I see on Slacktivist that Larry Norman has died. That may not be an obituary anyone would expect to see here - I don't make much of my upbringing, but I have spent my time among the evangelicals. Saner evangelicals than what we usually hear about, but still... Oh, I remember the periodic paroxysms of the evils of rock and roll that went through my circles - the terrible, shocking revelations that the Rolling Stones used drugs! that "Queen" was slang for "transvestite"! and other wonders... This often translated into pressures to only listen to christian rock in some circles - it never had much affect on me (I was in the throes of Bruce Springsteen worship at the time), but around some people... Then, as now (from what I know of it), christian rock was a wretched and lifeless genre. There were three bright spots I remember: Phil Keaggy, who had the decency to shut up and play guitar (and was the first "real" concert I ever attended, featuring lots of soaring guitar solos - bless him); Keith Green - a strange, jagged, piano driven singer songwriter, whose songs hold up on their own to this day - I have quite a few of them on the iPod, highly ranked... And Norman - whose music did sometimes fall into a bland 70s soft rock vibe, but was still quite listenable - and topped with genuinely sharp, funny, smart lyrics. No wonder Black Francis name dropped him. Anyway - an hour on youtube later...
Acoustic version of Why Should the Devil Have All the Good music - a reminder of how funny he was:
And Electric:
And proof that it's not just me - here's Frank Black covering Six Sixty-six:
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Thanks for the post. This is the first time I've heard that Larry Norman has died. I know he was in very poor health. A couple of weeks ago his name popped into my head for some reason and I found myself search YouTube for video clips of him - after not having thought of him in years. I saw him in concert back in 1984, which was kind of mind blowing at the time. Before that I had his Only Visiting This Planet on vinyl and wore the groves off it. He was a seminal artist in my early development.
Like you, I found Norman, Keaggy, and Green to be some of the few highlights in the otherwise music wasteland of Christian music.
I haven't thought about him in years either. I have some friends who kept repeating some of his words - "mama shot a chicken, though it was a duck..." I remembered thinking he wrote good songs, but tended to rip people off, while slagging on them - Subterranean Homesick Blues, maybe even the "rock that doesn't roll" line - straight outta that noted hymn to Satan (more likely, Janis Joplin), Stairway to Heaven.... But listening to a bunch of his songs, for the first time in years - he does love a quote... but he really was a good writer. And a good singer - I forgot that, too...
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