He's Dead!!

It was hard to believe that on Monday of last week I flicked thru the Guardian Newspaper and saw a picture of my teenage idol Larry Norman. What was shocking was that it was in the obituaries page! I knew he had been unwell but didn't know he was so close to death. Larry died on Sunday 24th of Feb. I began googling him and checking out various web sites. It was great to hear some of his old tunes and his social commentries but the saddest thing of all was that on many of the radio recorded sites the concluding statement was "you can buy Larry Norman CDs from your local Christian book shop and all procedes will go to pay for Larry's medical fees!!" He even released a Christmas album which was cheesily intoduced as Larry's favourite time of year... it was so obvious that he released it to make money to pay for medication to keep him alive. I have heard various stories about how Larry would give his appearence fee to some needy person and walk away with nothing for his nights work yet the christain music scene obviously don't have a fund to help physically ailing arists like Larry. Lets get this in context too. Larry Norman was not just another singer/songwriter. When churches were struggling (and I am trying to be kind here) to accomodate the Jesus freaks who wanted to go to Church in jeans and sing a song that you could tap your feet to (at least!) Larry was singing that Jesus was the Rock That Doesn't Roll. He was asking the question that General William Booth of the Salvation Army asked, Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music? He single handedly (and please, please correct me if I'm wrong) dragged the Christian Music scene from its dying folky Pete Seager type songs into the Electric Rock/Blues music that today is the background for the likes of Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin. Yes Larry could do folk and was just as comfortable with an acoustic as an electric (see 'The Outlaw') although check out his late youtube songs and he vocally adds an electric lead riff in betweeen verses www.youtube.com/watch?v=BznsjIe5sMk
He tackled issues of drugs and sex "Gonorrhoea on Valentines day VD" from the song 'Why Don't you Look Into Jesus' which was radical for the church then and he even wrote about UFO's
"If there's life on Other planets then I'm sure that He must know
And He's been there once already and has died to save their souls" !!! No one else was (or even is) writing like that. He commented on the Vietnam war, racisim and other issues in 'The Great American Novel' Let me add that no one was tackling those issues in my church or publically in Christian events. There was billy Graham doing his stuff, Mary White house doing hers David Watson challenging Conservative Christianity but in their own way they were not connecting and maybe even sidelinning the people Larry Norman was reaching
He did seem to be a little Bob Dylan esque and did a great impersonation of Mick Jagger on some of his rocky stuff but Larry got slated for it. He admits to falling out with fellow rock artists like Randy Stonehill and further admits (again youtube helps me out) that it was not until 1990 that he understood that God loved him unconditionally. He tells us that up until then he did not understand that God would love him no more if he was good and no less if he was bad.
Many of his songs ended with the thoughts of this world not being were we belong. Famous lines like "This world is not my home" and "I'm only visiting this planet" and "In another land"
Its hard to sum the guy up and his influence on me and on people like Keith Green, Bob Dylan and others.
I find it hard to beleive that there will be any one like Larry Norman.
His best song, I Am A Servant, sort of summs the guy up and makes me reflect on how unlike Jesus I am!!