Larry Norman

Larry David Norman (April 8, 1947 – February 24, 2008)<ref name="NYTObit">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was an American musician, singer, songwriter, record label owner, and record producer. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of Christian rock music<ref name="Sanford">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="wittenburgdoor.com">Template:Cite magazine</ref> and released more than 100 albums.

Early life

Larry Norman was born in Corpus Christi, Texas,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Template:Dead link</ref> the oldest son of Joe Hendrex "Joe Billy" Norman (December 9, 1923 – April 28, 1999),<ref>Social Security Death Index: Born: December 9, 1923, Died: April 28, 1999; Name: Joe Hendrex Norman Service Info.: SGT US ARMY AIR CORPS WORLD WAR II Birth Date: December 10, 1923, Death Date: April 28, 1999</ref> and his wife, Margaret Evelyn "Marge" Stout (born in 1925 in Nebraska).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="shay">Template:Cite news</ref> Joe Norman had served as a sergeant in the US Army Air Corps during World War II<ref>Joe H. Norman, enlisted on October 24, 1942, at San Antonio, Texas. See National Archives and Records Administration. US World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938–1946 ; Source Information: National Cemetery Administration. US Veterans Gravesites, ca.1775–2006</ref> and worked at the Southern Pacific Railroad<ref name="Being 1986">"Larry Norman Down Under But Not Out", On Being (1985/1986):4.</ref> while studying to become a teacher.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After Norman's birth, the family joined the Southern Baptist church.<ref>Larry Norman, liner notes, The Cottage Tapes – Book One (1999):8; but cf. "Larry Norman Down Under But Not Out", On Being (1985/1986):4, which suggests it was soon before his birth.</ref> In 1950 the family moved to San Francisco, where they attended an African American Pentecostal church and then a Baptist church, where Norman became a Christian at the age of five.<ref name="barnet">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="twolnForeword79">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1959, Norman performed on the syndicated television show The Original Amateur Hour.<ref name="LNDUBNO">"Larry Norman Down Under But Not Out", On Being (1985/1986).</ref>

In 1960, Norman's father began teaching in San Jose, California; the family lived in nearby Campbell.<ref name="behindthebooks.ivpress.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Norman graduated from Campbell High School in 1965<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="taylor">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and won an academic scholarship to major in English at San José State University.<ref name="autogenerated2">"Larry Norman Down Under But Not Out", On Being (1985/1986):6.</ref> After one semester, Norman "flunked out of college and lost [his] scholarship."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Although Norman was able to play a variety of musical instruments, he never learned to read or write musical notation.<ref>Larry Norman, "A Special Solid Rock Interview", in The Blue Book (1986):10, released in 1989 with Home At Last album.</ref>

Career

Early bands

While still in high school, Norman formed a group called The Back Country Seven, which included his sister Nancy Jo and friend Gene Mason.<ref name="behindthebooks.ivpress.com" /> After graduating, Norman continued performing locally.

In 1966 Norman opened a concert for People! at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California. He later became the band's principal songwriter, sharing lead vocals with his Back Country Seven bandmate Gene Mason.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> People! performed about 200 concerts a year,<ref name="korea">Larry Norman, "Liner Notes", I Love You Korea, p.2.</ref> appearing with Van Morrison and Them, the Animals, the Dave Clark Five, Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Doors, the Who, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Moby Grape, and San Jose bands Syndicate of Sound and Count Five.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The band's cover of the Zombies' "I Love You" became a hit single, selling over one million copies and charting strongly in several markets.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Norman left People! just as Capitol released the band's first album in mid 1968, but reunited with Mason for concerts in 1974 and 2006.<ref name="cummings">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to rock historian Walter Rasmussen, Pete Townshend once said that The Who's 1969 album Tommy was inspired by the rock opera "Epic" by People!;<ref>Powell 2002, p. 633-634.</ref><ref>Wally Rasmussen, liner notes, "About the Author", Larry Norman: White Blossoms From Black Roots (SRD-030) (1988):4.</ref> however, Townshend has since denied the connection.<ref name="NMP">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Hollywood street ministry

Soon after Norman left People!, he had "a powerful spiritual encounter that threw him into a frenzy of indecision about his life [and] for the first time in his life, he received what he understood to be the Holy Spirit".<ref name="transformation1">Stowe 2011, p. 36-37.</ref>

In July 1968, following a job offer to write musicals for Capitol Records, Norman moved to Los Angeles where he "spent time sharing the gospel on the streets".<ref name="cbn.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Philip Cooney 2008">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As he described in 2006: "I walked up and down Hollywood Boulevard several times a day ... witnessing to businessmen and hippies, and to whomever the Spirit led me. I spent all of my Capitol Records' royalties starting a halfway house and buying clothes and food for new converts."<ref name="growth">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Kittle-p121">Template:Cite book</ref> He was initially associated with the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and its Salt Company coffee house outreach ministry,<ref name="normanjm">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="digit">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> where he explored and pioneered the rock-gospel genre.<ref name="Kittle-p121" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Musical theatre

In 1968 Norman wrote several songs for the rock musicals Alison and Birthday for Shakespeare, both of which were performed in Los Angeles.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="NORMAN%20LARRY%20DAVID&querytype=WriterID&keyid=251231&page=1&blnWriter=True&blnPublisher=True&blnArtist=True&affiliation=BMI&cae=214063413 |title=Songwriter/Composer: Norman Larry David">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Norman 1972, p. 9.</ref><ref>11 songs from Birthday for Shakespeare are included on Norman's 2007 album Motorola Corolla 2.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Norman 1972, p. 10">Norman 1972, p. 10.</ref>

The next year, Norman and his friend Teddy Neeley auditioned for the Los Angeles production of the rock musical Hair and were offered the roles of George Berger and Claude Bukowski, respectively; Neeley accepted, but Norman rejected the role of George, despite his own financial struggles, because "of its glorification of drugs and free sex as the answers to today's problems".<ref name="ReferenceA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="cverbelun.addr.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Also in 1969, Norman wrote a musical called Love on Haight Street and a rock opera called Lion's Breath, which led Capitol to re-sign Norman to record an album, with the promise of complete creative control.<ref>Shaw, Paul, "About the Artist", So Long Ago the Garden (30th Anniversary Edition 1973–2003), SRD-006.</ref><ref name="meetjesushere.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ata">"About the Artist", Only Visiting This Planet (2004).</ref>

Recording career

File:Lnsimp.png

The Simpsons parody comic of Larry Norman

In 1969, Capitol Records released Norman's first solo album, Upon This Rock, produced by Hal Yoergler, is now considered to be "the first full-blown Christian rock album".<ref name="ReferenceA" /><ref name="thompson49">Thompson 2000, p. 49-52.</ref> Norman was denounced by various television evangelists,<ref name="bivins">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Capitol deemed the album a commercial flop and dropped Norman from the label.<ref name="bsnpubs.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, his music gained a large following in the emerging countercultural movements.<ref>High Fidelity 20:7–12 (1970):112.</ref> Sales of the album rose following its distribution in Christian bookstores.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

By the early 1970s, Norman was performing frequently for large audiences, and appeared at several Christian music festivals,<ref name=digit/><ref name="bsnpubs.com" /><ref name="tributes">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> including Explo '72, a six-day Dallas event which has been called the "Jesus Woodstock."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Norman established a half-way house where he "housed and fed various groups of people, supervised their Bible studies and drove them to church on Fridays and Sundays".<ref name="cottagebk2">Larry Norman, "The White Cottage", liner notes, And the Rampions Run Wild: The Cottage Tapes – Book Two (2000 CD).</ref> He earned $80 per month from Capitol for polishing and refining songs for Capitol artists.<ref name=cottagebk2/> In 1970, Norman began a record label, One Way Records. He released two of his own albums Street Level and Bootleg on the label as well as Randy Stonehill's first album, Born Twice.

In 1971, Norman first visited England where he lived and worked for several years.<ref name="quizzed">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He recorded two studio albums, Only Visiting This Planet and So Long Ago the Garden, in London's AIR Studios.<ref name="larryinuk">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Released in 1972, Visiting "was meant to reach the flower children disillusioned by the government and the church" with its "abrasive, urban reality of the gospel", and has often been ranked as Norman's best album.<ref name="cbn.com" /> The release of Garden in November 1973 was met with controversy in the Christian press, due to the album's cover art and some songs in which Norman took the persona of a backslider.<ref name="Steve Turner 1977">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In 1974, Norman founded Solid Rock Records to produce records for Christian artists "who didn't want to be consumed by the business of making vinyl pancakes but who wanted to make something 'non-commercial' to the world".<ref name="boots">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Howard and Streck 2004, p. 163.</ref><ref name="store2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Norman produced music on the label for artists including Randy Stonehill, Mark Heard and Tom Howard.<ref name="virtuoso">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Norman also worked with several artists who were signed to other labels, including Malcolm and Alwyn, Bobby Emmons and the Crosstones, Lyrix, James Sundquist and David Edwards.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Norman signed a deal with ABC Records to distribute Solid Rock's releases, but was later moved to ABC subsidiary Word Records.<ref name="CR_OBIT">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="larrynorman1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the same year, Norman founded the Christian artist booking agency Street Level Artists Agency.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Mike Rimmer 2010">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In Another Land, the third album in Norman's trilogy and the best-selling album of his career, was released in 1976 by Solid Rock and distributed through Word.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="meetjesushere1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Soon afterward, Norman recorded the blues-rock concept album Something New under the Son, but it would not be released until 1981.<ref>Some sources indicate the album was recorded in 1977. See {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}; the original cover has "1977" written on it.{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="onlyvisiting1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="snuts">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Following clashes with Word over Something New and several other projects, Norman started Phydeaux Records in 1980 to release his albums.<ref name="vog95">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1978, Norman was injured during a plane landing at Los Angeles International Airport.<ref name=vog95/> Norman claimed to have suffered mild brain damage due to being hit by parts of the cabin's roof, and that this damage left him unable to complete projects and focus artistically.<ref name="ssri">Larry Norman, "A Special Solid Rock Interview", in Norman 1989, p. 10.</ref> William Ayers wrote in 1991: "As family, friends and fans watched, his life spiraled downward. He was unable to record a bonafide album from the time of his airplane accident in 1978 until ... he attempted to release the badly produced Home at Last [recorded in 1986]. He never expected to be healed."<ref name="stranded" />

In September 1979, Norman performed his "The Great American Novel", "a Dylanesque protest song", for U.S. president Jimmy Carter and about 1,000 guests at the Old Fashioned Gospel SinginTemplate:' concert held on the south lawn of the White House.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Following a prolonged dispute with Solid Rock artists Daniel Amos which ended in estrangement,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Solid Rock's business manager, Philip Mangano, and several Solid Rock musicians organized an intervention with Norman in June 1980, which led him to begin closing the company.<ref name="canadianchristianity.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Religious history professor Randall Balmer attributed the company's demise to "idealism, marital difficulties, and financial naivete—as well as changing musical tastes."<ref name="balmer">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

In late 1980, Norman moved to England and, with his father, founded Phydeaux Records, a company designed to compete with the bootleg market by selling rarities from Norman's own archives.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="story2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Larry Norman 2007">Larry Norman, "The Germans", (June 18, 2007).</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He signed a distribution deal with British label Chapel Lane and released several albums before returning to the United States in 1985.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="mjhtune">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Norman then began work on an anthology project celebrating his career in Christian music, beginning with the album White Blossoms from Black Roots: The History and the Chronology: Volume One;<ref name="lnblackroots">Liner Notes, White Blossoms From Black Roots (1997).</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> however, the project collapsed when the head of the distribution company was arrested for check forgery and the company's merchandise was seized by the FBI.<ref name=lnblackroots/><ref name="rtwb">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Norman signed to Benson Records in 1986 and recorded the album Home at Last, although the album was not released until 1989 due to legal problems.<ref name="benson">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Larry Norman 1989">Norman 1989, p. 20.</ref> Despite extensive promotion, the album was negatively reviewed, and Norman himself later dismissed the album as "just a collection of tapes I had", although he said separately that he was "extremely happy" with the level of support he'd received from Benson.<ref name="dickerson">Matthew Dickerson, "Home at Last", in Norman 1989, p. 16.</ref><ref name="cr93">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1989, Norman received the Christian Artists' Society Lifetime Achievement Award.<ref name="ChristianArtists" />

While visiting another musician at the close of a February 1991 tour, Norman received prayer for his long-term health problems from a pastor of London's Elim Way Fellowship.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Norman maintained that through this prayer God repaired the damage to his brain and he was able to function again.<ref name=quizzed/> That year, he collaborated with his brother Charles on the album Stranded in Babylon, hailed by both critics and fans as one of his best.<ref name="Robert Termorshuizen 1991">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Rupert Loydell 1992">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They would reunite for the 2001 album Tourniquet.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Norman continued to perform and release albums throughout his later years in order to raise funds for medical expenses stemming from heart problems.<ref name="phydeaux1-1995">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He gave his last official concert on August 4, 2007, in New York City.Template:Citation needed

Relationship with the church and Christian music industry

Throughout his career, Norman had a contentious relationship with the wider Christian church and with the Christian music industry. He wrote in September 2007, "I love God and I follow Jesus but I just don't have much affinity for the organized folderol of the churches in the Western World."<ref>Larry Norman, "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?", Liner Notes, Rebel Poet, Jukebox Balladeer: The Anthology (September 2007).</ref> Norman's music addressed a wide range of social issues, such as politics, free love, the occult, the passive commercialism of wartime journalists, and religious hypocrisy, that were outside the scope of his contemporaries.<ref name="KXL">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Defending the confrontational approach of his music, Norman said, "My primary emphasis is not to entertain. But if your art is boring, people will reject your message as well as your art."<ref>Larry Norman, quoted in Marlene D. LeFever, Creative Teaching Methods (David C. Cook, 1996):21.</ref> In the 1980s, he complained that Christian music generally meant "sloppy thinking, dishonest metaphors and bad poetry," and that he had "never been able to get over the shock of how bad the lyrics are."<ref name="twoln1984-2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Norman disapproved of Christian musicians who were unwilling to play in secular venues or to "preach" between songs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He also criticized what he saw as the "commercialization of Christian music in America",<ref name=twoln1984-2/> including the role of copyrights and licensing.<ref name="Philip Cooney 2008" />

Influence

In 2008, Christian rock historian John J. Thompson wrote, "It is certainly no overstatement to say that Larry Norman is to Christian music what John Lennon is to rock & roll or Bob Dylan is to folk music."<ref name="ccmmagazine.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Template:Dead link</ref> Thompson credited Norman for his impact on the genre as a musician, a producer, and a businessman.<ref name=thompson49/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Norman also influenced a number of emerging punk and alternative rock artists. According to documentarian Larry Di Sabatino, Larry Norman was "an early influence" on the post-punk band U2.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> When Bono met with a summit of Nashville Christian music artists in 2002 to garner support for an African aid campaign, he specifically asked to see Norman.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Upon Larry Norman's death, Bono sent flowers to his funeral with the note "Eternal singer, still eternal, Bono."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

According to Charles Normal, Larry Norman attended his "first of many" punk rock shows while touring London in 1977, seeing Richard Hell and the Voidoids, the Damned, and Dead Boys. Regarding the punk movement, Norman stated that while he initially disliked some of the lyrical content, he was generally supportive of it and its youthful energy, which he viewed as preferable to disco.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Norman subsequently introduced his younger brother, Charles, to the genre, including the music of the Sex Pistols. Within several years, Charles was the lead guitarist for the Bay Area hardcore punk band, Executioner.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Larry paid for the recording of Executioner's first EP in 1982, on the condition that they also record one of his songs. Larry Norman began to meet figures from the L.A. punk scene, and eventually recorded tracks with former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Norman also released a live recording of a punk version of "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?" <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Pixies frontman Black Francis described Larry Norman as having been his "total idol" as a teenager, whom he attempted to imitate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The band's first demo, The Purple Tape, was to contain a cover of Norman's song "Watch What You're Doing", but it was never released. A lyric from the song "Levitate Me" ("Come on pilgrim, you know He loves you!") formed the basis for the title of Pixies' 1987 EP Come On Pilgrim.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Black was eventually introduced to Norman by members of U2 during the Zoo TV tour.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Black's post-Pixies band, Frank Black and the Catholics, covered Larry Norman's song "Six Sixty Six". Norman and Black performed a duet of "Watch What You're Doing" at Norman's "farewell" concert, and the two were reportedly working on an album together at the time of his death, along with Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Steve Camp,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Carolyn Arends,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Bob Hartman,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> TobyMac,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Mark Salomon,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Martyn Joseph,<ref name=tributes/> and Steve Scott<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> have credited Norman as influences. Overall over 300 artists have covered songs by Norman.<ref name="GMHF">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Awards and honors

• 1973: One of three named as Best New Male Artist of the year by Cashbox.<ref name="Mike Appel 1993">Template:Cite book</ref>
• 1989: Awarded the Christian Artists' Society Lifetime Achievement Award in a surprise ceremony at Estes Park, Colorado.<ref name="stranded">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} 1991 CD booklet of the European version of Stranded In Babylon.</ref><ref name="ChristianArtists">"Christian Artists' Conference, Estes Park, 1989", in Larry Norman, Blue Book, 15.</ref>

• 1990: CCM magazine voted Only Visiting This Planet as "the second-greatest Christian album ever recorded".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• 2001: Inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 2001: Only Visiting This Planet was selected as the No. 2 album in CCM Magazine's The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music.<ref name="100 Greatest">Template:Cite book</ref>
• 2004: Voted into the CCM Hall of Fame by readers of CCM Magazine.<ref name="ccmmagazine">Template:Cite magazine Template:Dead link</ref>
• 2007: Inducted into the San Jose Rocks Hall of Fame, both as a member of People!, and as a solo artist. At that time Norman reunited for a concert with People!<ref name="SJMN">Template:Cite news</ref>
• 2008: Honored at the 39th GMA Dove Award ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 2009: Honored in a tribute segment at the Grammy Awards.<ref name="larrynorman.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 2013: Only Visiting This Planet was one of 25 sound recordings inducted for 2013 into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry, that preserves as "cultural, artistic and/or historical treasures, representing the richness and diversity of the American soundscape."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> A statement by the Library of Congress called the album "the key work in the early history of Christian rock," describing Norman as one who "commented on the world as he saw it from his position as a passionate, idiosyncratic outsider to mainstream churches."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Family

Norman married actress and model Pamela Fay Ahlquist in December 1971.<ref>Minnesota Marriage Collection, 1958–2001, Groom Index 1970 through 1975, page J01.</ref><ref name="Charm School 1978">Template:Cite news</ref> They separated in 1978 and divorced in September 1980.<ref name="LongJourneyHome">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>California Divorce Index, 1966–1984, Divorce Index, page 16574</ref>

In April 1982, Norman married Sarah Mae Finch.<ref name="twoln1984">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However another source indicates this was in April 1984.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Finch had previously been married to Randy Stonehill from 1975 to 1980.<ref name="devlin">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The two had first met at a religious retreat in 1969.<ref name=normanjm/><ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> Their only child, Michael David Fariah Finch Norman, was born in August 1985.<ref name="CR_OBIT" /><ref name="irc">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=through/><ref>Ancestry.com. California Birth Index, 1905–1995.</ref> The couple divorced in 1995.<ref>Cusic 2009, p. 313.</ref>

In 2008, World magazine speculated Norman fathered a son with an Australian woman during a 1988 tour, although definitive proof was never presented.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref>

Coronary issues and death

In February 1992, Norman suffered a nine-hour heart attack that resulted in permanent heart damage, leading to frequent hospitalizations in the years that followed.<ref name=growth/><ref name="through">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> By early 1995, Norman had been hospitalized thirteen times and had a defibrillator implant, which enabled him to perform occasional small concerts.<ref name=quizzed/><ref name=phydeaux1-1995/>

After a lengthy illness, Norman died on February 24, 2008, at the age of 60 at his home in Salem, Oregon.<ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref><ref name="Wittenburgdoor">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The previous day he had posted on his website:

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. I won't be here much longer. I can't do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone ... I want to say I love you. I'd like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort ... Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref>

Following a public memorial on March 1 at the Church on the Hill in Turner, Oregon, Norman was buried in Salem's City View Cemetery. His tombstone reads: "Larry Norman / Evangelist Without Portfolio / 1947–2008 / Bloodstained Israelite".<ref name="Wittenburgdoor" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Fallen Angel documentary

Fallen Angel: The Outlaw Larry Norman: A Bible Story is a controversial 2008 documentary on Norman's life by filmmaker David Di Sabatino. Fallen Angel includes interviews with several people who had worked with or been close to Norman thirty years earlier, including his first wife and Randy Stonehill, who recorded the film's official soundtrack, Paradise Sky.<ref name="OCWeekly20081015">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="saraco">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Norman and his second wife had refused to participate in or cooperate with the project.<ref name="OCWeekly20081015" /><ref name="jmvet">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A cease and desist notice initiated by Norman's family temporarily prevented the film's public screening, and prompted Di Sabatino to file his own lawsuit against Solid Rock in March 2009.<ref name="case">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Four months later, the case was settled out of court, allowing the film to be shown.<ref name=case/><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref> While interviewing Stonehill, Cross RhythmsTemplate:' Mike Rimmer said the film portrayed Norman as "Machiavellian, particularly in his dealings with his artists."<ref name=jmvet/>

Norman's Solid Rock Records was said to have ended when, "Things finally fell apart in 1979, after it was discovered Larry was cheating on his wife – and having an affair with Randy's wife",<ref name="canadianchristianity.com" /> Template:Dead link a claim Norman's brother denies.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Gregory Alan Thornbury's biography of Norman proposes an alternate date and reason for Solid Rock Records being wound up and the artists released from their contracts. Word Records signalled they planned to end their relationship with Solid Rock due to poor sales performances of a few of the albums and the infrequent nature of releases being delivered by the label and this news led to a breakdown in the working and personal relationship between Larry Norman and Philip Mangano in May 1980. Some discussions had already begun about certain artists being released from their contracts prior to the meeting on June 17, 1980, which was called to "clear up the relationship between Solid Rock and Street Level Artists Agency, and to deal with Daniel Amos' request to have all their contracts back from Solid Rock — management, recording, tapes, publishing, and so on" and which ended two hours later in stalemate and acrimony rather than resolution.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Select discography

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Since the 1960s, Norman's work has appeared on over 100 albums, compilations, and concert bootlegs. These recordings have been released under various labels and with various artists. Some of his principal albums are:

• Upon This Rock (1969)
• Street Level (1970)
• Bootleg (1972)
• Only Visiting This Planet (1972)
• So Long Ago the Garden (1973)
• In Another Land (1976)
• Something New under the Son (1981)
• Home at Last (1989)
• Stranded in Babylon (1991)
• Tourniquet (2001)

Autobiography

• The Long Road Home: Vaudeville, Dancing and How My Mother Met My Father. Salem, OR: Solid Rock Publications, 2007.

References

Bibliography

• Alfonso, Barry. The Billboard Guide to Contemporary Christian Music. New York: Billboard Books, 2002.
• Baker, Frank. Contemporary Christian Music: Where It Came From, What It Is, Where It's Going. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1985.
• Cusic, Don. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music: Pop, Rock, and Worship. (ABC-CLIO, 2009).
• Frank, Josh Caryn Ganz. Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Named Pixies. St. Martin's Press, 2006.
• Howard, Jay R. and John M. Streck. "Contemporary Christian Music: Where Rock Meets Religion". The Journal of Popular Culture 26:1 (March 5, 2004).
• Norman, Larry. Blue Book. 1989. Released with Home At Last album.
• Norman, Larry. Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music Songbook. Los Angeles, CA: One Way, 1972.
• Powell, Mark Allan. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002.
• Ruppli, Michel and Ed Novitsky. The MGM Labels: A Discography, 1961–1982 Vol. 2. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998.
• Stowe, David W. No Sympathy for the Devil: Christian Pop Music and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism. UNC Press Books, 2011.
• Thompson, John J. Raised by Wolves: The Story of Christian Rock & Roll ECW, 2000.

Further reading

• Taylor, Jeff, and Chad Israelson. The Political World of Bob Dylan: Freedom and Justice, Power and Sin. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. (chapters 5 and 6) Template:ISBN
• Thornbury, Gregory Alan. Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music? Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock. Convergent Books, March 20, 2018. Template:ISBN

External links

• Template:Official website
• Official British Site
• Cluttered Soul: The Words of Larry Norman
• Obituary in The Times, March 7, 2008
• "Righteous Rocker Paved Way" from CNN