Larry Norman: In another Land

Some people say that God is dead
That He doesn't exist
Except inside your head

I wonder how many gonna be surprised
When they look straight up
And see Him coming through the skies

- Watch What You're Doing

I just found out, via some Facebook wall writing by my friends Ilona and Greg, that Larry Norman has gone to be with the Lord. (see Google News and Christianity Today)

In one sense, it's difficult to imagine how Contemporary Christian Music could be what it is, today, without the influence of Larry. In another sense, it seems that much of CCM is simply a variant form of mainstream secular entertainment - a variety of entertainment foreign to Larry's early work.

One way, one way to Heaven
Hold up high your hand
Follow, free and forgiven
Children of the Lamb

- One Way

Larry, while a talented rock musician, certainly had his faults. Yet it seemed that his life resonated with those who, for whatever reasons, had led difficult and hard lives themselves.

Let the proud but dying nation kiss the last generation
It's the year of the pill, age of the gland
We have landed on the moon but we'll clutter that up soon
Our sense of freedom's gotten out of hand
We kill our children, swap our wives
We've learned to greet a man with knives
We swallow pills in fours and fives
Our cities look like crumbling hives
Man does not live, he just survives
We sleep, till he arrives
Love is a corpse, we sit and watch it harden
We left it, oh so long ago, the garden

- Nightmare #71

I saw Larry perform a few times in the early 1980s. From a venue such as the gymnasium at Biola, to a small grass playground area, at a tiny church in Orange, California. While he was exquisite, in these concerts, he was also noticeably tired. It almost seemed as if he had used up most of his life's energy during the 60s and 70s.

Larry Norman: now resting in another land...

Come to reason, face the day,
Now's the season, old things pass away.

Stand beside us, take His hand,
He will guide us, in another land.

- Hymn to the Last Generation

Comments

[Ray Fowler]

Thanks for your thoughts on Larry. He will be missed.