Larry Norman - Rest in Peace

Larry Norman passed away on Sunday. He was 61. I was probably about 12 when I first heard Larry's music and saw him perform in Missoula, Montana. I had never seen anything like Larry Norman and never have since. He was part Bob Dylan, part Bill Cosby and part John the Baptist. With just a nylon string guitar, a thin tenor and a razor sharp wit, he spellbound me and influenced me forever.

Larry's songwriting was deceptively simple and deep. He was the originator of Contemporary Christian Music, but few these days really understand his genius. What made Larry's music powerful in the early days was the way in which he tied spiritual urgency to the full spectrum of 1960s American life. He wrote songs about the Vietnam war, about drug abuse and sexual promiscuity. He wrote about false religions, the commercialization of Christmas, and a decidedly Hal Lindsey influenced understanding of end-times prophecy. He was fearless in his naming the name of Christ, yet knew how to be blunt at times and deftly subtle at others. Only Visiting This Planet remains, in my mind, the best Christian rock recording ever, recorded in London with the fifth Beatle, George Martin as producer.



Larry's bluntness and "street level" approach to art and faith made him an outcast among the pietistic and puritanical evangelicals of the 1960s and 1970s. He seemed a rebel and spawned a small industry of "anti-rock" revival crusades. I thought it rather comical at the time.

Apparently in 1978 Larry had a head injury that severely hampered his creative ability and disturbed his memory. One could tell from some of his later recordings. The intelligent, witty, urgent excellence was replaced with something considerably less. His interviews also seemed a bit odd and flighty.

He claimed that he was miraculously healed years later. I saw his video Live and Kicking and really got the sense that it must be true, because he was back to his orginal self. It was on that video I learned that in 1992 a blood clot destroyed most of his heart tissue and he struggled with the effects of that for the remainer of his life.

My own faith probably is owed to some degree to his early albums. He had a way of not only making one think, but of making Christ a personal figure - immediate, immanent. He is most known for "I Wish We'd All Been Ready", but his seminal song "Be Careful What You Sign" was a masterwork of imagery - making the prospect of judgment clear on a level that was deep, impactful without being preachy.

i was running down the road
i was trying to leave
and i saw you all alone in between the thieves
and when the lightning flashed i saw somebody hanging from a tree
and as i turned to walk away i realized it was me

Larry launched the careers of two other brilliant lyricists, Randy Stonehill and Mark Heard. All of them had an influence on me. His personal life was not one of perfection. His two marriages disintegrated. His relationships with other artists on his Solid Rock record label also fell into disarray, but he seemed to have reconciled with old friends like Randy Stonehill and can be heard on odd recordings with old Jesus Movement colleagues in recent years.

Larry Norman has been out of the limelight since the 1970s, but his influence is immeasurable. Perhaps one song, more than any other, captures the simple, multi-layered, funny and poignant essence of Larry at his prime. Bill Gaither may have borrowed the idea later, but nobody did it like Larry. The song is called the tune, and it is part parable, part Vaudeville, part comedy sketch. Other songs that were poignant beyond expression include I Hope I See You in Heaven (in this case, sung through tears after the death of his grandmother) and Goodbye, Farewell, hauntingly prophetic of his own death.

Thanks for inspiration, faith and direct honesty Larry. Never knew you, but you seemed like a brother in some strange way. May you rest in peace. I hope I see you in Heaven.