Only Visiting This Planet

February 26, 2008 4:31 PM

"I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God's hand reaching down to pick me up." Larry Norman, "father of Christian rock," dead at 60. YouTubery: 1, 2, 3.
posted by The Deej (35 comments total)

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One for Larry, and one for the discussion about to take place.
posted by roll truck roll at 4:42 PM on February 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

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posted by SpacemanStix at 4:42 PM on February 26, 2008

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I used to listen to Larry Norman back in my teenage 'secular rock is eeevil' phase. As I matured I realized that anything played on the radio sucks, even if it didn't suck until it hit the airwaves. Suck and evil are so close together that there might as well be no difference.
posted by djeo at 4:42 PM on February 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

I'm only really familiar with him via Frank Black covering him and talking him up. But,

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posted by anazgnos at 4:47 PM on February 26, 2008

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Some more Larry Norman before he went solo: People, I Love You
posted by jonp72 at 4:56 PM on February 26, 2008

Slacktivist wrote about him too, and has so links to some more of his performances.
posted by dismas at 5:06 PM on February 26, 2008

father of Christian rock

So it's his fault...
posted by eustacescrubb at 5:16 PM on February 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

So it's his fault...

Not really. He came way before thousands of identical Jebus and the Blowfishes cynically cashed in on the fact that Christian bookstores will carry anything labeled "Christian" (and Christians will dutifully buy it) by churning out endless piles of milquetoast, mediocre, ironically soulless "Praise and Worship" music that is to music as wet cardboard is to food, and his music is far less worthless. He was, however, the first to discover and employ the Amy Grant Gambit, i.e. that failed secular musicians can sell far more records to the built-in Christian market by simply Jesifying up their music. He also coined the phrase "come on pilgrim, you know He loves you!" for Frank Black to quote, which is far more than any other Christian musician has ever contributed to music in general.
posted by DecemberBoy at 5:30 PM on February 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

which is far more than any other Christian musician has ever contributed to music in general.

Take that, George Frideric Handel!
posted by shakespeherian at 5:40 PM on February 26, 2008

Take that, George Frideric Handel!

Yes, that's exactly what he meant, thank you.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:47 PM on February 26, 2008

Take that, George Frideric Handel!

I mean contemporary Christian "Christian Rock"/"Praise and Worship" musicians, but I suspect you knew that.
posted by DecemberBoy at 5:47 PM on February 26, 2008

It wouldn't be MetaFilter without the pedantry!
posted by mr_roboto at 5:56 PM on February 26, 2008

Handel was the Newsboys of the 18th century opera set.
posted by cortex at 6:00 PM on February 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

Larry Norman: brilliant but crazy. More brilliant than crazy. Much more brilliant.

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posted by donaldekelly at 6:05 PM on February 26, 2008

Actually, there was a lot of Christian rock that stemmed from the Jesus People movement that even predates Larry Norman. Holy Fuzz is probably a good introduction to this "more fuzztone for Jesus" late 60s/early 70s genre of music, if you have secularized ears like myself.
posted by jonp72 at 6:09 PM on February 26, 2008

He personally helped about half the Christian rock musicians (who don't suck) get a start: Daniel Amos, Mark Heard, Randy Stonehill are the main ones.
posted by donaldekelly at 6:15 PM on February 26, 2008

you guys forgot Bach
posted by dminor at 6:16 PM on February 26, 2008

Okay, maybe not half - but at one time he seemed to be producing and helping all the decent ones.
posted by donaldekelly at 6:16 PM on February 26, 2008

When it comes to Jesus hippie pop songs, nothing tops Cosmic Cowboy (warning; pointlessly awful video) by Barry McGuire.

Of course, my heart belongs to the wonderfully strange Second Chapter of Acts. As a young fundie, listening to them was my only rebellion against the horror of Amy Grant.
posted by emjaybee at 6:30 PM on February 26, 2008

I’m still waiting for the ‘A Mighty Wind’ or ‘Best in Show’ of Christian rock.
(I’ve got all these screwy ideas and no idea how to do ‘em, dammit)
I went with this girl to a christian rock concert a while back (what, I was a kid, at least I didn’t get a tattoo or anything). Pretty surreal experience. Diverse crowd with some very specific, and different, ideas on what should be going on.
Sort of like a punk crowd except angst, anger and nonconformity are completely out of place, but happen. S’weird.

But those Baroque-heads and their fanatic monster energy - man.
Handel got trapped in the mosh during the Hallelujah chorus and his right arm was paralysed and he couldn’t perform. But King George II is all up in his grill and Handel puts out Music for the Royal Fireworks and 12,000 people mob out and like three people get killed, one of them is a trumpeter who’s killed the day after.

Ah, you kids with your harpsichords, don’t get me started.
posted by Smedleyman at 6:41 PM on February 26, 2008

I am so sorry to hear this. Something New Under the Son is one of the finest blues albums ever recorded, and one I'd take with me to the desert island. Now I'll never get to send in the coupon to Phydeaux.
posted by bigbigdog at 6:53 PM on February 26, 2008

Thanks for the post, I had never heard of him. Pretty cool.
posted by internal at 6:55 PM on February 26, 2008

Ah, you kids with your harpsichords, don’t get me started.

Seriously. Piano for te win.

I apologize.
posted by cortex at 7:14 PM on February 26, 2008

IIRC he did a song entitled "Why should the devil have all the good music?"

Why, indeed.

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posted by konolia at 7:16 PM on February 26, 2008

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posted by bullitt 5 at 7:39 PM on February 26, 2008

Ahhhh. A nice tall can of sweet, sweet high-gravity malt liquor and side one of Something New Under the Son.

Now I'm no longer sad. I mean, yes, I am sad, but there's something about that music that takes the pain away. I actually don't have any of his other albums. I've got a few other songs of his, including "Why should the devil have all the good music?", but they don't move me like that record does. Although the song about Jesus being a UFO is pretty nifty.

I don't know what happened between him and Daniel Amos and Horrendous Disc (another sure bet for the desert island), and it might've been better for the world if that record had been released sooner, but ¡Alarma! taught me to love difficult music, and Horrendous Disc was a revelation I found right after. And then Something New Under the Son. So for me it worked out.

I jumped into the river
to try to put myself away.
A man jumped in and saved me.
Spoiled a perfect day.
...
He said god would forgive me
so I repented of my sin.
Then he said I must be baptised
and he threw me in again.
Oh, I was born to be unlucky!

posted by bigbigdog at 7:39 PM on February 26, 2008

I don't know what happened between him and Daniel Amos and Horrendous Disc ...

Here's some archival info.
posted by The Deej at 8:03 PM on February 26, 2008

I shouldn't have mentioned the thing about Horrendous Disc. That's just kicking up dirt over things long past. I should have simply focused on side two of Something New Under the Son, which is equally as awesome as side one.

So. "Put your life in Jesus' blood-stained hands" could easily have been performed by the Stones. And, come on, how can you not like "Let That Tape Keep Rolling"?

I know where I am going
and I know who I must be.
Don't care how long it takes me
because there's lots of things to see

posted by bigbigdog at 8:36 PM on February 26, 2008

I shouldn't have mentioned the thing about Horrendous Disc. That's just kicking up dirt over things long past.

Well, it's part of history. It's actually kind of interesting to see how even the most valiant attempts at trying to do something for all the right reasons are subject to human failings.

We hold the treasure in earthen vessels.
posted by The Deej at 8:53 PM on February 26, 2008

Only Visiting is just as good as Something New, I think. And In Another Land rounds out my three must have discs from Larry. Some other good cds, but not approaching those three.
posted by donaldekelly at 9:31 PM on February 26, 2008

Thanks for the post.
posted by Roach at 9:57 PM on February 26, 2008

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Oh, this takes me back. When I was a kid we sang the obligatory "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" during church services. Ah, the wonderful terror of being "left behind" when my Mother came home late from functions.

I had one album of his in High School. Listened to it quite a bit. I didn't realize he was that young. I heard he was kind of a curmudgeon or something.
posted by symbioid at 10:00 PM on February 26, 2008

As someone who when through a "Jesus phase" and listened to Larry Norman, 2nd Chapter, Barry McGuire, etc. during the late 70's, I was quite amused to read in Steve Martin's recent bio that he lost his virginity to Christian rocker Stormie Omartian (before she married Michael Omartian, of course).
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 10:01 PM on February 26, 2008

I heard he was kind of a curmudgeon or something.

Yeah... he was very passionate about his beliefs, and often shared them in ways that were, let's say, off-putting.

I saw him around 1980, headlining a daylong Christian music festival. He spent a lot of time berating the audience for spending money on the festival and buying Christian music, instead of giving to the needy. It stepped over the line of passion and into anger and rudeness. I found out years later that much of his inappropriate behavior and difficulty in relationships was likely a result of brain damage caused by a head injury in 1978. A jet he was in had a hard landing, knocking loose the overhead console, which fell on his head. This also affected his ability to write, or even remember the words to his own songs.
posted by The Deej at 10:35 PM on February 26, 2008

The closest thing I have to Xian rock in my collection is the soundtrack to Godspell, which I've adored since I heard it as a tween. Fun fact: the original cast of the Toronto Godspell production was the nucleus of the Toronto branch of Second City, eventually SCTV.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:34 AM on February 27, 2008