THE GOSPEL MUSIC HALL OF FAME BIOGRAPHY
Larry Norman is celebrating more than 45 years as a songwriter and performer. In 1956 he began writing his songs and performing them in public. He has continued to perform them all over the world. Instead of concentrating solely on America, he has toured exotic places like Russia, Lebanon, Israel, India, Hong Kong, and Japan. He has also performed in Western World countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, The Czech Republic, Poland, Holland, Britain, France, Italy, and Australia. He has sung in small clubs like New York’s Bitter End, and L.A.’s Troubadour, and also given concerts at The San Francisco Pop Festival and other outdoor festivals with crowds of up to 180,000. He has performed for The White House, twice - and in direct contrast, in Moscow at the 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium. He has headlined at venues like The Hollywood Bowl, The Sydney Opera House, The Palladium and London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall, which he has sold out six times; once filling it twice on the same day. Only recently has he slowed down.
For almost thirty years the press has referred to him as “the father of Christian rock” because it was he who first combined rock and roll with Christian lyrics. In the 70’s Billboard Magazine called him “the most important writer since Paul Simon.” To the church, in the early years, these accolades only deepened their doubts about him. He was banned in most Bible bookstores. But in later years he began to gain wider acceptance. Christian Artists Seminar awarded him their Lifetime Achievement Award and Contemporary Christian Music Magazine named Norman's Only Visiting This Planet record the most significant and influential gospel album ever released in the field of contemporary Christian music. This kind of recognition is not new to Norman. Time Magazine once called him “the most significant artist in his field.” He has said, “I’m just an artist, reaching toward Heaven."
His recording ministry started in 1966 when he was offered a contract by Capitol Records and found himself on the same label as The Beatles and The Beach Boys. His first single, “Riding High,” was a song about the Christian life through the Holy Spirit. His first album was titled We Need A Whole Lot More Of Jesus, And A Lot Less Rock And Roll. Larry and his band People! opened for secular groups like The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Janis Joplin, The Byrds and many others. Larry was outspoken about his beliefs. His music was original and thought-provoking. Pete Townshend credited Larry's own rock-opera, The Epic, for inspiring the rock-opera, Tommy, recorded by The Who. In 1969 Larry recorded his third Capitol album, Upon This Rock, which introduced the songs “I Wish We’d All Been Ready,” and “Sweet Song of Salvation.”
His style of music had been controversial for almost fifteen years before the Jesus Movement sprang up. During the Fifties and Sixties, he felt pretty much alone, but when other Christians began to write songs which were more modern and rock-based, things began to change. Larry’s broken finger, held up after each song, had become the One Way sign for the 70’s movement and his song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” had become its anthem. The film A Thief In The Night used this song as part of its storyline. Other films would later incorporate his music into their soundtracks. His ministry continued to grow. Over the years his songs were translated into more than a dozen languages, including Russian and Hebrew. His music was studied in various universities and seminaries. He became friends with writers like Francis Schaeffer, Malcolm Muggeridge, and Hal Lindsey. Larry has had over three hundred cover records of his songs by other groups, including recordings by non-gospel artists like Sammy Davis, Jr. and Petula Clark. Later, even Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, Black Francis of The Pixies nee Frank Black, the group U2, and Van Morrison have called themselves fans.
LARRY HAS BEEN WRITTEN UP BY TIME MAGAZINE, BILLBOARD, RECORD WORLD, CASHBOX, SCREW, COSMOPOLITAN AND OTHER SECULAR MAGAZINES AND MANY SECULAR NEWSPAPERS AROUND THE WORLD.
TODAY, THIS IS NOT UNCOMMON BUT BACK IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE JESUS MOVEMENT, HIGH PRAISE FROM “LOW” SOURCES HEAPED EXTRA CONDEMNATION UPON HIM. . . “GUILT THROUGH ASSOCIATION.”
To the church these accolades only confirmed his secularity. Upon This Rock had been banned by the majority of Bible Bookstores for two years. Only Visiting This Planet remained in limbo for over six years. Although on stage he rarely smiled and often appeared to be almost daring an audience to like him, this enfant terrible - the “bad boy of Christian music” - was making music which could not be ignored; and finally he began to be perceived not as a “tool of Satan” but as a Christian with an unusual perspective on both secular and Christian cultures.
Upon leaving MGM Records in 1974 he started his own label, Solid Rock Records. His first recording, Orphans From Eden, was never released. His next album, In Another Land, was censored by Word Records, which insisted upon removing music they felt was “too controversial.”
When his 1976 album, Something New Under The Son, met with similar censorship, he took off on a seven-month world tour and wrote Voyage Of The Vigilant. This expansive tour was covered by journalist Steve Turner and also chronicled by photographer D.C. Riggott.
Larry toured with a rock and roll band and also performed solo sets throughout America, Canada, Australia, Scandinavia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and more exotic locales like Israel, Lebanon, India, Hong Kong, and Japan - but with songs like “Three Million Gods,” and “Cats Of The Coliseum,” discussing the Hindu religion and the early martyrdom of Christians in Rome, Voyage Of The Vigilant was not acceptable because it was considered too “avant garde.” It was never released.
Despite the censorship difficulties he was experiencing with his own albums, he was hitting home runs with other artists’ albums. He had found Randy Stonehill in obscurity, worked for several years to get him off of drugs, produced Welcome To Paradise, and took Randy with him all across Europe and America, which firmly established Randy’s recognition by 1977.
He had also discovered Steve Camp, who signed with Solid Rock and then asked Larry to let him sign with Myrhh. Larry had nurtured Keith Green, but felt that Keith was too restless to work with peacefully, so Keith then signed with Sparrow. A country group on the verge of breaking up came to Larry and he jump-started a new career for them with the release of the experimental rock album, Horrendous Disc. It remains Daniel Amos’ most popular work to this day. Mark Heard was working in a chicken cage factory for Spinkomatic when Larry met him. Larry invited him to join Solid Rock. With the exception of Mark, who went on to produce increasingly perceptive albums, the albums of the other artists which were released on Solid Rock, have generally been considered the most definitive albums they ever recorded.
So for what proved to be only a very short time, Larry produced other artists in addition to himself. This “golden age of Solid Rock” was still in full flower, and Larry was getting ready to sign with Warner Brothers when he was involved in the airplane accident of 1978 which injured his spine, neck, and skull - and caused him partial brain damage and silenced his literate voice for the next twelve years. After fighting with Word Records for two more years, Larry dismantled Solid Rock and moved to Europe.
He started a new label, Phydeaux - as in “Fido.” At the time, Larry joked that “if Christian music was going to the dogs, then he wanted to remain on the cutting edge.” Phydeaux released several studio compilations and bootleg style albums to compete with the illegal albums like “Live At The Mac,” being released by bootleggers and music pirates like Randy Leyton.
He was standing as far away from the music industry as possible and enjoying the distance. Basically, he was ignoring the American distributors who had for years ignored him. Through the mail he found that he could go directly to the people who well and truly understood music and his ministry.
When critics attacked his Phydeaux albums for not keeping up with the fads and trends of the current gospel industry, Larry could only laugh about it. He had been ahead of his time for years and had his music censored and banned because of it. In the Eighties, he was only vaguely interested in making his albums available to the stores.
Larry continued to travel extensively through other countries, coming back to America occasionally to report on his adventures. The 1978 airplane accident had made him seem much friendlier and more accessible than during the intensity of his earlier years. He started inviting members of the audience out to restaurants after the concerts - not to continue preaching but to listen to the stories of their lives, and their experiences. Although he remained at odds with the gospel music industry, avoided Christian television, granted very few interviews, and did not try to push his ministry as a commercial business. His ministry continued to grow.
– Larry was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2001
I created my own profile using nUCLEArcENTURy.COM and you should too!
