Vale Larry Norman

I was quite shocked to learn, as I surfed around the web tonight, that Larry Norman died last Sunday (Feb 24). He died of heart failure at the age of 60, after a long period of illness related to a heart condition.

I grew up on Larry Norman's edgy music in the 70s and remember treasuring my copy (on cassette) of his album Only Visiting This Planet... and when I sat down to think about it just now, it was scary how many of the songs from that album I can remember, almost word perfect.

Of course, Why should the Devil have all the Good Music was an anthem of our generation of young Christians struggling to find some Christian popular culture, the lyrics of The Outlaw were used as a resource in many a teen Bible study, looking at "Who is Jesus?", and of course, the popularity of I Wish We'd all been Ready made it almost a cliche as an anthem for the generation with an obsession with the second coming of Jesus.

Many of his songs contained very raw social commentary and thinly veiled references to various famous people and world political situations.

In the many obituaries that have flooded the electronic media, comments have been made about how Larry Norman was the father of Christian rock, and the founder of what would later morph into Contemporary Christian music (something which I do my best to avoid these days, because it is so lame), I do still have quite a soft spot for the hard-hitting music of Larry Norman. Here is a clip of one of his songs from Only Visiting this Planet - Why don't you look into Jesus.