barratt Band
The Barratt Band was formed in 1980 by Norman Barratt, formerly of Gravy Train and the Alwyn Wall Band, and in its initial stages consisted of Barratt , Dave Morris , Tim Hatwell and Russ Caldwell . The band recorded their first album Playing in the City in 1981 at Chapel Lane Studios just outside...
, and Bryn Haworth
Bryn Haworth
Bryn Haworth is a British Christian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and pioneer of Jesus music in mainstream rock. Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, UK, he has released some twenty-two albums and several singles since the 1970s as well as guesting as guitarist on many other albums by rock and folk...
was released. While in England in 1981, Norman wrote "A Woman of God" based on Proverbs 31.
The Calcutta Mission of Mercy was one of the causes to which Norman was committed, as result of his visit to India on his 1977 world tour. In 1983 Norman released two albums with all royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
for the benefit of the Calcutta Mission: The Story of the Tune, and Come As a Child, which was an acoustic live solo album.
Third World Tour (1984)
From 1984 Norman & the Young Lions, which comprised his brother, Charly Norman, Ken "Kenny Bam Boom" DeRouchie, Jon Linn, and Bill Romansky, commenced the Third World Tour, which continued until his return to the USA in 1985. In 1984 Norman released Quiet Nights, an album that included eight songs composed by Tom HowardTom Howard (musician)
Tom Howard was an American pianist, musical arranger and orchestral conductor.In 1983, Howard helped the rock band Daniel Amos form the Alarma! Records label....
(including 2 co-written by Randy Stonehill), 2 by Norman, and 2 instrumental étude
Étude
An étude , is an instrumental musical composition, most commonly of considerable difficulty, usually designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular technical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popularity of the piano...
s also by Norman, through Stress Records, which was a division of Phydeaux, Inc., and distributed through Gospel Media in the USA. and through David Smallbone's DTS Records in Australia. On 15 June 1984 Norman performed a concert at the Dallas Brooks Hall in Melbourne, Australia, which was recorded and released as his 1985 album Stop This Flight, with all new songs. In 1985 Norman was profiled in Manna Music Australia, an Australian Christian magazine. In 1984 Norman recorded songs for Behind the Curtain, the as yet unreleased first album in a projected Second Trilogy, which he described as "a personal triptych
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
. It deals with the body, soul, and spirit".
At the beginning of 1985 Norman announced that he and his second wife, Sarah Finch, who was now pregnant with their son, Michael, would return to the US to live, and that he and the Young Lions would undertake a 200 city tour of all fifty of the United States during 1985 and 1986. On 7 April 1985 Norman appeared on Rockspell, a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television special hosted by Cliff Richard, with whom he sang "The Rock that Doesn't Roll".
Thirty Years 1956–1986
About 1986 Norman conceived the idea of creating Thirty Years 1956–1986, a multi-volume collection of his music written between 1956 and 1986 to celebrate three decades writing Christian music, which would also feature videos, soundtracks, and t-shirts. To facilitate the distribution of these albums and the other thirty year commemorative merchandise, as well the albums of his other Solid Rock Imports artists, including Swedish band Edin-AdahlEdin-Ådahl
Edin-Ådahl were a Swedish CCM group from 1977 to 1994, composed of brothers Bertil & Lasse Edin and Simon & Frank Ådahl. The group are most well known for their 1990 hit "Som en vind" . It won the 1990 Melodifestivalen and went on to place sixteenth at the Eurovision Song Contest. The following...
, South African Victor Phume, and Swedish white metal
Christian metal
Christian metal, also known as white metal, is a form of heavy metal music usually defined by its message in a song's lyrics as well as the band's dedication to Christianity...
band Leviticus
Leviticus (band)
Leviticus was a Christian metal band from Sweden. The band formed in 1981 and was led by Bjorn Stigsson. They released four albums before breaking up in 1990.- Background :...
, Norman signed an agreement with Royal Music of Sweden to distribute in Europe, and with a newly established Christian distribution company for North American distribution.
Included in this Thirty Years collection was Norman's 1986 album Down Under (But Not Out), which was a retrospective of "thirty years of artistry", through both Phydeaux and Royal Music. A cassette version had earlier been given free to new subscribers to On Being, an Australian Christian magazine. This album, which included songs from his years with People! through to the mid-1980s, contained the autobiographical song, "Why Can't You Be Good?", which references the difficulties in his first marriage.
White Blossoms from Black Roots: The History and the Chronology: Volume One, was planned to be the first of five albums that would a chronological retrospective that would showcase the evolution of Norman as a songwriter, featuring a juxtaposition of styles from 1956 to 1986. However, soon after the CD pressings of White Blossoms from Black Roots had been sent to the distribution company, "the FBI arrested the head of the company for check forgery and seized all of the merchandise", resulting in loss of access to his artwork, and digital tape masters, as well as to the material prepared for other Solid Rock Imports artists. The collapse of the distribution company affected other Christian artists and smaller gospel labels. While White Blossoms was released in 1989, it would be re-released in 1997 as part of a 40th anniversary The Best of Larry Norman project, with some songs removed and others added.
Also in 1986, Royal Music released Rehearsal For Reality (also known as Rehearsal 4 Reality), a compilation album that included some previously released songs, but also six new songs, including three instrumentals, and "More than a Dream" written by British poet Steve Scott.
Benson Records (1989)
Later in 1986, Norman was signed to Benson RecordsBenson Records
Benson Records was founded by Bob Benson & John T. Benson, beginning as the John T. Benson Music Publishing Company in 1902. The record label started out as Heart Warming Records and would come to house labels such as Impact Records, Greentree Records, RiverSong, StarSong and Home Sweet Home...
, and made a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
in a music video with Christian artist Geoff Moore and the Distance
Geoff Moore
In 1988, Geoff Moore and the Distance released their first official album together, entitled A Place to Stand. They also recorded Foundations in 1989 for Sparrow Records. After a while, they jumped to Forefront Records and recorded Pure and Simple in 1990.They followed in 1992 with A Friend Like U...
for a cover version of his song "Why Should the Devil (Have all the Good Music?)". Norman "almost found belated American CM acceptance", and attended the conservative Dove Awards in 1987. In August 1988 Norman toured the USA with Swedish Christian metal
Christian metal
Christian metal, also known as white metal, is a form of heavy metal music usually defined by its message in a song's lyrics as well as the band's dedication to Christianity...
band Leviticus
Leviticus (band)
Leviticus was a Christian metal band from Sweden. The band formed in 1981 and was led by Bjorn Stigsson. They released four albums before breaking up in 1990.- Background :...
opening for him.
During 1986 Norman recorded Home At Last
Home At Last (Larry Norman album)
Home at Last is the title of an album of mostly new material by Larry Norman first issued in 1989. It was originally released as a two-LP album and included some live tracks. In 1998 it was released as one album together with the 1994 compilation Footprints in the Sand. The 2007 re-release of...
, which was not released until 1989, due to legal problems (which Norman described euphemistically as "transitional circumstances" in 1989). In 1989 Norman explained why Home at Last, the third album in his Second Trilogy, was released before the other two albums: "When it was suggested that my "comeback", after ten years absence, might be a difficult passage back into the public arena, it was decided that Stranded in Babylon might be too radical a message for the first release. Behind the Curtain was perhaps too chilling a look at the modern church, social conditions, and personal dilemmas". Home At Last, Norman's first album on a major US CCM label, was a double album that was promoted by its distributor, Benson Records
Benson Records
Benson Records was founded by Bob Benson & John T. Benson, beginning as the John T. Benson Music Publishing Company in 1902. The record label started out as Heart Warming Records and would come to house labels such as Impact Records, Greentree Records, RiverSong, StarSong and Home Sweet Home...
, as Norman's "comeback album", announcing "Larry Norman's Back". Rather, it was a personal and "autobiographical album" that contained "a loose collection of songs written between 1956 and 1989...[that] covered the years of ground between his childhood, career, divorce, and dysfunctional family life", including several previously unreleased songs that focused on his family and his sense of home, which was distributed through Benson Records
Benson Records
Benson Records was founded by Bob Benson & John T. Benson, beginning as the John T. Benson Music Publishing Company in 1902. The record label started out as Heart Warming Records and would come to house labels such as Impact Records, Greentree Records, RiverSong, StarSong and Home Sweet Home...
. Recorded in 1986, Home At Last featured Norman singing "Letters to the Church" with his then wife, Sarah Finch, which was a retitled version of "Letter to a Friend"; two other songs about his relationship to Randy Stonehill: "Queen of the Rodeo" and "He Really Loves You". In response both to televangelist Jimmy Swaggart
Jimmy Swaggart
Jimmy Lee Swaggart is a Pentecostal American pastor, teacher, musician, television host, and televangelist. He has preached to crowds around the world through his weekly telecast...
's June 1987 book Religious Rock 'N' Roll: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, which had criticized the music of Norman and other Christian rock artists, and Swaggart's February 1988 admission of adultery with a prostitute, Norman wrote the song "Selah", which had its last verse censored by Benson, which was: "My songs are spiritual fornication,/ that's what this television preacher said./ I guess he knows a lot about fornication
Fornication
Fornication typically refers to consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other. For many people, the term carries a moral or religious association, but the significance of sexual acts to which the term is applied varies between religions, societies and cultures. The...
,/ I heard he wrote some sermons in a prostitute's bed." The song "Somewhere Out There", which was written for his infant son Michael, reached #12 on Christian radio charts in 1989.
Despite extensive promotion by Benson, Home At Last generally received negative reviews, including that of Rupert Loydell who described it as "a disorganised, half-produced, and ultimately unsatisfying hotchpotch of songs". It was also criticized for its lack of political statements. Norman himself later dismissed this album in a Belgian press conference as "just a collection of tapes I had... some were even recorded before the plane accident." In 1989 Norman wrote that he was "extremely happy with Benson. I've never had so much support and commitment from a record company before".
Health issues (1988-1991)
Just before the beginnings of the fall of the Soviet UnionEstonian Sovereignty Declaration
The Estonian Sovereignty Declaration , fully: Declaration on the Sovereignty of the Estonian SSR was issued on November 16, 1988 during the Singing Revolution in Estonia. The declaration asserted Estonia's sovereignty and the supremacy of the Estonian laws over the laws of the Soviet Union...
, after a concert in Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, on 15 November 1988, Norman and his brother Charles, and the Finnish band Q-Stone were scheduled to play a show in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
. Norman relates that he and his brother became ill after eating a meal that had been prepared as a "special menu" for them. Shortly afterwards, a trio of nurses ("built like football players") appeared in his room and wanted him to go to the hospital. Norman became suspicious and refused. The concert was canceled by (Soviet) army personnel twenty minutes after the band began to play. After this incident, Norman and Charles were ill for a year. When they had recovered, Norman returned in April 1990 and sold out four concerts in the private military hall in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
and seven concerts at Moscow's 35,000 seat Olympic Stadium
Olympic Stadium (Moscow arena)
Olympic Stadium, known locally as the Olimpiyskiy or Olimpiski, is a large indoor arena, located in Moscow, Russia. It was built for the 1980 Summer Olympics and hosted the basketball and boxing events. A part of the Olimpiyskiy Sports Complex, it makes up one architectural ensemble with another...
. After these successful shows at the stadium, Norman decided to open a branch of Solid Rock Records in the city.
In February 1989 Norman collapsed during the JAM (Jesus and Music) '89 Festival at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl
Sidney Myer Music Bowl
The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain, close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinct...
in Melbourne, Australia. In 2008 the tour promoter Australian Kevin Cooper recalled that Norman "collapsed on the stage mid-song, and most of the audience thought that he was playing around. When I called out from the back that he needed help, the stage crew and other artists were quick to get to him with some drinking water and they were able to revive him. He was never well on that tour, and on that very hot day, I think he had heat exhaustion to contend with, on top of his other health issues". After Cooper took Norman to the hospital, and after he received the correct medicine, Norman recovered, but Cooper indicates that he was still concerned at whether the tour could continue.
In 1989, Norman said: "I love the church and my sisters and brothers, but I didn't always feel welcome. And the church never felt like home". In 1989 Norman was awarded the Christian Artists' Society Lifetime Achievement Award in a surprise ceremony at Estes Park, Colorado
Estes Park, Colorado
Estes Park is a town in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. A popular summer resort and the location of the headquarters for Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park lies along the Big Thompson River. Estes Park had a population of 5,858 at the 2010 census...
.
Spark Music
In 1989 Norman began a distribution arrangement for Europe with Spark Music, a small Dutch indie label," that was owned by GMI Partners, which was headed by Hans Groeneveld, that would last until 1998. In August 1989 Norman appeared with his brother and the Finnish band Q-Stone at the Flevo Totaal Festival in the Netherlands in front of an estimated 10,000 fans, which was recorded and released by Spark in 1990 as Live at Flevo with Q-Stone. According to Norman, within a month of its release "it was already the biggest-selling live Christian album ever released". In 1998 Norman performed at Flevo backed by Beam, a young Dutch band, to a mixed reception as Norman's label wanted a new set of songs to be released on another live album, Shouting In The Storm, which sold poorly in Europe, and led to GMI dropping Norman from the label. In 2007 Norman wrote that GMI had become difficult to work with, and that his release from the label was an answer to prayer: "Being lied to was more discouraging than never receiving any royalties and never having received accurate sales statements and I wished I were out of the contract".Faith healing
At the close of his February 1991 British tour, in the SurreySurrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
home of Ze and Dave Markee, who had been the bass player in Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
's band, Norman received prayer for his long-term health problems from Pastor John Barr (died January 2001), the Senior Pastor of the Elim Way Fellowship
Elim Pentecostal Church
The Elim Pentecostal Church is a UK-based Pentecostal Christian denomination.-History:George Jeffreys , a Welshman, founded the Elim Pentecostal Church in Monaghan, Ireland in 1915. Jeffreys was an evangelist with a Welsh Congregational church background. He was converted at age 15 during the...
in Canning Town
Canning Town
Canning Town is an area of east London, England. It is part of the London Borough of Newham and is situated in the area of the former London docks on the north side of the River Thames. It is the location of Rathbone Market...
, London, and the Director of Freedom Road Ministries. Norman maintained that through this prayer God repaired the damage to his brain and he was able to function again. In 1993 Norman stated: "A man prayed for me. I heard a lot of noises in my head, a lot of heat and from that day the man prayed for me my brain has become so clear, so I've been excited, wondering how quickly can I make a new record now I have my old brain back, it's a good brain, not the damaged brain that I had. That's also a comparison that now my brain is healed so I can make music like I used to make." William Ayers described Norman's healing in 1991: "He felt like twelve years of his life had been spent at the bottom of a black hole. He tried hard to climb out of it, watching it engulf and destroy his private life and diminish his personal ministry. Now, after meeting John Barr, he feels like he is back from the dead. He doesn't need medicine. He's been healed."
Stranded in Babylon (1991)
The creative rush that followed Norman's healing was expressed on Stranded in BabylonStranded in Babylon
Stranded in Babylon is the title of an album recorded by Larry Norman in Norway in 1991. It was re-released in 1993 as Stranded in Babylon: The American Re-Mix. The album comprises 13 new songs written by Larry and represents some of his best work since the early days of his career...
which saw him collaborate with his younger brother Charles "Charly" Norman. After four months in the recording studio in Sweden, and overdubbing
Overdubbing
Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....
in Norway by the Albino Brothers (Norman and his brother, Charly), in 1991 Norman released through Spark Music the European version of Stranded in Babylon, an album which was recorded in Sweden in 1988. Hailed by both critics and fans as one of his best albums, it was praised as "a superb new album which sees a return to the form he showed to full effect on those classics like 'Only Visiting This Planet' and 'So Long Ago The Garden' back in the mid seventies" with 13 new "songs [that] are cleverly arranged and produced, with plenty of pertinent lyrical imagery and the sly wit of yore amongst the electric guitar solos and breezy (sampled?) saxophones" by Norman and his brother, Charly, who share all of the musical duties. Stranded in Babylon was named Album of the Year by Christian rock journals. Stranded in Babylon was conceived as the second album in a projected Second Trilogy that was planned to include (in order) a still unreleased Behind the Curtain, and the previously released Home at Last. Included on this album is "God Part III", which draws on John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
's "God
God (John Lennon song)
"God" is a song from John Lennon's first post-Beatles solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The album was released on 11 December 1970 in the United States and the United Kingdom....
" and the U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
riposte
Riposte
In fencing, the riposte is an offensive action with the intent of hitting one's opponent, made by the fencer who has just parried an attack....
("God II"); "Come Away", written about his 1973 meeting on the streets of Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush
-Commerce:Commercial activity in Shepherd's Bush is now focused on the Westfield shopping centre next to Shepherd's Bush Central line station and on the many small shops which run along the northern side of the Green....
with prostitute Holly Valentine, who later became a Christian; and the autobiographical "Under The Eye", "which tells how Larry has, despite the last decade, always been watched and cared for". "Under the Eye" references "all the trouble and strife/And the things which went wrong and lasted so long", and
"The mystery of love, the push and the shove/ Of friendship betrayed, of plans I mislaid,/ The oceans I crossed, the things that I lost/ And the world in my hand as dreams turned to sand", including his 1978 plane accident and his subsequent brain damage: "
I crashed in a plane, I really damaged my brain/ And then I layed in my bed with all this music in my head./ The years have rolled by, I've watched the past die/ But feelings remained like mercy much strained./ Like a seed left unsown, like a leaf that was blown/Like a man who was blind, there was a lock on my mind", but also his 1991 healing: "Then a man came to me and he held out the key/ And the lock hinge was blown, I had never been alone". Norman's February 1992 heart attack delayed the release of the US version of this album until 1994.
After the release of Stranded in Babylon in Europe in 1991, Norman and his band toured Europe on the "Babylon Tour", performing concerts in Sweden, Finland, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Holland, Norway, Belgium, USSR, and Poland, before returning to the USA.
Later years
About 1992 Norman's father retired and sold Phydeaux to Bill Ayers, a family friend of Joe Norman, who was previously employed to facilitate the distribution of both Phydeaux and Street Level Records. At that time Street Level Records came under the umbrella of Christian Community Placement Centre (CCPC), which undertakes foster care programs in Salem, OregonSalem, Oregon
Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...
. In 1991 Norman recorded a live concert he gave to raise funds for CCPC, which was released in 1994 as Children of Sorrow, which featured cover art drawn by his son, Michael Norman.
Heart attack (1992)
Norman's creative resurgence was cut short by a nine hour heart attack on 28 February 1992 in Los Angeles, which was initially misdiagnosed as esophagitisEsophagitis
Esophagitis is inflammation of the esophagus. It may be acute or chronic. The acute esophagitis can be catarrhal or phlegmonous, whereas the chronic esophagitis may be hypertrophic or atrophic.-Infectious:...
by the staff at Cedars Sinai Hospital, and resulted in a near fatality and permanent heart damage. As his medical insurance had been canceled in 1988, Norman sold Solid Rock to help pay for his medical bills. Norman did not perform again until June 1992, when, still needing to raise funds for his medical expenses, Norman performed an acoustic "unplugged
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
" concert in Texas (where he had been born) what he then believed might be his last ever concert. This concert was recorded and released in 1994 as Totally Unplugged Two days after the concert, Norman collapsed on the sidewalk, and was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital
Parkland Memorial Hospital
Parkland Memorial Hospital is a hospital located at 5201 Harry Hines Boulevard, just west of Oak Lawn in Dallas, Texas . It is the main hospital of the Dallas County Hospital District and serves as Dallas County's public hospital.- History :The original hospital opened in 1894 in a wooden...
, where he was hospitalized for almost two weeks. According to the 1995 Phydeaux Newsletter: "It was discovered that some of the medicine prescribed for him during the first hospitalization, like Prilosec, was actually weakening the beat of his heart. He had suffered heart failure. After it was felt that he had recovered sufficiently, he was released back into the care of a Los Angeles physician. He was advised to do no more concerts unless the change in medicines improved his ability to breathe and helped him regain the strength to walk without feeling faint.
After these coronary events, Norman struggled to perform live. At the April 1993 Ichthus Music Festival
Ichthus Music Festival
The Ichthus Music Festival is an annual Christian music festival in Wilmore, Kentucky. Begun in 1970, it is the oldest Christian music festival in the nation. The festival began as the brainchild of Dr. Bob Lyon, and a group of seminary students at Asbury Theological Seminary, in response to...
in Wilmore, Kentucky
Wilmore, Kentucky
Wilmore is a city in Jessamine County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 6,134 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Lexington–Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, Norman announced that he would be soon be unable to perform future concerts due to his declining health. On 19 June 1993, after a concert in Drachten
Drachten
Drachten is a Dutch town, located in the municipality of Smallingerland in the province of Friesland.-Beginnings:Drachten began as a small community on the east side of the Drait River. There, early settlers started draining the land to use it for agriculture...
, Holland, Norman was hospitalized for ten days. costing him his entire tour fees of $10,000. Norman indicated at this time: "I've had three different types of heart attacks. I've had the first kind, which was myocardial infection
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
(sic) where my heart stopped and I lost forty per cent of the tissue, it's dead. The next time I had problems with congestive heart failure
Congestive heart failure
Heart failure often called congestive heart failure is generally defined as the inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of the body. Heart failure can cause a number of symptoms including shortness of breath, leg swelling, and exercise intolerance. The condition...
, and this time I had ventricular arrhythmia tachycardia
Tachycardia
Tachycardia comes from the Greek words tachys and kardia . Tachycardia typically refers to a heart rate that exceeds the normal range for a resting heart rate...
which is where the heart beats very fast. It gets confused and pushes the blood away from the heart so you can't breathe very easily, you're not getting enough oxygen, and you're not getting enough blood." On 16 July 1993 Norman performed his first concert since his most recent hospitalization in the Netherlands, which again Norman believed would be his last with a band, in an outdoor area in the forests of Sweden with a group of local musicians that Norman recruited and named the Judaic Vikings. Among the songs performed, was a recently composed "Goodbye Farewell', which addressed his health concerns but also expressed his faith in God: "The light grows dim but in this hour/ I have no tears to cry./ My heart is full, my joy complete. /Goodbye, my friends, goodbye./ I feel no loss of hope as I've grown older./ Only this world's weight upon my shoulder./ My heart beats to a slower song,/ So softly in my veins./ The night is warm, but in my sleep/ I dream of heaven's reign". In 1994 this concert would be released as the album Omega Europa, and sold as "Larry's farewell rock and roll band concert".
of the January 1994 Northridge earthquake, which damaged his Los Angeles apartment, Norman moved into a small room in his parents' house in Salem, Oregon
Salem, Oregon
Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...
so that he could help take care of his father who had developed Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, and who would eventually require admission to an adult care facility. Soon after Norman moved to Oregon, Norman campaigned to raise votes for the Stop Child Pornography issue on the Oregon State Ballot, and "celebrated his seventh year of ministry to the runaways and abused kids who are helped through the proctor homes and foster care of the CCPC outreach".
Despite his physical limitations, during 1994 Norman did "a handful of concerts to try and raise money for his heart operation", According the 1995 Phydeaux Newsletter, Norman "had to fly in two or three days early, to rest – then do the concert, and stay an extra two or three days to rest. Even with rest, these trips were very hard on him but he felt he had no choice but to try and raise money for his operation." In addition to his Children of Sorrow album, on 12 June 1994 Norman released A Moment in Time, a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
which contained rough mixes of ten new songs (including "Long Hard Road" co-written with Dizzy Reed
Dizzy Reed
Dizzy Reed is a contemporary rock musician, and occasional actor. He is best known for his tenure as the keyboardist & pianist for the rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he has played, toured and recorded since 1990...
) written while he was in hospital and recorded in the studio for the as yet unreleased Pushing Back the Darkness album, that also raised funds for CCPC to fight child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
.
In 1994, a limited edition lithograph print of a "Simpson-ified" Larry Norman performing "Why Should the Devil Have all the Good Music?" was drawn and signed by Bill Morrison, the illustrator of the Simpsons comic books, to raise funds for Norman's medical fund. In addition to the Simpsons Comics release, a Simpsons watch was also produced featuring the yellow, three-fingered likeness of Larry Norman.
In the aftermath of Cornerstone magazine's 1992 exposure of popular Christian comedian Mike Warnke
Mike Warnke
Michael Alfred "Mike" Warnke is a Christian evangelist and comedian. With the success of his books and recordings, Warnke became one of evangelical Christianity's best-known experts on the subject of Satanism before his claims of having been a Satanist high priest were discredited in 1991 by the...
, who had claimed falsely to be an ex-Satanic priest, in 1994 "a certain journalist speculated that Larry probably hadn't been in an airplane accident in 1978, and inferred that he also probably hadn't really suffered a serious heart attack. There was a lot of confusion. This started a series of rumors. Then the rumors began to snowball into different variations and people were confused about sending a donation for his heart operation." In a 1995 interview in Visions of Gray magazine, Norman addressed these rumors, with specific details about both his 1978 accident and his heart problems. In answer to the allegations, Norman responded:
"unless certain people in the journalistic community believe I'm gifted enough to fake my E.K.G. ... If I can display my medical files and x-rays and prove my airplane accident and heart attack, then the millionaires in the Christian media, who seemed to have implied that I'm a liar, can buy me the defibrillator which I need to help me stay alive. I've been in the hospital many times in the last three years. So if by heart attack you mean one of the more recent problems you can examine my E.K.G. on the back of the Totally Unplugged album".
By early 1995, Norman had been hospitalized thirteen times. Norman had a defibrillator implant inserted in his chest, which enabled him to perform occasional small concerts. However, Norman was accused of occasionally exaggerating the truth to get attention. During an interview, Christian reporter Bob Gersztyn expressed his skepticism to Norman about him having a defibrillator: "I started to doubt that he really had a defibrillator. But when I voiced my concern, he opened his shirt in the middle of the restaurant we were sitting in, to reveal the implant in his chest. I felt like Thomas
Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...
, in the 20th chapter of John".
In August 1995 ForeFront Records
ForeFront Records
ForeFront Records is a Christian Music record label founded in 1987 by Dan R. Brock, Eddie DeGarmo, Dana Key, and Ron W. Griffin. It was purchased by EMI in 1996 from current owners Dan R. Brock and Eddie DeGarmo and is now part of the EMI Christian Music Group.In 1998, ForeFront released a 2-CD...
released One Way: Songs of Larry Norman, a tribute album that included covers of 14 Norman's classic songs by ForeFront artists, including dc Talk
Dc Talk
DC Talk , is a Grammy-winning Christian rock music trio. The group was formed in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1987 by Toby McKeehan, Michael Tait, and Kevin Max Smith. They have released five major studio albums together: DC Talk , Nu Thang , Free at Last , Jesus Freak , and Supernatural...
; Audio Adrenaline
Audio Adrenaline
Audio Adrenaline was a Christian rock band that formed in the late 1980s at Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, Kentucky. During the band's 17-year existence, they were awarded two Grammy awards, multiple Dove Awards and they released 17 number one singles. They were regular performers at the...
, Grammatrain
Grammatrain
Grammatrain is a grunge rock band from Seattle, Washington who were active in the Christian rock industry in the 1990s. After disbanding in 1998, the group reunited as a secular act in 2009 and released their third full length album entitled "Imperium" the following year.-History:Singer/guitarist...
; and Rebecca St. James
Rebecca St. James
Rebecca St. James , is a Christian pop rock singer, songwriter, musician, author, and actor. She began performing in Australia in the late 1980s and released her first full-length studio album in 1991. In 1993 she was signed to the record label ForeFront Records and released her major label debut a...
, whose father , David Smallbone, booked and promoted Norman's first concerts and distributed Norman's early records in Australia, including his eponymous 1977 album, (which is also known as Starstorm). In April 1998 Norman indicated he was a member of Andrae Crouch
Andrae Crouch
Andraé Crouch is a seven-time Grammy Award-winning American gospel singer, songwriter, arranger, recording artist, record producer, and pastor.-Early years:Born Andraé Edward Crouch in San Francisco, California....
's church, the Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ
Church of God in Christ
The Church of God in Christ is a Pentecostal Holiness Christian denomination with a predominantly African-American membership. With nearly five million members in the United States and 12,000 congregations, it is the largest Pentecostal church and the fifth largest Christian church in the U.S....
then located in Pacoima, California, although he did not attend regularly since he moved to Salem, Oregon
Salem, Oregon
Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood...
.
Tourniquet (2001)
The creative collaboration with his brother bore more fruit on his 2001 album Tourniquet, an album of all new songs, which was produced by the Albino Brothers (Larry and Charles Norman).Of the nine songs "Turn" was written by Charly Norman, with two others being co-written by him with Larry, and Charly's band, then called Softcore, providing the musical backing. Intended to be a pre-release to Behind the Curtain, the as yet unreleased first album in Norman's Second Trilogy, first mentioned in 1983, Tourniquet was described by Dougie Adam as "perhaps Larry's deepest, most articulate album ever ... [and] even more hard hitting than 'Only Visiting This Planet
Only Visiting This Planet
Only Visiting This Planet is the title of an album recorded by Larry Norman in 1972. The album was selected as the second album in 's The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music.-History:...
' or 'Stranded in Babylon
Stranded in Babylon
Stranded in Babylon is the title of an album recorded by Larry Norman in Norway in 1991. It was re-released in 1993 as Stranded in Babylon: The American Re-Mix. The album comprises 13 new songs written by Larry and represents some of his best work since the early days of his career...
'". In his latter years whenever Norman made rare live performances, it would often be accompanied by his brother's band, Softcore (later renamed Guards of Metropolis).
In November 2001 Norman underwent a quadruple-bypass heart surgery. On 27 November 2001 Norman was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame
Gospel Music Hall of Fame
The Gospel Music Hall of Fame, created in 1971 by the Gospel Music Association, is a Hall of Fame dedicated exclusively to recognizing meaningful contributions by individuals and groups in all forms of gospel music.-Inductees:...
in a special ceremony held at the Ryman Auditorium
Ryman Auditorium
The Ryman Auditorium is a 2,362-seat live performance venue, located at 115 5th Avenue North, in Nashville, Tennessee and is best known as the historic home of the Grand Ole Opry....
in Nashville, along with Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Keith Green
Keith Green
Keith Gordon Green was an American gospel singer, songwriter, musician, and Contemporary Christian Music artist originally from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. Beyond his music, Green is best known for his strong devotion to Christian evangelism and challenging others to the same...
, Kurt Kaiser
Kurt Kaiser
Kurt Kaiser, is an award winning songwriter of Contemporary Christian music and member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. He has produced and arranged albums for the likes of: Kathleen Battle, Ernie Ford, Larnelle Harris, Burl Ives, Ken Medema, Christopher Parkening, George Beverly Shea, Joni...
, Doris Akers
Doris Akers
Doris Mae Akers was an American Gospel music composer, arranger and singer. Known for her work with the Sky Pilot Choir, she was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2001.-Early life:...
, The Rambos
The Rambos
The Rambos were an American Southern Gospel music group that was formed in the 1960s. They were one of the most successful Gospel trios of the 20th century. The group consisted of Buck and Dottie Rambo at first along with several various people singing with them and they were joined by their...
, Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters
Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters
Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters was a Southern gospel music and comedy trio that was inducted into the Gospel Music Association's Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2001...
, and Albertina Walker
Albertina Walker
-Early years:Walker was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ruben and Camille Coleman Walker. Her mother was born in Houston County, Georgia, and her father in Bibb County, Georgia. They moved to Chicago between 1917-1920 where they lived out their lives. Albertina had four siblings born in Bibb County...
. As Norman was still in hospital and unable to attend the ceremony, his son Michael accepted the honor on his behalf. The Gospel Music Association
Gospel Music Association
The Gospel Music Association was founded in 1964 for the purpose of supporting and promoting the development of all forms of Gospel music. There are currently about 4,000 members worldwide...
said:
Larry Norman's music – an unlikely mix of love songs, the Gospel message, and wry commentary on American culture – exemplified the goals, ideals, and standards of everything the original architects of contemporary Christian music intended for it to be.
The Essential Series (2002–2004)
Norman's illness resulted in an accelerated number of releases (or re-releases) of his recordings to raise funds for his medical bills. In order to meet Norman's hospital bills, in November 2002 Solid Rock Records began releasing the Essential Series on CD-RCD-R
A CD-R is a variation of the Compact Disc invented by Philips and Sony. CD-R is a Write Once Read Many optical medium, though the whole disk does not have to be entirely written in the same session....
, a set of seven Norman albums, with 142 songs (including 16 previously unreleased songs), which comprised: Instigator, which included rough mix versions of two previously unreleased songs, "Butterfly" and "Kulderachna", both removed from 1973's So Long Ago the Garden; Agitator, which included three unreleased bonus tracks, "Sweet Silver Angels", "God, Part 2", and "People In My Past"; Liberator, which included songs that were aimed at "liberating Christians who felt trapped inside the church and also providing a cultural doorway to allow those who felt dismissed and isolated by Christianity to find their way into fellowship with Christ regardless of the church's response toward them"; Collaborator, which featured songs representing "the combined efforts of Charles and Larry [Norman] from lyrics and melodies to arrangements and production", including three unreleased songs: "Perfect World", "Don't Wanna Be Like You", and "Jesus Is God", recorded about 2000; Emancipator, included two unreleased songs of Norman singing with Randy Stonehill: a Christian version of the folk song "He Was a Friend of Mine
He Was a Friend of Mine
"He Was a Friend of Mine" is a traditional folk song in which the singer laments the death of a friend. The earliest known version of the song is titled "Shorty George"...
", which had been popularized by The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, which was re-titled "He is a Friend of Mine", and "I Love You", the song Stonehill and Norman co-wrote in 1971 for Stonehill's Born Twice album; Infiltrator, which sees love as "the most powerful infiltrator in the world", is a collection of Norman's love songs, and includes two new releases: a cover of David Noble's "Waves of Grace", and "Stranger, Won't You Change"; and Survivor, included the full 8-minute version of "Dark Passage", an unreleased third verse of "Baby Out of Wedlock", and "One Star Remains", which is Judee Sill's "My Man On Love" from her 1971 eponymous debut album
Judee Sill (album)
Judee Sill is the eponymous debut album by the American singer-songwriter and musician Judee Sill. Released on September 15, 1971, it was the first album on David Geffen's Asylum label. Backing musicians include John Beck and Jim Pons from The Leaves...
.
Church of the Nazarene
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged from the 19th century Holiness movement in North America with its members colloquially referred to as Nazarenes. It is the largest Wesleyan-holiness denomination in the world. At the end of 2010, the Church of the...
in Beaverton, Oregon
Beaverton, Oregon
Beaverton is a city in Washington County, Oregon, United States, seven miles west of Portland in the Tualatin River Valley.As of the 2010 census, the population is 90,267. This makes it the second-largest city in the county and Oregon's sixth-largest city...
organized a concert to celebrate Norman's 45 years in music, and to raise funds for Norman's medical bills. At the concert, his first in two years, "a very thin and frail" Norman performed "stripped down versions" of his classic songs in a solo set, followed by a set backed by Charles Norman, Jason Carter, Kristin Blix and Karson Swedberg. Additionally, his sister, Nancy Jo Norman-Overmeyer, sang with him on two songs, and his son, Michael Norman, also sang along. The concert was recorded and released as The Final Concert in 2004, but re-released later in 2004 as 70 Miles From Lebanon, as well as with a DVD of the same name. In January 2004 Norman had a new defibrillator and pacemaker installed. The 2004 Sessions album, which had six previously unreleased Norman songs (including covers of an old hymn, a traditional folk song, and songs by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, and Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
) that were backed by Mark Lemhouse
Mark Lemhouse
-Music career:Getting his professional start in Memphis, Tennessee playing in Blues, Rockabilly, and American Roots bands, he released two solo albums on the Yellow Dog Records label...
and Charles Norman's Softcore, as well as rare songs by Jesus Music
Jesus music
Jesus music, known as gospel beat music in the United Kingdom, is a style of Christian music which originated on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This musical genre developed in parallel to the Jesus movement...
veterans Dave Mattson, Randy Stonehill
Randy Stonehill
Randall Evan "Randy" Stonehill is an American singer-songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the so-called "fathers of contemporary Christian music". His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but he has assayed other styles, with various albums focused on...
, Tom Howard
Tom Howard
Tom Howard is an American professional wrestler, and actor. He is best known for his Green Beret role in K-1 and Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX in Japan...
, Keith Green
Keith Green
Keith Gordon Green was an American gospel singer, songwriter, musician, and Contemporary Christian Music artist originally from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. Beyond his music, Green is best known for his strong devotion to Christian evangelism and challenging others to the same...
, Steve 'N' Stonebrooke, and Daniel Amos
Daniel Amos
Daniel Amos is a rock band formed in 1974 by Terry Scott Taylor on guitars and vocals, Marty Dieckmeyer on bass guitar, Steve Baxter on guitars and Jerry Chamberlain on lead guitars. Current members include bassist Tim Chandler, guitarist Greg Flesch and drummer Ed McTaggart...
, was sent to those who contributed $100 or more to his medical fund.
By 2006 Norman was almost blind in his right eye due to dozens of retinal hemorrhages, causing him to crash his car on 31 October 2006.
Norman performed his last official solo concert on 4 August 2007 in New York City, which was recorded and released as the FINALé DVD.
Among the last songs Larry Norman recorded were two (Back To The Dust and Walking Backwards) with the German Christian singer/songwriter Sarah Brendel
Sarah Brendel
Sarah Brendel is a Folk/Pop singer from Dresden, Germany. She has achieved success in Germany and internationally, releasing an album with Franklin, Tennessee-based Inpop Records in 2005. Her song "Be With You" spent two weeks on the German singles chart in 2002 and peaked at 86...
for her record "Early Morning hours". Brendel has long adored Larry Norman for his unique and unblemished style. She was able to meet him in the summer of 2007 in Berlin and talked with him about a record session together. At the end of July 2007 Larry recorded a song called "Ya Gotta Be Saved" with The Crosstones, which was released in January 2010.
Death
After an extended illness, Norman died at 2:45 AM on February 24, 2008, aged 60, at his home in Salem, Oregon with family and friends present. The previous day he had posted a message regarding his illness on his website: "I feel like a prize in a box of Cracker JackCracker Jack
Cracker Jack is a U.S. brand of snack consisting of strong molasses flavored candy-coated popcorn and peanuts, well known for being packaged with a prize of nominal value inside. Some food historians consider it the first junk food...
s with God's hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home. I won't be here much longer. I can't do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. [...] I want to say I love you. I'd like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. [...] Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again". After a public memorial service held March 1, 2008, at The Church on the Hill, Turner, Oregon
Turner, Oregon
Turner is a city in Marion County, Oregon, United States. The population was 1,199 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, Norman was buried in Salem's City View Cemetery
City View Cemetery
City View Cemetery is a privately owned cemetery in Salem, Oregon, United States that was established in 1893. Its Mount Crest Abbey Mausoleum, opened in 1914, contains the remains of seven Governors of Oregon.-History:...
, and his tombstone reads: "Larry Norman Evangelist Without Portfolio 1947–2008 Bloodstained Israelite
Israelite
According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...
".
Awards and honors
In 1989 Norman was awarded the Christian Artists' Society Lifetime Achievement Award. On 27 November 2001 Norman was inducted into the Gospel Music AssociationGospel Music Association
The Gospel Music Association was founded in 1964 for the purpose of supporting and promoting the development of all forms of Gospel music. There are currently about 4,000 members worldwide...
's Hall of Fame
Gospel Music Hall of Fame
The Gospel Music Hall of Fame, created in 1971 by the Gospel Music Association, is a Hall of Fame dedicated exclusively to recognizing meaningful contributions by individuals and groups in all forms of gospel music.-Inductees:...
in a ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium
Ryman Auditorium
The Ryman Auditorium is a 2,362-seat live performance venue, located at 115 5th Avenue North, in Nashville, Tennessee and is best known as the historic home of the Grand Ole Opry....
, and was voted into the CCM Hall of Fame in January 2004 by the readers of CCM magazine. In 2007 Norman was inducted into the San Jose Rocks Hall of Fame, both as a member of People!, and as a solo artist. At that time Norman reunited for a concert with People! In 2009 Norman was among those honored in a tribute segment of the Grammy Awards.
Pamela Fay Ahlquist
In the summer of 1971 Norman met Pamela Fay Ahlquist. She had been a finalist in the 1971 Miss MinnesotaMiss Minnesota
The Miss Minnesota competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Minnesota in the Miss America pageant. Minnesota has won the Miss America crown on three occasions. The last, was Gretchen Carlson, in 1989.- Winners :...
Universe Pageant, then a stewardess for Northwest Orient Airlines
Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines, Inc. was a major United States airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines by a merger approved on October 29, 2008, making Delta the largest airline in the world...
. Pamela indicated in September 1972 that she had been involved in "the fast life of the jet set
Jet set
"Jet set" is a journalistic term that was used to describe an international social group of wealthy people, organizing and participating all around the world in social activities that are unreachable to ordinary people...
" which included illegal drug use.
After "a brief whirlwind courtship", Norman and Pamela were married on 28 December 1971 in Minnesota. During their honeymoon, Norman and Pamela stayed in a barn at the Love Inn (now called Covenant Love Community), a ministry started in 1967 by Scott Ross
Scott Ross (television personality)
Scott Ross is a former American radio disk jockey, now better known as an interviewer for The 700 Club on the Christian Broadcasting Network....
and his wife Nedra
Nedra Talley
Nedra Talley, now Nedra Talley Ross , was a member of the girl group The Ronettes, along with her cousins Ronnie Spector and Estelle Bennett. She is of African-American, Native American and Puerto Rican descents...
, formerly of the Ronettes, in Freeville, New York
Freeville, New York
Freeville is a village in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 505 at the 2000 census.The Village of Freeville is in the Town of Dryden and is east of Ithaca.-History:Dryden was in the former Central New York Military Tract....
. Other stops on their honeymoon included L'Abri
L'Abri
L'Abri is an evangelical Christian organization founded by Francis Schaeffer and his wife Edith in Huémoz-sur-Ollon, Switzerland on June 5, 1955. They opened their alpine home as a ministry to curious travellers and as a forum to discuss philosophical and religious beliefs.- The development of...
, a Christian community started by Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer
Francis Schaeffer
Francis August Schaeffer was an American Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He is most famous for his writings and his establishment of the L'Abri community in Switzerland...
, who had a profound influence on Norman.
After their wedding, Pamela worked as both a model and actress in commercials. In 1978, Norman and Pamela separated, and on 2 September 1980 they were divorced. Norman discussed his first marriage in several interviews: Buzz Magazine (1981); Australian Christian magazine On Being in 1985; and in a June 1989 article. Norman attributed his marital problems to Pamela's frequent infidelity, her pre-existing drug addiction, and deception. According to Norman, they were divorced because "My wife had decided she wanted to marry somebody else." In Fallen Angel Pamela shifts blame for their divorce to Larry, and confirms that it was Larry who served divorce papers on her. In November 1981 Pamela married musician Joey Newman. Pamela subsequently appeared as an actress in several television programs. She lives in Carmel, California with her husband, Joey, and runs a modeling agency.
Sarah Mae Finch
Norman married Sarah Mae Finch on 27 April 1982 in Santa Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
. Sarah was the sister-in-law of Stephen J. Cannell
Stephen J. Cannell
Stephen Joseph Cannell was an American television producer, writer, novelist and occasional actor, and the founder of Stephen J. Cannell Productions.-Early life:...
and had previously been married to Randy Stonehill
Randy Stonehill
Randall Evan "Randy" Stonehill is an American singer-songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the so-called "fathers of contemporary Christian music". His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but he has assayed other styles, with various albums focused on...
from 1975–1980. They first met at the Los Angeles First Congregational Church's Cedar Lake Camp at Big Bear, California in 1969, and later dated when she was still a high school student at the Marlborough School
Marlborough School (Los Angeles)
Marlborough School is a private, all-girls, college-preparatory secondary school for grades 7th through 12th located at 250 South Rossmore Avenue in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. Marlborough was founded in 1889 by Mary Caswell and is the oldest independent...
in Los Angeles.
Norman described his marriage to Sarah in an interview in On Being magazine in 1985:"In April I married a wonderful Christian woman...She was raised in a wealthy family and privately educated. She's a really creative musician from a family of artists...When she became a Christian she turned her back on that world and began working with troubled children at a Montessori school. She was married to a man who liked his liquor and other women more than her. He squandered her life's savings and then left her for another woman. He got remarried two months after his divorce. She's been mending a broken heart for years. She refused to date anyone because she wasn't interested in ever getting married again, and I felt the same way. I just couldn't imagine starting a relationship with anyone ever again."
In August 1985 Norman and his wife Sarah had their only child, Michael David Fariah Finch Norman, who was born ten weeks prematurely in Los Angeles, After Michael's birth Sarah was diagnosed with post-partum depression, which inspired Norman's song "Baby's Got the Blues", which was released on Stranded in Babylon in 1991.
By 1995 their marriage ended in divorce. Sarah subsequently re-married.
Norman was engaged briefly to Heidi Bartruff in the 1990s.
Randy Stonehill
The relationship between pioneer Christian rock musicians Larry Norman and Randy StonehillRandy Stonehill
Randall Evan "Randy" Stonehill is an American singer-songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the so-called "fathers of contemporary Christian music". His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but he has assayed other styles, with various albums focused on...
, sometimes described as the Lennon/McCartney
Lennon/McCartney
The Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership is one of the best-known and most successful musical collaborations in history...
of Christian rock, was a controversial one during its more than forty years from its inception in 1967 until Norman's death in February 2008. For over a decade Randy Stonehill
Randy Stonehill
Randall Evan "Randy" Stonehill is an American singer-songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the so-called "fathers of contemporary Christian music". His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but he has assayed other styles, with various albums focused on...
was Norman's protégé, colleague, collaborator, and one of his best friends, but disagreements about finances and relationships resulted in a twenty-year estrangement, and a brief reconciliation.
Postmortem developments
On 24 April 2008 Norman was honored at the 39th GMA Dove Award ceremony in Nashville, TennesseeNashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, which was broadcast live on the Gospel Music Channel
Gospel Music Channel
gmc is an American satellite and cable television channel, known from its 2004 launch until February 1, 2010 as Gospel Music Channel. It is also available in high-definition as a separate channel called gmcHD ....
. On 8 February 2009 Norman was among those honored in a tribute segment of the 51st Grammy Awards
51st Grammy Awards
The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA on February 8, 2009. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the biggest winners of the night, jointly winning five awards including Album of the Year and Record of the Year...
broadcast on the CBS television network
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
.
Anthology
While the project was conceived and initiated before Norman's death, on 27 May 2008 the Arena Rock Recording company released Larry Norman – Rebel Poet, Jukebox Balladeer: The Anthology, "a posthumous collection" of a selection of Norman's pre-1978 songs "designed to belatedly introduce a mainstream audience to Norman's music". Rolling StoneRolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine described the album as "compelling proof Christian rock doesn't always turn out cheery or charmless or swaddled in yellow and black
Stryper
Stryper is a Christian glam metal band from Orange County, California. The group's lineup consists of Michael Sweet , Oz Fox , Tim Gaines , and Robert Sweet...
".
Family controversy
In July 2008 WorldWorld (magazine)
WORLD Magazine is a biweekly Christian news magazine, published in the United States of America by God's World Publications, a non-profit 501 organization based in Asheville, North Carolina. WORLD differs from most other news magazines in that its declared perspective is one of conservative...
magazine reported that Norman had fathered a child with an Australian woman Jennifer Wallace (née Robinson) during a tour in Australia in 1988 that she organized. According to McCallum, she has made the information public because Norman had broken a "promise" to include the young man, Daniel Robinson (born July 1989), in Norman's will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
. British Celtic Rock
Celtic rock
Celtic rock is a genre of folk rock and a form of Celtic fusion which incorporates Celtic music, instrumentation and themes into a rock music context...
singer Sammy Horner wrote and released a song "Larry's Son" soon after Wallace went public with her claims.
Fallen Angel documentary (2008)
Fallen Angel: The Outlaw Larry Norman: A Bible Story is a controversial 2008 documentary on Norman's life by film producer David Di Sabatino, maker of a previous documentary on Lonnie FrisbeeLonnie Frisbee
Lonnie Frisbee was an American Pentecostal evangelist and self-described "seeing prophet" and mystic in the late 1960s and 1970s...
. Originally Frisbee included many of Norman's songs, but EMI, who owns most of Norman's songs, did not grant release to the filmmaker. Norman refused to cooperate also in the making of Fallen Angel, as did Norman's second ex-wife Sarah. Fallen Angel includes interviews by many who were close to Norman more than thirty years ago including his first wife, Pamela Newman, Randy Stonehill
Randy Stonehill
Randall Evan "Randy" Stonehill is an American singer-songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the so-called "fathers of contemporary Christian music". His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but he has assayed other styles, with various albums focused on...
, Terry Scott Taylor
Terry Scott Taylor
Terry Scott Taylor is an American songwriter, record producer, writer and founding member of the bands Daniel Amos and The Swirling Eddies . Taylor is also a member of the roots and alternative music group, Lost Dogs. He is currently based in San Jose, California, USA.Taylor is highly regarded for...
, and Philip Mangano, the business manager of Solid Rock. The OC Weekly reports that Norman himself refused to be interviewed for the project. A cease and desist
Cease and desist
A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
notice initiated by Norman's family temporarily prevented the public display of Fallen Angel, and prompted Di Sabatino to file his own lawsuit against Norman's Solid Rock on 20 March 2009. On 6 July 2009 the case was settled out of court, thus allowing the film to be shown. One reviewer sees the film depicting Norman as "Machiavellian, particularly in his dealings with his artists".
On 30 December 2008 Randy Stonehill's album Paradise Sky, the official soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
to Fallen Angel, was released by Bryan Duncan
Bryan Duncan
Bryan Duncan is an American CCM musician. he is best known for his role in the Sweet Comfort Band and subsequent solo career that, combined, spanned more than twenty-five years...
's Red Road Records, which was advertised as Paradise Sky: A Tribute to Larry Norman, attracting some criticism: "It’s hard to see how Randy Stonehill recording new versions of his own songs, but this time without the involvement of the late Larry Norman, is in any sense a tribute. One has to wonder about the wisdom of stirring the pot by even going there, when this could have simply been promoted as Stonehill revisiting his early work for the sake of the music, period. While ten of the 11 songs were originally on albums produced by Norman, the other "Even the Best of Friends", is the one written that alludes to the breakdown in his relationship with Norman.
In April 2010 authorized Norman biographer Allen Flemming, who has described himself as a close friend of over 30 years, created the website "Failed Angle: The Truth Behind Fallen Angel" to dispute some of the claims made in the movie with material such as e-mails, letters, tape recordings, and legal documents, kept by Norman.
Analysis and evaluation of Norman's music
In 1991 Norman explained the philosophy behind his music:All of my albums had been made for the pre-Christian mind, the non-believer. Side One was always an introduction of gospel concepts; the existence of God, the reasonable personality of Christianity, the sanity of faith in Jesus and trust in His Holy Spirit. Despite the listener's possible aversion to Church because of experiences from their past, I wanted them to know that I was on their side; a believer understanding their non-belief, but encouraging them to give their life to Jesus. Side Two of my albums were always more assertive, didactic, and opinionated just on the chance that the listener might be interested in exploring the message more deeply. I considered myself a sort of rock and roll missionary, rather, a spy behind enemy lines; intending to help subvert the rule of the realm through personal witness. I took this missionary stuff very seriously but thought of myself in the position that a warrior might find himself if he didn't have the support of his own regiment; from 1956 to 1970 I had felt pretty much alone. By 1975 I no longer felt alone, but did somehow feel angry that records weren't being made for non-believers but aimed specifically "in-house" for a growing commercial Christian market.
According to American Christian music historian John J. Thompson:
Norman’s albums were richly layered in the best tradition of acts like The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Elton John and Crosby, Stills and Nash, with a dark, apocalyptic streak that referenced nightmares, visions, broken relationships and the constant understanding that he, and the rest of his fellow believers, were truly not of this world. His message engaged the culture with authenticity and conviction, and his imagination articulated the disconnectedness felt by so many people in the aftermath of the 1960s. He seemed to be reclaiming Jesus from the Pharisees and universities and bringing Him back to the streets. He found common ground between the left-of-center political culture of the Vietnam era and the radical message of Jesus Christ. It was a perfect storm of culture and creed, and it set the stage for an entire movement to come up behind him—and eventually pass him by.'
Relationship with the Church and the CCM industry
Larry Norman's relationship with the wider Christian church, and with the Christian music industryChristian music industry
The Christian music industry is a small part of the larger music industry, that focuses on traditional Gospel music, Southern Gospel music, Contemporary Christian music, and alternative Christian music. It is sometimes called the gospel music industry, although this designation is not a limitation...
, has been contentious for a number of years. In September 2007 Norman wrote: "I love God and I follow Jesus but I just don't have much affinity for the organized folderol of the churches in the Western World". Sarah Pulliam indicates that: "Although Norman left a large footprint, he also became estranged from the music industry because of strained relationships. He was eventually diagnosed with bipolar trauma". According to Portland news/radio station KXL, Norman's early social positions caused a stir among many conservative Christians. Norman's songs were wide-ranging, addressing such matters as politics (The Great American Novel), free love
Free love
The term free love has been used to describe a social movement that rejects marriage, which is seen as a form of social bondage. The Free Love movement’s initial goal was to separate the state from sexual matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery...
(Pardon Me), the passive commercialism of war–time journalists (I Am The Six O'Clock News), witchcraft and the occult (Forget Your Hexagram), alienation (Lonely by Myself), religious hypocrisy (Right Here In America) and many topics largely outside of the scope of his contemporaries. Norman's views against racism and poverty caused him to receive multiple death threats in the 1970s. Barry Alfonso described Norman's message and its reaction:
Norman's message was confrontational, challenging conservative Christians as well as nonbelievers. Onstage, he criticized churches for their lack of commitment to the disadvantaged, a habit that made it sometimes difficult to get bookings at Christian coffeehouses. His upstart attitude, though, won him a loyal following among young believers across America.
In 2006 Norman reflected on the difficulties he had with the Church over the years:
"I did 200 concerts a year for two years and then stopped. I never appeared at the same church more than once which is bread and butter to most artisans on tour. As one promoter put it, "I burned every bridge I came to" even before crossing it. But I thought the American Christian churches were not fond enough of the "hard" theologies of Jesus and were completely neglectful of feeding the poor, visiting those in prison, going into the hospitals and sharing the good news on the highways and byways, or even to the neighbours living next to them. Most people I asked said they had never witnessed to anyone, because they didn't know how to. And now I found that I was bashing my head against a church wall. In America the church did not like me. And no wonder. I was telling my young audiences to invite prostitutes and drug addicts and homosexuals to come to their church. And my songs were slyly disrespectful of organized religion, a position the young people identified with and their parents and pastors couldn't quite put their finger on. Nothing I said or sang was unscriptural. And I didn't speak against the church. I wasn't a protester. I wasn't ANTI anything, but I was FOR Jesus."
A widespread ban on Norman's music existed in some Christian stores. This ban was due not only to Norman's social positions, but his preferred company as well. Said Norman in a separate interview: "The churches weren't going to accept me looking like a street person with long hair and faded jeans. They did not like the music I was recording. And I had no desire to preach the gospel to the converted. In 2008 Philip Cooney attempted to explain the causes of Norman's problems with some Christians:
One of the problems for the church establishment was that Norman did not seem to be writing hymns. Not only was the music rock, the words were full of strange images or open references to subjects such as sex and drugs, and he often failed to "name the name" of Jesus. In understanding the reasons for this, it becomes easier to see that Norman was using principles that are still important for Christians today. Norman is one who saw the society around him in the USA not as a bastion of Christian morality, nor as an enemy to be shunned, but as a cross-cultural mission field. The use of Jesus' command " Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15), and the image of the 'agape' mouth containing the cross of Calvary on his record sleeves make this clear. Like all those who are serious about mission, he tested God's call, prepared through Bible study and prayer, made sure that he understood the gospel, and chose to speak in a language that would be understood by those he sought to reach in Jesus' name. Norman displayed a sympathetic understanding of that unchurched culture, but an equally strong desire not to compromise the integrity of the gospel.
Norman denied he was trying to start a revolution with his music, he just wanted "to learn how to explain God without using any of the language or ideas that had been taught in the church". In a 1979 interview Norman explained: "I would like the work that I do, and all my artists do, to break down the limited concepts of what Christian music should be and show what it can be and must be if it's ever to reach people like us. Basically Randy [Stonehill] and I write songs, that we can recommend to street people, harlots, junkies, politicians, ... businessmen". In an interview in Campus Life magazine, Norman defended his approach: "My primary emphasis is not to entertain. But if your art is boring, people will reject your message as well as your art".
By 1982 Norman had gained some acceptance as a substitute for secular rock artists. For example, The Encyclopedia of Christian Parenting recommended: "If your child develops an interest in TV star magazines or rock records, you may want to encourage a Christian orientation by giving Campus Life or Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, or Barry McGuire
Barry McGuire
Barry McGuire is an American singer-songwriter best known for the hit song "Eve of Destruction", and later as a pioneering singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian Music.-Early life:...
records as gifts".
In an interview after Solid Rock records had broken up, "Norman said that he was very unhappy about the reaction of Christian artists to their success. He faulted most of them for basking in acceptance (and money) from Christians. ... Norman felt that many artists were becoming Christian celebrities and ignoring their mission to the unbeliever. In particular, he was unhappy that Christian artists were unwilling to play clubs and other secular venues, and he was very put off that artists were not "preaching" between songs and making the Gospel clear—in confrontational terms." Commenting on Christian music in 1984, Norman said: "I'm pleased with what's happening in England and Europe...but I'm not totally thrilled about the commercialisation of Christian music in America." Two years prior to the 1984 interview, he had complained that Christian music generally meant "sloppy thinking, dishonest metaphors, and bad poetry" and stated that "I've never been able to get over the shock of how bad the lyrics are."
In 1989, Norman said: "I love the church and my sisters and brothers, but I didn't always feel welcome. And the church never felt like home". Also in 1989 Norman was awarded the Christian Artists' Society Lifetime Achievement Award in a surprise ceremony at Estes Park, Colorado
Estes Park, Colorado
Estes Park is a town in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. A popular summer resort and the location of the headquarters for Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park lies along the Big Thompson River. Estes Park had a population of 5,858 at the 2010 census...
.
In 2008 Norman still criticised the CCM industry and some of its practices. According to Philip Cooney,
"Norman is critical of the modern Praise and Worship movement and the operation of CCLI. The modern hymn writers he was at pains to shield from criticism some 30 years ago are now being questioned by Norman for becoming part of a multi-national Praise and Worship industry, producing manufactured rather than genuine praise.... Norman asks why a song written as an act of worship should remain the lucrative copyright property of the composer and not the property of the one to whom it is being offered—God: 'God doesn't charge us a fee to worship Him. Isn't it enough that the publisher and writer make money from the CD sales? Do they also have to be paid every time a congregation sings their song? They also get paid for the sheet music which choirs use to memorize their compositions. Isn't that enough money?' On the other hand, this may be seen as further evidence of Norman's long-standing criticism of the commercialization of the gospel music industry."
To contemporary Christian music
In a 2008 interview in Christianity Today, Entertainment TonightEntertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...
writer Chris Willman asserts that Norman's "influence outweighed his sales so much that it's comical....He really could've been a star if he were singing about something other than Jesus." British pop singer Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
, who recorded three of Norman's songs on his 1977 Small Corners album, indicated: "Larry was one of our greatest contemporary Christian songwriters, who made it his business to prove that the devil did not 'have all the good music'!" Christian Rock historian John J. Thompson assessed the significance of Norman and his career in 2008: "It is certainly no overstatement to say that Larry Norman is to Christian music what John Lennon is to rock & roll or Bob Dylan is to folk music". and previously in his Raised by Wolves: The Story of Christian Rock & Roll:
Despite the controversy, hype, and low points, Norman's impact on Christian music cannot be overstated. As a songwriter, Norman crystallized the heart of the Jesus Movement; as an artist, he pushed the creative envelope well beyond what had been considered appropriate; as a producer, he brought to prominence some of the most significant artists in Christian music; and, as a businessman (undoubtedly his weakest suit), he ran a label that brought some of the most important albums into the world. He also modeled a successful independent recording career as an alternative to working for a label."
After many years of a negative relationship with Norman, many CCM artists have credited Norman as an influence on their music, particularly in the sub-genre of Christian rock
Christian rock
Christian rock is a form of rock music played by individuals and bands whose members are Christians and who often focus the lyrics on matters concerned with the Christian faith. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands...
. He is often cited as influencing both Keith Green
Keith Green
Keith Gordon Green was an American gospel singer, songwriter, musician, and Contemporary Christian Music artist originally from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. Beyond his music, Green is best known for his strong devotion to Christian evangelism and challenging others to the same...
and Randy Stonehill
Randy Stonehill
Randall Evan "Randy" Stonehill is an American singer-songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the so-called "fathers of contemporary Christian music". His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but he has assayed other styles, with various albums focused on...
in their conversions to Christianity. Both eventually became Christian music artists. Stonehill has commented: "If not for Larry Norman, we might all be doing Christian polka or something, but not Christian rock." Susan Perlman, one of the founders of Jews for Jesus
Jews for Jesus
Jews for Jesus is a conservative, Christian evangelical organization that focuses on the conversion of Jews to Christianity. Its members consider themselves to be Jews – either as defined by Jewish law, or as according to the view of Jews for Jesus. Jews for Jesus defines “Jewish” in terms of...
traces the beginnings of her conversion to Norman sharing his faith with her on the streets of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in 1972. Grammy-nominated Australian singer and songwriter Paul Colman
Paul Colman
Paul Colman, is a British–Australian pop-rock guitarist, vocalist, pianist, and composer.Colman was born and brought up in London; his father is Australian and his mother is British. When he was seven years old, his father left his successful life of theater and music for a life of ministry...
, who has covered Norman's Sweet, "Sweet Song of Salvation", on his 2009 album, History, acknowledges Norman's influence on his music:
It was Larry Norman however that really captured Paul's imagination. The Colman family saw Larry perform live many times in the 1970s and 1980s in Melbourne, Australia. Paul recalls, "I remember seeing this guy up there on stage at Dallas Brooks Hall in the heart of Melbourne on his own with an acoustic guitar, a microphone, a razor sharp wit and songs that really went deep into me. Somewhere inside my heart and mind I said 'I want to do that! It was actually about 18 years later that I stood in that exact spot and sang my own songs to a packed house."
Others who were influenced by Norman include American CCM musician Steve Camp
Steve Camp
Steven J. Camp is a prominent American Dove Award and Grammy Award-nominated contemporary Christian music artist with an adult contemporary pop sound. He was very popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, where he has sold more than a million albums, who also has written or co-written 21 number one...
, who co-wrote "If I Were a Singer" with Norman, which appeared on Camp's 1978 debut album, Sayin' It with Love
Sayin' It With Love
Sayin' It With Love is a Contemporary Christian Music album by Steve Camp and was released by Myrrh Records in 1978. This was Camp's first Christian album .- Track listing :...
, who describes Norman as his mentor, and with whom he lived for several months learning the craft of songwriting; Canadian CCM musician Carolyn Arends
Carolyn Arends
Carolyn Arends is a Contemporary Christian musician, songwriter, and author based in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.-Musical career:Arends began her career as a songwriter at Benson Music Publishing. In 1995, Carolyn began touring and releasing albums as a singer and guitarist. Her debut release...
. Songwriter Bob Hartman
Bob Hartman
Robert Hartman is a Christian artist, guitarist, writer and songwriter. He is the founder of Christian rock band Petra. Hartman was involved with the band from its foundation in 1972 to its end in 2005. He took a break from touring in 1995, but continued to write most of the band's songs,...
, credits Norman and his 1972 song "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?" in his establishing Petra
Petra (band)
Petra is a music group regarded as a pioneer of the Christian rock and contemporary Christian music genres. Formed in 1972, the band took its name from the Greek word for "rock"...
; Peter Banks of British progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
/New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
band After the Fire
After the Fire
After the Fire are a British rock band that progressed from playing progressive rock to new wave over their initial twelve-year career, while having only one hit in the United States, and one hit in the United Kingdom .-Early career:Keyboard player Peter Banks originally formed the band in the...
traces his involvement in "the mainstream music business" to Norman and his album, Only Visiting This Planet. Others who acknowledge Norman's influence on their career or music include American drummer Hilly Michaels
Hilly Michaels
Hilly Michaels, also known as Hilly Boy Michaels is an American drummer and musician, best known for playing drums with Sparks in the 70's and his two solo albums from the early 80's, Calling All Girls and Lumia .- History :His first music experience came with playing in a band called Joy,...
, who recorded with Norman and Randy Stonehill in 1970; Grammy Award-winning recording artist and rapper TobyMac
TobyMac
Toby McKeehan , better known by his stage name TobyMac , is a Christian recording artist, music producer, hip-hop/pop artist, singer-songwriter, and author....
, who described Norman as "socially relevant, spiritually significant and passionate about challenging his generation to new heights of love", considered Norman his "greatest lyrical influence"; Mark Salomon
Mark Salomon
Mark Salomon is an American singer and author best known as the lead singer of the hard rock bands Stavesacre and The Crucified. Other bands in which he has been a key member include the punk rock Outer Circle and rap-oriented Native Son and is rumored to be one of the voices of Neon Horse, though...
, the lead singer of Christian metal
Christian metal
Christian metal, also known as white metal, is a form of heavy metal music usually defined by its message in a song's lyrics as well as the band's dedication to Christianity...
band Stavesacre
Stavesacre
Stavesacre was an American rock band from Huntington Beach, California formed in 1995. The band was composed of vocalist Mark Salomon, guitarists Jeff Bellew and Ryan Dennee, bassist Dirk Lemmenes and drummer Sam West....
and thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
band The Crucified
The Crucified
The Crucified is an American Christian crossover thrash metal band from Fresno, California that formed in 1984. Its lineup is vocalist Mark Salomon, guitarist Greg Minier, bassist Jeff Bellew, and drummer Jim Chaffin. The Crucified released two studio albums and three demos...
, who reveals that it was Norman's concert performance that connected him to Christian music; and Welsh singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph
Martyn Joseph
Martyn Joseph is a Welsh singer-songwriter whose music exhibits primarily a brand of Celtic and folk, while his songwriting is often focused on social lament or protest...
.
Norman has granted interviews to magazines covering Contemporary Christian music and accepted industry awards. When asked about the relationship between CCM and his own music, Norman has replied "I'm happy if I've been an encouragement to other artists." British poet and musician Steve Scott
Steve Scott (poet)
Steve Scott is a poet, spoken word artist, and musician. His written work was published by PRIZM Magazine, Radix Magazine, Monolith:UK publications and STRIDE UK publications...
, who worked closely with Norman at Solid Rock, maintains:
"Regardless of the pros and cons of Solid Rock and all the stories that swirl around Larry Norman, I do think he's made an immensely valuable, foundational contribution to the whole contemporary Christian music industry... and I don't understand how someone that everyone nods towards and acknowledges as seminal ends up apparently scrabbling to pay for medical bills. In my opinion, the ccm industry owes that guy so much for opening the door for so many people. ... The guy took all the bullets, created the market.... I'm just saying that in real world terms... he's owed a lot more than he's currently getting from those parts of the machine that benefited most from his pioneering work."
To rock and folk music
Larry Norman was "the first artist to successfully infiltrate rock music with a heartfelt, blatant christian message". By 1971, Time magazine was reporting on the growth of the Jesus movement, the magazine stated, "It's like a glacier...it's growing and there's no stopping it." Time went on to say of Norman: "(he was) probably the top solo artist in the field", Norman later distanced himself from Time's characterizations of his involvement.Over 300 artists have covered his songs, including Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
and American singer-songwriters like John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp, previously known by the stage names Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American rock singer-songwriter, musician, painter and occasional actor known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock that eschews synthesizers and other artificial sounds...
and
David Eugene Edwards
David Eugene Edwards
David Eugene Edwards is an American musician.He is the lead singer of Wovenhand, and also the main songwriter and the principal musician on the recordings of the band. He is the former lead singer of 16 Horsepower...
(of 16 Horsepower
16 Horsepower
16 Horsepower was an American alternative country music group based in Denver, Colorado. Their music often invoked religious imagery dealing with conflict, redemption, punishment, and guilt through David Eugene Edwards's lyrics and the heavy use of traditional bluegrass, gospel, and Appalachian...
and Woven Hand
Woven Hand
Wovenhand is a band from Denver, Colorado led by former 16 Horsepower lead singer David Eugene Edwards. Woven Hand's music combines elements of neofolk, alternative country, post-rock, punk, industrial music, folk rock, old-time music and native American music, among other influences.-History:The...
) have also claimed to be fans of Larry Norman's music.
According to rock historian Walter Rasmussen, Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
once said that The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
's 1969 album Tommy
Tommy (rock opera)
Tommy is the fourth album by English rock band The Who, released by Track Records and Polydor Records in the United Kingdom and Decca Records/MCA in the United States. A double album telling a loose story about a "deaf, dumb and blind boy" who becomes the leader of a messianic movement, Tommy was...
was inspired by the rock opera "Epic" by People! (which he could behold every night when on tour with People!). However, Townshend has since denied the connection.
To punk/alternative rock
Following tours by the first wave of punkPunk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
musicians in the British Isles in the mid-1970s, the post-punk band U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
was formed in Dublin, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Active simultaneously in the local punk music scene and the "Shalom Fellowship," some members of U2 eventually became "fans" of Larry Norman's music. Both artists performed, making unannounced appearances, at the U.K.'s Greenbelt Festival
Greenbelt festival
Greenbelt Festival is a festival of arts, faith and justice held annually in England since 1974. Greenbelt has grown from a Christian music festival with an audience of 1,500 young Christians to its current more secular festival attended by around 20,000 - Christians and non-Christians.The festival...
in 1981.
Charles Thompson IV
Frank Black
Black Francis is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the frontman of the influential alternative rock band Pixies, with whom he performs under the stage name Black Francis. Following the band's breakup in 1993, he embarked on a solo career under the name Frank Black...
discovered Larry Norman's music at age 13 after moving to California and seeing him in concert. Thompson said of Norman during this period: "I don't think Larry Norman was necessarily respected by religious people...he had more of a rebellious rock'n'roll kind of an image." "I dressed like him, I looked like him, he was my total idol." While at college in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, Thompson adopted the stage name Black Francis, and formed The Pixies along with Joey Santiago
Joey Santiago
Joey Santiago is a Filipino-American guitarist and composer. Active since 1986, Santiago is best known as the lead guitarist for the American alternative rock band Pixies. After the band's breakup in 1993, Santiago produced musical scores for film and television documentaries, and he formed The...
, Kim Deal
Kim Deal
Kimberley Ann Deal is an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the bassist of the alternative rock band the Pixies and the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for The Breeders. Deal first joined the Pixies in January 1986 as the band's bassist, adopting the stage name Mrs...
, and David Lovering. According to Kim Deal
Kim Deal
Kimberley Ann Deal is an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the bassist of the alternative rock band the Pixies and the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for The Breeders. Deal first joined the Pixies in January 1986 as the band's bassist, adopting the stage name Mrs...
, the title of the Pixies' 1987 EP Come On Pilgrim
Come on Pilgrim
Come On Pilgrim is the debut mini-LP release by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in September 1987 by 4AD.- Background :...
, as well as a similar line from the song "Levitate Me," derive from a Norman catchphrase used during live performances. In the 1987 recording and subsequent performances of the Pixies song "Levitate Me," lead singer Black shouts "Come on Pilgrim, you know He loves you!" while imitating Larry Norman's accent. While recording the Pixies' album Surfer Rosa
Surfer Rosa
Like Come On Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa displays a mix of musical styles; pop guitar songs such as "Broken Face", "Break My Body", and "Brick Is Red" are featured alongside slower, more melodic tracks exemplified by "Where Is My Mind?". The album includes heavier material, and prominently features the...
, producer Steve Albini
Steve Albini
Steven Frank Albini is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman, and Flour, and is currently a member of Shellac...
recognized the Pixies' references and realized that he and Black both "had an affection" for Norman's music. They discussed Larry Norman at length during the recording process of the album. With the increased popularity of alternative rock in the 1990s, The Pixies earned increased recognition for their work. They were invited by U2 to join them on the Zoo TV tour in 1992. At one show, Black was introduced to Larry Norman by members of U2, who had informed him beforehand that Larry would be coming to the show. Black's solo album Frank Black and the Catholics
Frank Black and the Catholics (album)
Frank Black and the Catholics was the eponymous debut album from Frank Black and the Catholics. The backing group on this album performed on Black's previous album, The Cult of Ray, but the group name was first adopted on this release...
, recorded in 1997 and released in 1998, featured a cover of Larry Norman's song "Six-Sixty-Six." Beginning in 2004, The Pixies embarked on a reunion tour. During this time, in June 2005, frontman Black joined Larry Norman for what was expected to be his final US concert. The pair performed Norman's 1978 song "Watch What You're Doing."
Emil Nikolaisen
Emil Nikolaisen
Emil Nikolaisen is a musician and producer from Norway. He is frontman, bandleader, songwriter, guitarist & singer of the well-known Norwegian alternative rock band Serena-Maneesh....
of indierock/shoegazers Serena Maneesh
Serena Maneesh
Serena-Maneesh is an alternative rock band from Oslo, Norway.- Significance of the Name:...
fame has publicly stated that he is fond of Larry Norman's So Long Ago The Garden, and also took part in several tribute concerts following Larry's passing.
Select discography
Since the 1960s, Norman's work has appeared on over 100 albums, compilations, and concert bootlegs. These recordings have been released under various labels and with various artists. Some of his principal albums are:- Upon This Rock (1969)
- Street LevelStreet Level (album)Street Level is the title of an live album recorded by Larry Norman in 1970. The 2005 CD re-issue has the same selection of tracks as the original 1970 LP release. The second LP version released in 1971 and 1972 under the same name has a different B-side. The 2001 CD issue combines the tracks...
(1970) - BootlegBootleg (Larry Norman album)Bootleg is an album created by Larry Norman, released in 1972. It was originally released as a double-LP.- History :In early 1972 One Way Records released Bootleg, a double album retrospective covering the previous four years of Norman's career compiled from demonstration recordings made while at...
(1972) - Only Visiting This PlanetOnly Visiting This PlanetOnly Visiting This Planet is the title of an album recorded by Larry Norman in 1972. The album was selected as the second album in 's The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music.-History:...
(1972) - So Long Ago the GardenSo Long Ago the GardenSo Long Ago the Garden is an album recorded by Larry Norman, released in 1973. It is the second album in what came to be known as his "trilogy," which began with the album Only Visiting This Planet and concluded with In Another Land. So Long Ago the Garden was controversial because Norman's...
(1973) - In Another LandIn Another Land (album)In Another Land is the title of an album recorded by Larry Norman and released in 1976. It is the third album in Norman's "trilogy," which began with Only Visiting This Planet and continued with So Long Ago the Garden...
(1976) - Something New under the SonSomething New under the SonSomething New Under The Son is an album recorded by Larry Norman in 1977 and released in 1981. It was originally intended to be a three-sided album, however Larry's record company felt it was too negative and the project remained unreleased for four years....
(1981) - Home At LastHome At Last (Larry Norman album)Home at Last is the title of an album of mostly new material by Larry Norman first issued in 1989. It was originally released as a two-LP album and included some live tracks. In 1998 it was released as one album together with the 1994 compilation Footprints in the Sand. The 2007 re-release of...
(1989) - Stranded in BabylonStranded in BabylonStranded in Babylon is the title of an album recorded by Larry Norman in Norway in 1991. It was re-released in 1993 as Stranded in Babylon: The American Re-Mix. The album comprises 13 new songs written by Larry and represents some of his best work since the early days of his career...
(1991) - TourniquetTourniquet (Larry Norman album)-History:The creative collaboration with his brother Charles Norman bore fruit on his 2001 album Tourniquet, an album of all new songs, which was produced by the Albino Brothers . Of the nine songs "Turn" was written by Charly Norman, with two others being co-written by him with Larry, and Charly's...
(2001)
Works
- The Long Road Home: Vaudeville, Dancing and How My Mother Met My Father. Salem, OR: Solid Rock Rublications, 2007.
Further reading
- Beaujon, Andrew. "God Only Knows: The Legacy of Larry Norman". Spin 24:5 (May 2008):120.
- Carpenter, Bil. Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia. Backbeat Books, 2005.
- Cusic, Don. "Larry Norman". In Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music: Pop, Rock, and Worship, ed. Don Cusic (ABC-CLIO, 2009):311–315.
- Eskridge, Larry. "'One Way': Billy Graham, the Jesus Generation, and the Idea of an Evangelical Youth Culture", Church History 67:1 (March 1998):83–106.
- Howard, Jay R. "Contemporary Christian Music: Where Rock Meets Religion". The Journal of Popular Culture 26:1 (5 March 2004):123 – 130.
- Howard, Jay R. and John M. Streck. "The Splintered Art World of Contemporary Christian Music". Popular Music 15:1 (January 1996):37–53.
- Platt, Karen Marie. "The Original Christian Street Rocker: Larry Norman." Contemporary Christian Music 3:9 (March 1981): 8–11, 25.
- Price, Deborah Evans. "Larry Norman 1947–2008". Billboard 120:10 (8 March 2008):22.
- Stowe, David W. No Sympathy for the Devil: Christian Pop Music and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism. UNC Press Books, 2011.
- Styll, John W. "Trials, Tribulations and Happy Endings". CCM 3:9 (March 1981):5.