| THE “grandfather of Christian rock music”, Larry Norman, died on Sunday in his home town of Salem, Oregon. He was 60 years old, and had suffered from heart-related bad health for many years.
He was born on 8 April 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas, and was without question the Elvis, Dylan, and Beatles of Christian music all rolled into one. He emerged from the late-1960s Jesus People movement, a menagerie of former hippies looking for something more transcendent and lasting than the thrill of free love.
Denim-clad and with long blonde hair, Larry Norman had chart success with his band People; but he soon went solo and began recording albums that were full-on Christian. His first solo album, Upon This Rock, is seen as the first “Christian album”, and he went on to make three more that are still among the strongest in the Christian subculture.
These albums, known as “The Trilogy”, — Only Visiting This Planet, So Long Ago The Garden, and In Another Land — blended love, politics, and social critique with praise and theology in a way that few Christian artists do even today. All done with articulate poetry and a crafted rock performance.
Emerging from the 1970s, Norman’s foibles, eccentricities, and near paranoia caused him to lose the ear of the industry he had pioneered. He became a cult figure, releasing all kinds of albums that revisited his heyday with live, demo, and remixes of the old classic songs. Ill-health meant that he could tour less and less, but, when he did, there was a loyal crowd hoping for the old wise insight.
Despite these disappointments, his influence cannot be overestimated — on the Christian music industry and, perhaps more importantly, on many lives whose Christian worldview was shaped by those great songs of the ’70s.
Norman was equally a key figure for young Christians in the UK. Peter Crumpler, director of communications for the Archbishops’ Council, said on Tuesday: “Larry Norman’s music was the soundtrack to my teenage years.I loved his fearlessness and his passion for the gospel. I hope some of these qualities have stuck with me through the years.”
Steve Goddard, co-editor of the Christian website Ship of Fools, also paid tribute this week to “the only ‘Christian artist’ of the early ’70s whose music sent a shiver down my spine. He may only have visited this planet — but his footprints are all over it.”
Even when in ill-health and enduring debilitating weakness, Larry Norman’s creativity never waned. He dictated a final message to fans on his death bed: “I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks 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.” |
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