| | Larry Norman, with the Lord, February 24, 2008. I never met Larry Norman, I never saw him play live, and I never owned an album of his. But Larry Norman had a profound affect on Christian music, especially in the '70s. Some people say that he was 'the father of Christian rock" (see his bio page at http://www.larrynorman.com/bio.html ). I kind of think of him as the "George Washington" of Christian rock. Wherever you looked in the '70s, in the area of Christian rock, Larry had been there first. By the time I got into the Christian music/rock scene, it was early in 1976, my senior year of high school. There was still quite a chasim between music played in the church and what you heard on the radio, at least where I went. The church organs and pianos still reigned supreme, and in many churches guitars were hard to find outside of the youth room. But by then Larry Norman had put out a couple of different records with electric guitar and rock n roll, with a strong Christian message. The Calvary Chapel music nights on Saturdays in Costa Mesa were going strong by then. We used to arrive at 4pm for a 7pm concert, and even then there would be a line already forming. Groups like Mustard Seed Faith, Sweet Comfort, Gentle Faith, and Daniel Amos, were packing them out. Late that year or the next Keith Green came out with his first album and started really stiring it up. It was a great awakening for me and my friends as we discovered that you could really praise God and inject profound truths into today's world, not only with an acoustic guitar, but with electric guitars, Marshall Amps, giant drum sets and synthesizers. The music made us move and want to get involved. We could sing with Larry, "Why should the devil have all the good music?" And we found out that God had better music; music that touched the heart and changed lives, music that was glorious and glorifying to God. Larry had been there first. He took so much of the flak from the guns of the Christian establishment, those who didn't understand the times and what the youth of the day were going through. Larry pushed ahead, not just with his guitar and his rock style, but also with an authentic message that showed he was not afraid of being a Jesus follower. And we wondered why Christian book stores had banned his albums. Like I said, I didn't have a Larry Norman record, but my buddies did, and we listened and listened. We heard stories about Larry from our favorite Christian artists. Many of them wouldn't have been there if it had not been for Larry and other pioneers. At our first gig, we had a bunch of people come from our home church. We felt pretty good about that until some of them walked out because we were too "rock n roll". Well, people had walked out on Larry before us, and he had kept on playing and testifying and writing what God was putting on his heart. Thanks, Larry, for not just letting the devil have a monopoly on all the good music, and for being an example to the rest of us. We kept it going for a few years more, and then we passed the baton again. We'll meet someday, bro. Thanks. Another good link from his site: http://www.larrynorman.com/news/022408.html |
