Larry Norman (4/8/47 - 2/24/08)
I was sad to receive word yesterday on the theophilusj Yahoo group that Larry Norman passed away on Sunday.
Here is the statement that was in the message and can also be seen on Larry Norman's website:
Hello everybody.
Our friend and my wonderful brother Larry passed away at 2:45 Sunday morning. Kristin and I were with him, holding his hands and sitting in bed with him when his heart finally slowed to a stop. We spent this past week laughing, singing, and praying with him, and all the while he had us taking notes on new song ideas and instructions on how to continue his ministry and art.
Several of his friends got to come and visit with him in the last couple of weeks and were a great source of help and friendship to Larry. Ray Sievers, Derek Robertson, Mike Makinster, Tim and Christine Gilman, Matt and Becky Simmons, Kerry Hopkins, Allen Fleming and a few more. Thank you guys. Larry appreciated your visits very much. And he greatly appreciated the thoughts, wishes, support and prayers that came from all of you Solid Rock friends on a daily basis. Thank you for being part of his small circle of friends over the years. Yesterday afternoon he knew he was going to go home to God very soon and he dictated the following message to you while his friend Allen Fleming typed these words into Larry's computer:
________________________________
I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God's hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home.
My brother Charles is right, I won't be here much longer. I can't do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. In the past you have generously supported me with prayer and finance and we will probably still need financial help.
My plan is to be buried in a simple pine box with some flowers inside. But still it will be costly because of funeral arrangement, transportation to the gravesite, entombment, coordination, legal papers etc. However money is not really what I need, I want to say I love you.
I'd like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. There will be a funeral posted here on the website, in case some of you want to attend. We are not sure of the date when I will die. Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again.
Goodbye, farewell, we'll meet again
Somewhere beyond the sky.
I pray that you will stay with God
Goodbye, my friends, goodbye.
Larry
________________________________
Thank you to all of you who were so nice to my brother over the years. Kristin and I will post funeral information in the next day or two. Right now we're not able to function very well, but the whole family is here... our mother Margaret, our sisters Nancy and Kristy, Mike Norman and his new wife Tiffany, and Silver.
We miss him beyond words. Thank you for everything.
Peace to you all in Christ,
Charles Norman
The picture at the top of this post was either taken at the 2001 Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Illinois (see other pictures here). I should say that I rarely (maybe never) listen to any current selections of so-called contemporary Christian music--at least the kind that would be played on the radio or featured in Christian stores. But that's not to say that I don't appreciate non-traditional Christian music. When I've had a chance in the past, I've made it to the Cornerstone Festival, listened around in the tents for music that caught my interest and purchased CDs accordingly. And I've been fortunate to have seen Larry Norman perform a handful of times at those festivals.
If you don't know who he is, it's truly a shame (you can always read his Wikipedia entry, I suppose). Very few people warrant titles like "father of" or "pioneer" in their chosen field. Those who did know him and the significance of his loss Sunday, at the same time know his place is secure in the presence of God with his passing.
The San Jose Mercury News website ran a story about Larry's influence and death this morning, an overflow of information the writer had collected for his obituary. Frank Black of the Pixies is quoted in the article as saying of Larry Norman, "You know, I never met Jesus Christ, but he actually seems Christlike." That's not a bad way to be remembered, and especially to have it reported in the secular press.
I first discovered Larry Norman's music while in college when my friend Stan Gaulden played Norman and others on our campus radio station on Sunday mornings. It was simply called "The Christian Show." But it was a state university and eventually the powers-that-be pulled the show. I wonder if all that classic Christian rock vinyl still sits in some back office of KLPI or if it was thrown out years ago?
Of course my college-era discovery of Larry Norman was a decade and a half after he had already made his mark in the history of Christian music. The cassettes I bought then eventually wore out, and I gradually replaced them with CD's picked up at the Cornerstone Fest. Larry's music style reflects the late sixties/early seventies style that produced it, and it's easy to forget how revolutionary it was for its time (or even much later when I first heard it). I've heard some of the remixes and I suppose new artists will forever release their versions of "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?" and "I Wish We'd All Been Ready," but I prefer Larry's original versions, thank you very much.
And if the above songs are all you know of Larry's music, you should really pick up one or two of his CD's--especially one of his original "Trilogy" albums. Listening to Larry's music from the early seventies is quite different than some of the sterile "artificially sweet" stuff that passes for much of Christian music today. The Good News of Jesus Christ is always subversive to the values of the culture in which it's proclaimed, and the lyrics of Larry Norman's music reminds us that there are more social issues for Christianity to address than merely abortion and sexual orientation.
At the end of the Mercury News piece, Larry Norman is summed up (quoting Denny Fridkin) like this: "His ministry was really his music and his message was very simple: to love God and love your neighbor and help the poor."
Christlike indeed.