Published February 26th, 2008
Larry Norman, R.I.P.
Christianity Today has a really nice, and not sugar-coated, piece on the late Larry Norman.
Of course, I’m a big Daniel Amos fan, and like many fans tended to blame Larry Norman for the dispute which prevented DA’s seminal “Horrendous Disc” from being released in the 70s, when it might have been ground-breaking, until 1980, virtually simultaneous with “Alarma!” on DA’s new record label. After waiting decades for Norman to release “Horrendous Disc” on CD, I and other fans were particularly annoyed that Norman saw fit to add a couple of “bonus tracks” to the CD of himself singing DA songs. It seemed like a deliberate slap in the face, especially since “Horrendous Disc” is considered a concept album, making extra tracks a redundant intrusion.
But you can’t dispute the key role that Norman played in creating Christian rock, both through his own talent and by giving a forum to artists like DA and my other particular favorite, Randy Stonehill.
Just within the last year I was reminded of Norman’s “I Wish They’d We’d All Been Ready,” by Randy Bonifield’s very funny send-up of end-times theology, which incorporates parts of Norman’s song:
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