In Another Land

Larry Norman is no longer visiting this planet. The original Jesus rocker died Sunday of heart failure in Oregon. He was 60.

By the time I saw Norman play in the late '80s, his best work was behind him. He had become addled and erratic, prone to venting obliquely about the bridges he'd burned with so many of the people he'd worked with over the years. Yet still there were glimpses of the talent that had written so many weirdly beautiful songs.

He was, always, a long-haired, Son-worshipping Jesus Freak. A hippie -- with all of the unsustainable idealism and naivete that entails. For Norman, that hippie naivete merged with Hal Lindsay's premillennial dispensationalism -- setting him up for major disappointment and disillusionment when the 1980s arrived and neither the rapture nor the revolution seemed to be at hand. I can't help but wonder if the long downward spiral of Norman's later decades wasn't in part a result of his simple Jesus Freak idealism spoiling on the vine.

Norman's Solid Rock Records, founded in 1975, helped launch the careers of several artists who surpassed him. They're part of his legacy as well -- the children of his dysfunctional family.

And then, of course, there are his songs. Some are brilliant, some beautiful, some fatally flawed, some infuriating. Many, like Norman himself, all of those at once. Here's a sampling via YouTube:

• "The Outlaw"
• "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?"
• "The Tune"
• "Sweet, Sweet Song of Salvation"
• "The Great American Novel"
• "Only Visiting This Planet/God Part III"

Download LarryNorman_TheOutlaw.mp3

Comments

[Caravelle]

That said, it sort of makes the whole Brekke/F'nor Angsty McAngstPants deal in DQuest seem dumb. I mean, dumber.
Aaaaawww, I thought it was cute ! But then I would, I like angst. Can you tell I liked Hobb's Assassin trilogies ? :p

[Reynard]

"Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?"

In theory, he shouldn't.

"Well, he in practice he does. Except for Elgar and Liszt."

Liszt?! LISZT?!?!?! You mean the guy who wrote the "Faust Symphony", the "Totentanz" and the Mephisto Waltzes? *That* Liszt?

*********************

We have a local Babtist choir that sings "Amazing Grace" to the tune of "I'd like to teach the world to sing" -- you know, the old Coke commercial?

It turns a truly beautiful expression of anguish and astonished joy into... um... a Coke commercial.

Pardon me while my head explodes...

[Tonio]

Pardon me while my head explodes...

Hard to believe that the jingle and Miller Beer's "If You've Got the Time" were written by the same man who wrote Fontella Bass' "Rescue Me" and co-wrote Jackie Wilson's "Lonely Teardrops."

[Tonio]

My head explodes at the thought of "situational homosexuality," because it sounds like the worst homophobic stereotype of men having sex with each other simply because they can.

[Izzy]

Caravelle: Oh, I like some angst too. Hobb was awesome--so were the Vanyel books, though I wanted to smack him in Promise. Mostly, Brekke's Wide Eyed Innocent/Hopelessly Devoted To You act got on my nerves.

Tonio:

It's a pretty well established fact that a fair number of people--men and women alike*--will, under sufficient personal duress, have sex with people other than their preferred gender. Whether "sufficient duress" is "empathic mating frenzy," "I'm stuck on this desert island with only you, Bob," or "enh, I'm drunk and you're cute," depends on the person in question. And, while you could get all squishy and romantic about it and talk about the need for human connection blah blah emocakes, mostly it's 'cause they can.

*I would say most people, because Kinsey 0s and 6s are (I think) comparatively rare, but I couldn't get statistics off the top of my head or anything, and could be wrong.

[vanya]

There may be plenty of people who came to the books simply as fans of fantasy without any prior knowledge of the Christian parallels. I just haven't met any or heard of any.

I think that must be a recent development. I grew up in the '70s - I and my friends, all raised by fairly permissive non-religious pot smoking parents - read the Narnia books, didn't notice or particularly care about the Christian parallels. In fact in the '70s I think people just kind of assumed that any fantasy book was vaguely hippy and counter-culture. I'm sure Lewis would have been horrified.

[Kip W]

Yes, that Liszt. Abbe Liszt, who took holy orders (if I'm using the term right) but not enough to be a priest.

Would anybody know what I was talking about if I said I saw a Christian video many years ago about a classroom exercise in throwing people off of a lifeboat? It was darn good, and I regret not recording it at the time. It must be online somewhere, right? This is 2008!

Try "Amazing Grace" to the tune of "Gilligan's Island." Yeah, I know. Old news.

[Jesurgislac]

Tonio: There may be plenty of people who came to the books simply as fans of fantasy without any prior knowledge of the Christian parallels. I just haven't met any or heard of any.

*waves*

Both my parents are Christian, I guess you could say I had a Christian childhood, and yet I read all of the Narnia books without having any idea of any of the Christian elements. (Once someone told me and I re-read them, a lot of bits and pieces that had made no sense at the time fell into place, like reading the end of Plato's Republic and realizing where Lewis got his "Further up and further in!" and the Wood Between the Worlds from... but I read them as a fan of fantasy: most of the people I know who liked the Narnia books did.)

[Fred]

Excellent summary of Larry's life and work. When he was good he was bordering on genius. When he was bad . . . well not so much! A very delightful and strange artist.

God bless us one and all.

/fwa

[interloper]

Kip W:
Would anybody know what I was talking about if I said I saw a Christian video many years ago about a classroom exercise in throwing people off of a lifeboat? It was darn good, and I regret not recording it at the time. It must be online somewhere, right? This is 2008!

There's Lifeboat by Steve Taylor. Is that what you were thinking of?

[Kip W]

Thanks, interloper! Yes, that's the one I saw. I'm glad I kept coming back to this comment thread to see if I'd gotten a response.