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--- R.I.P. Larry Norman (http://www.danielamos.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=12281)
Posted by wayneb on 02-25-2008 at23:00:
I last saw Larry perform in 1978, in New Zealand. I was pretty stunned by the performance and wish I'd taken the time to remember who was in the band at the time. I'm pretty sure Tom Howard was on keys.
That started me on collecting quite a lot of his stuff on record...an impossible task to get it all, especially today! Remember Francis Schaeffer's comment on Larry? Something like...."He walks a lonely road, but I really appreciate his music". Very True. Larry, you are not alone any more...
Posted by John Foxe on 02-25-2008 at23:10:
The last time...
The first and last time I saw Larry was at C-Stone 2001 where he got on stage with Randy and sang with him.
Randy and Larry
Was anyone else there too?
Posted by Josh&etc on 02-25-2008 at23:21:
RIP Larry
Posted by dennis on 02-26-2008 at05:45:
| quote: |
Originally posted by wayneb
Remember Francis Schaeffer's comment on Larry? Something like...."He walks a lonely road, but I really appreciate his music". Very True. Larry, you are not alone any more... |
I never heard that quote. Thanks for posting it.
Posted by jiminy on 02-26-2008 at11:00:
I found out just yesterday that my older sister saw him in Duluth in 72- at the Kirby Student center on the UMD campus.
It started her love for Jesus- still strong today.
She and I have sung "I Wish We'd all been ready" ..though its been years.
I have had UFO in my repitiore for years..love telling people it was written b4 the first star wars..well- which was the 4th starwars etc etc..you can get people all muddled during an intro..
Posted by Mark on 02-26-2008 at12:46:
Here are some articles from the Salem, OR newspaper. Apparently, Larry was working on an album with Frank Black of the Pixies and Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse.
Statesman Journal
Salem Newspaper 1st Article
Posted by Tyler Durden on 02-26-2008 at13:09:
At least Randy didn't put a false spin on his tribute to Larry. He said what many have said here over the years.
Is anybody going to Oregon on Sat?
Posted by jeffrey k. on 02-26-2008 at13:42:
| quote: |
Originally posted by Mark
Here are some articles from the Salem, OR newspaper. Apparently, Larry was working on an album with Frank Black of the Pixies and Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse. |
This is what the project apparently is, according to Jason Carter who plays with Frank Black and is part owner of Slackertone Records where the album will be released:
"It's a cover of a Lee Hazelwood record, Trouble Is A Lonesome Town. It was a concept record, one of the first concept records ever made, about the life of a small town, and Lee Hazelwood narrates it, plays a song, narrates it, plays a song... It tells the whole story of a town, and it's a brilliant, brilliant record. The original idea for the [cover] record came about from Mark Lemhouse, who is a great musician as all of us know, and him and Charly (Normal) talked about "Hey, let's do a cover of this! Let's get some names on it, it will be fun! Let this be a quirky project!" Originally, all of us were gonna dress up in these crazy outfits, with sombreros, like a mariachi band, and just tour incognito, not tell anybody about this, just hit the road and see if people figured it out. Well, make a long story short, we asked Charles to be involved, he said yes. Charles Normal's brother Larry [Norman] is involved on it, and now we've got Isaac [Brock] from Modest Mouse to sing on it too."
You can read the interview here in full:
http://forum.frankblack.net/topic.asp?whichpage=1&TOPIC_ID=19664񩉸
jeffrey k.
Posted by sprinklerhead on 02-26-2008 at17:19:
Only Visiting This Planet changed my life. Larry was my first hero as a kid. I played that LP hundreds of times and know every note. When my guitar player friend and I moved to LA to be musicians, our ad was answered by a guy that said he worked for Larry. It turned out to be his nephew, Nate. In our time there we got to know Nate, Charles and Larry. It was an honor. Larry spent three hours on our toilet one night. No, he wasn't sick. We had a dinner party, were short on chairs and the bathroom was in process of a remodel. So, we put the toilet at the "head" of the table. Pun intended. I joked to Larry that he could sit there and he did for the whole evening. It is a great memory.
It is weird the things you remember. I was going to share some other memories but I couldn't find the right way to say them without them sounding just plain wrong. So, I'll just laugh about those to myself.
One night he was playing at Azusa Pacific. Charles invited us to the show. Larry talked more than played because he super glued his fingers together the night before. Apparently, someone ( I think I remember him saying that it was Steve Taylor's drummer - don't quote me on that) suggested that he use a razor blade to cut them apart. Needless to say, he was in a lot of pain so he talked more than he played. My wife tells me that it was at that show that she looked over at me and decided that she might be interested in being more than a friend to me. Now, we are about to hit our 17th anniversary. Not sure if Larry's show had anything to do with that or not.
After our group of friends started getting married, we all moved in different directions and we lost touch with Charles and the guys.
I hope he is already playing in the "heavenly band."
Posted by Mark on 02-26-2008 at19:39:
Video of Larry in the hospital February 2008. No moustache, beard, and he has short hair.
YouTube
Posted by Jevon the Tall on 02-26-2008 at21:41:
Larry Norman passed away February 24, ten days after Valentine's day. For a man who lived his life with the heart of a lion, in the end it was his heart that couldn't sustain the man. I can't think about music in my life, and not think of Larry. His impact on me was disproportionate to the music he made. Sure he released about a hundred albums - but for me he was defined by two songs that were an integral part of my youth. "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music" and "The Rock that Doesn't Roll."
Of course over the years I would pick up a couple dozen albums, (and later a lot of CDs) he was an artist who for me was captured in amber. He was synonymous with the early Jesus Movement, and his music was the soundtrack to a generation of disenfranchised and rebellious youth. His music wasn't safe, his observations were cutting, and he was brutally uncompromising.
As Larry's heyday came to a close, the 80's, 90's, and even the first half of the new millennium saw Larry active, but to me he was a man whose time had come, and gone. He was still an amazing performer live, but it was nostalgia - he was no longer a relevant force in music for me. He managed to package, and repackage his stuff in so many ways that I lost track of what I had, and finally had to say "uncle" I just couldn't keep up.
Despite reading about Larry's deteriorating health, I couldn't help but think that he was exaggerating the truth a little - after all he'd been dying since 1992 or so, and from a distance it seemed like another Larryism. He'd be around forever and this was just another part of the enigma that was Larry Norman.
When I first read about Larry's passing it came as a shock to me. Larry dead? Really? Are you sure this isn't just another part of the mystery? It wouldn't surprise me if he'd just gone underground for a while to look for Bruce Lee, Elvis, and Jim Morrison.
Larry called it years and years ago: "This world is not my home."
To Charles and the rest of the solid rock folks - he was a hell of a guy. He changed a lot of lives with his music. Mine included. One day get a chance to say "thank you" in person.
Posted by jiminy on 02-27-2008 at09:10:
Jev-
You are a wordsmith..with a heart also.
Posted by Jimmy Brown on 02-27-2008 at10:24:
I like the two tributes linke above, and also found this bit written by a guy who worked at a radio station in Salem, Oregon, down in the replies to Randy Stonehill's remembrance:
| quote: |
| .... But one thing I do know - is that Larry Norman always made me aware of the beauty and fierceness of God - and my need for Jesus. If we were all ok, we wouldn't need the Lord. But we're not - and we do. So ultimately, what Larry Norman did for me was to display the wonder of God in the frailty of man - and in so doing, made me long for a savior. Peace and Grace to his family and friends. Kyle Liedtke. |
Posted by Jerry Davison on 02-27-2008 at12:33:
My favorite Larry Norman moment came when a group of my friends and I saw him in concert in Marietta Ga in the early 80's. It was just him and a guitar and piano. He did two sets with an intermission and during the intermission he allowed a group of us backstage to just hang out and talk, ask questions, etc. He was talking about where he lived (in So. Cali at the time I think) and all the crime and violence there. My buddy asked, "Why don't you move?" And Larry looks at him and says, "Where to? Somewhere where there's no sin?" We all laughed but it made me think ever since about our tendency as Christians to want to isolate from the world, rather than engage it as Christ did. That little remark has continued to challenge me to this day.
My favorite Norman LP: So Long Ago the Garden
My favorite Norman track: Baroquen Spirits (Lonely By Myself would be a very close second)
Posted by jiminy on 02-27-2008 at13:26:
that sounds like Larry....great memory, JD.
my fave LN Tune (specally the first time I heard it-prolly 10 years after it came out)
Is Readers Digest.
Dated ? sure
But I knew why he looked at Alice and David-
and why he was so disappointed in the music scene -
plus the closing line is the quote he lived all through his ministering..
"The world is a mess
I wonder who began it?
dont ask me
I'm only visiting this planet."
Posted by dennis on 02-27-2008 at14:21:
Jesus the hippie.
The Outlaw
Some say he was an outlaw, that he roamed across the land,
With a band of unschooled ruffians and few old fishermen,
No one knew just where he came from, or exactly what he'd done,
But they said it must be something bad that kept him on the run.
Some say he was a poet, that he'd stand upon the hill
That his voice could calm an angry crowd and make the waves stand still,
That he spoke in many parables that few could understand,
But the people sat for hours just to listen to this man.
Some say a politician who spoke of being free,
He was followed by the masses on the shores of Galilee,
He spoke out against corruption and he bowed to no decree,
And they feared his strength and power so they nailed him to a tree.
Some say he was a sorcerer, a man of mystery,
He could walk upon the water, he could make a blind man see,
That he conjured wine at weddings and did tricks with fish and bread,
That he talked of being born again and raised people from the dead.
Some say he was the Son of God, a man above all men,
That he came to be a servant and to set us free from sin,
And that's who I believe he is cause that's what I believe,
And I think we should get ready cause it's time for us to leave.
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