Larry Norman

So, the three people who read this probably already know this, but Larry Norman passed away on Sunday (2/24/08). He seemed to have an impact on everyone he came across, whether good or bad. My mom had a cassette of his album "In Another Land" when I was younger and it was one of my favorites. He was one of my first introductions to "Christian rock." He was never afraid to speak out about or against American culture and American Christian culture. He never claimed to be the "father of Christian rock" or to be part of the "Jesus movement." He was simply a songwriter speaking about his beliefs. The Christian music industry in general has ignored him, although they would be nowhere without him. He doesn't fit the mold; he'd never be played on KLOVE (except for DC Talk's cover of "I Wish We'd All Been Ready"). He didn't sanitize the Gospel, didn't make his message easy to swallow. And he didn't preach to the choir.

There are some other blogs out there with tributes to Larry Norman. The Internet Monk posted this one a few years ago and resurrected it this week.

Shaun Groves has this to say about Larry Norman:
"It’ll be interesting to see how we react to Larry’s death. Will we gush accolades on our radio stations that didn’t play him? Will labels that wouldn’t sign him (or his kind) now make tribute CDs? Will music lovers who eschew singer-songwriters with a pointy finger suddenly revere him?"
Read his full post here.

Shaun also brings up a good point. Why do the "Christian artists" who make an impact become objects of derision? Read this:
"You see, people in the industry don’t always speak highly of Larry Norman. He allegedly didn’t work well with others. Nor do they always speak well of Keith Green. He was allegedly self-righteous and arrogant. Or how about Rich Mullins? Allegedly a foul-mouthed drunk. "
Hmmm, kind of sounds like the Pharisees talking about Jesus, doesn't it?