Larry Norman

The world of Christian music lost another of its true pioneers this past Sunday night.

Larry Norman is generally considered the father of what came to be known as Christian rock music.

With landmark albums such as "Upon This Rock", "In Another Land", and "Only Visiting This Planet", Norman's trailblazing work in a genre of music he almost invented will long live on in the hearts and minds of those who recognize Christian-oriented rock music as an authentic form of musical testimony.

You might be wondering why I, an avowed lover of traditional gospel quartet music(which Norman vowed to supersede with his music), would be saluting Norman for what he accomplished in the music world.

Well, for one thing, Norman was very good at what he did. The aforementioned albums attest to that. Plus, with the emphasis on reaching more youthful audiences with their music, gospel quartets such as the Oak Ridge Boys, the Imperials, and JD Sumner and the Stamps recorded Norman's music. They knew good material when they heard it.

The Imperials and the Stamps both covered Norman's "Sweet Song of Salvation" in the early 1970s, and around that same time, the Oaks and Tennessee Ernie Ford(!)covered Norman's classic "I Wish We'd All Been Ready". Those covers proved that gospel quartet music could be versatile enough to adapt any song to its' style and be successful.

More than that, Norman was serious about what he did. Although the son of good Christian parents and involved early on in his life with making music with a Christian point of view, he never was interested as much in musical evangelism as he was in using his talents to express his true Christian faith to the world. And his world was not the world of churches and retreats...he liked the rock music that developed out of the tradition of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Norman undoubtedly thought(as the title of an early book about the contemporary Christian music movement suggested), "Why should the Devil have all the good music?"

How good Norman's music was in the absolute sense, as always, is a matter of personal taste. And in this posting, I will withhold value judgements on it per se...after all, his musical merits are not what I'm writing about in this post. I will state, however, that the lasting impact of his earliest music on those who aspire to succeed in that genre is testament to its merit among the genre's adherents. And inasmuch as that music has influenced many people who otherwise would not have considered the claims of Christ any other way, it is worth honoring and recognizing Norman's contributions to the world of Christian music.

Norman was never the easiest person to understand, either. Over the years, he aroused controversy due to the ways he went about his craft. And his well publicized fallout with one of his earliest pupils in the genre, Randy Stonehill, caused some to step back from Norman a bit and look at him from a distance. But to his credit, Norman never did what he did to simply curry favor with people. His walk with Christ was a deeply personal one that he followed with great personal integrity, for the most part.

Norman's first impact in the music world came in 1968 with the rock group he was then a part of, People. People's major hit was a song called "I Love You(But The Words Won't Come)", a song that to this day is played often on the "classic rock" radio stations. With Norman, People recorded songs that for a time expressed Norman's Christian point of view.

Shortly after that song became a hit, though, the majority of the members of People embraced the relatively new cult of Scientology....soon demanding that the entire group embrace it or leave the group. Norman and his best friend in the group refused to abandon their Christian beliefs to assent to Scientology, and as a result, they left People.

People was never heard from on the charts again. Norman, however, had acquired enough of a reputation with his music to get the group's label, Capitol Records, to issue his breakthrough solo album. "Upon This Rock" in 1969. The album was an underground success in the rock world, and its' success inspired many other young artists of the Christian faith to go forth and pursue their own musical visions and careers. Thus, Norman quickly earned the reputation as the originator of Christian rock music.

Many other rock artists expressed admiration for Norman and his work, most notably, Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan. Since then, Chriistian artists of all genres, even traditional southern gospel, have looked upon admiration from the world of secular music as a validation of their musical worth. While such respect is nice if you can get it(and certainly justified in the case of many Christian artists), it seldom comes to those who make an issue of courting it. Rather, in the case of artists like Norman, it comes as a result of maintaining your personal and musical integrity. It can be argued that Norman was used by God in a most difficult mission field to spread His Word to many who otherwise would never be exposed to it. This, perhaps, is Norman's greatest legacy as a musician and person.

Norman's music didn't make much of an impact in the world after his peak work of the 1970s, and maybe it didn't need to. Norman never stopped making music or playing it before audiences, and up to his final days he was sharing it and himself with others, content with expressing himself to his satisfaction.

There are many lessons we can learn from Norman's life and music, and I suspect his name will live on for many more years in the minds and hearts of those inspired to seek and make Christian music because of him.

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