| Larry Norman |
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| 1947 births | |
| living people | |
| performers of christian music | |
| people from corpus christi, texas | |
| arena rock recording co. artists | |
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Larry David Norman (born April 8 , 1947 in Corpus Christi, Texas ) is an American singer-songwriter considered the forefather of Contemporary Christian Music . He is well known for his hard rock anthems alongside his delicate and haunting folk rock ballads. Norman is well respected for his creative songwriting. One critic lionized him in 1970 as the "Rebel Poet, Jukebox Balladeer" (Ed Plowman, Hollywood Free Paper ). Norman's music has been covered by a variety of artists including Petula Clark , Sammy Davis, Jr. , Pat Boone , Jack Jones , Tennessee Ernie Ford , Cliff Richard , Frank Black , and '' Dc Talk ''. His music has been translated into more than a dozen languages, studied in college literary classes and used in many films - '' Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music? '', '' Thief In The Night '', '' Tribulation Force '', '' Live At Greenbelt – BBC Documentary '', '' The Son Worshippers '', etc. HISTORY At age nine, Norman began writing his songs and performing them in public. For almost thirty years the press has referred to him as “the father of Christian rock” because it he was one of the first who first combined rock and roll with Christian lyrics. During the 1960s, 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 . His recording ministry started in 1966 when the group he was a part of, People! , was offered a contract by Capitol Records and they found themselves on the same label as The Beatles and The Beach Boys . 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 is said to have credited Larry's own Rock Opera , The Epic , for inspiring the rock-opera, Tommy , recorded by The Who . Their first album was titled I Love You by the record company, to bank on the success of the group's hit single of the same name written by Chris White of The Zombies . However, Norman and People! had originally planned to call the record, We Need A Whole Lot More Of Jesus, And A Lot Less Rock And Roll . Norman is rumored to have quit the group on the day of the records, release, citing dissatisfaction over artistic control over People's creative output. In 1969 Larry recorded his Capitol album, Upon This Rock , which introduced the songs “I Wish We’d All Been Ready,” and “Sweet Song of Salvation.” These songs became anthems for the burgeoning Jesus Movement. He also recorded the albums Only Visiting This Planet and So Long Ago The Garden for MGM/Verve Records . In the years that followed he headlined at The Hollywood Bowl , The Sydney Opera House , and London 's Royal Albert Hall , which he sold out six times. His songs have been recorded by more that 350 other artists, translated into more than a dozen languages. He has also performed in Russia , China , India , Japan , Italy , South Africa , Israel , Poland , Prague , Australia , Norway , Sweden , France , England , and Belfast . In 1972, Norman made his first screen appearance in '' Son Of Blob '' (the campy sequel to the film, '' The Blob '' (also known as '' Beware! The Blob! '') acting alongside Larry Hagman , Burgess Meredith , Robert Walker, Jr. , Carole Lynley , stand–up comics Shelley Berman , Godfrey Cambridge and other established actors. In 1975 he started his own label, Solid Rock Records , and recorded In Another Land and other style-breaking albums for his stable of Solid Rock artists. 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. 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 also discovered Steve Camp , who signed with Solid Rock and then asked Larry to let him sign with Myrhh. Larry had nurtured Keith Green , who later signed with Sparrow. 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 release critically acclaimed albums, the albums of the other artists which were released on Solid Rock, have generally been considered the most definitive albums they ever recorded. In 1978 Norman was in an Airplane accident which caused partial Brain Damage and affected his recording output for the next twelve years. He continued to write new songs and perform them in concert but never released the studio versions. By 1981 Norman and his father had started Phydeaux Records as an anti-bootlegging measure to compete with, and erode the sales of, illegal concert recordings such as Live at the Mac and pirated copies of studio tapes from albums like Rough Mix2. His vinyl albums currently sell among collectors for up to $400. In 1990 Norman performed seven times at Moscow 's 35,000 seat Olympic Stadium . The following summer he recorded Stranded In Babylon in Norway. It was voted "Album of the Year" by different European gospel magazines and compared often with Only Visiting This Planet. He returned to America to organize its U.S. release but in February of 1992 stress and years of physically exhausting tours led to a severe heart attack. He recovered at that time and began doing occasional concerts for the next ten years, releasing albums now and then. Norman was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall Of Fame in 2001. When he was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame his son, Michael, flew to Nashville to accept the honor and deliver a speech to the attendees. In 2003 Norman held a "final concert" in his adopted hometown of Salem , Oregon ; he has performed similar concerts in 2005 and 2006. In the summer of 2006 his group People! held a reunion concert. In the spring of 2007 he went on tour in Norway, Switzerland, Germany, and England. INFLUENCE Many artists have been influenced by Norman's music, including Frank Black of the '' Pixies ''. His album '' Frank Black & The Catholics '' features a cover song of Norman's ''Six-Sixty-Six''. Black also covered Norman songs during solo concerts in 2005 and 2006. In the song ''Levitate Me'', Black also parroted Norman's California/Texas accent with "Come on pilgrim, you know he loves you" – a phrase that Norman had inserted on the end of his 1978 blues song '' Watch What You're Doing ''. Black was one of the "special guests" at the June 2005 Elsinore Theater concert in Salem, joining Norman on the song, ''Watch What You're Doing''. {Link without Title} Other artists such as '' Dc Talk '' count themselves as fans of Norman's. '' Guns N' Roses '' keyboard player Dizzy Reed performed on Norman's '' Copper Wires '' album. While Norman was recording at George Martin 's AIR Studios in 1974, Paul McCartney was quoted in an interview as saying that Norman could have been one of the most significant artist of the 1970s, if he didn't only restrict himself to spiritual themes. Bono and The Edge from '' U2 '' are also fans. In the 1990s , animators for the popular television series, '' The Simpsons '' created a limited edition Comic Book featuring Norman as a Simpsons character. Watches were also sold that featured Norman's yellow, three fingered Simpsons' likeness. CHARACTERISTICS OF NORMAN'S MUSIC The majority of Norman's music that was produced during his most creative years (1966 - 1978, from his ''People!'' albums up through solo works like ''Something New Under the Son'') remain the fountainhead of his creative work. His songs addressed topics touching on politics (''The Great American Novel''), the eventual emptiness of Free Love (''Pardon Me''), the passive commercialism of war–time journalists (''I Am The Six O'Clock News''), witchcraft and the occult (''Forget Your Hexagram'') and alienation (''Lonely by Myself''), religious hypocrisy (''Right Here In America'') and many other topics unadressed by most American songwriters. Quality of Production Other than ''Streel Level'' and ''Bootleg'', which were intentionally raw and dirty productions, the rest of Norman's music was of a significantly higher production quality than that of most other music of the singer–songwriter genre. Larry was able to get significant figures in secular music involved in the production process, most notably George Martin and Andy Johns . Perhaps the most controversial involvement in Norman's career occurred over ''. However, the Horrendous Disc episode strained the relationship between D.A. and Norman. Norman re-released ''Horrendous Disc'' on CD in 2000. The re-release stirred controversy among Daniel Amos fans by the inclusion of two bonus tracks: Tribute recordings to Daniel Amos that Larry recorded at the end of the Horrendous Disc CD. There was supposed to be eight minutes of silence after the album was finished, and then the surprise bonus tracks. But the pressing plant thought the eight minute lapse was an error and moved the two tribute recordings to follow immediately after the Daniel Amos album. Larry was furious when he received a copy of the 1,000 units of the CD which had already been sent out and distributed. And it also angered Daniel Amos' hard core fans. The covers sung by Norman were of his favorite Daniel Amos song – "Hound of Heaven." One recording was a straight-ahead tribute version of the song and the second tribute recording was a version using a very laid–back jazz band. Norman was also accused by the DA fans of being too defensive in his liner notes. Daniel Amos had approached Larry about putting together a "Deluxe Edition" of "Horrendous Disc" in 2006 with the original Horrendous Disc on the first disc and many bonus tracks on the second disc. That deal is still in the works. SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY 1960s 1970s 1980s
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