Dougie Adams continues his exhaustive trawl through the recorded works of LARRY NORMAN, detailing the Jesus rock pioneer's recordings from 1993 to 2001. Larry makes a comment or two as well.
1988-93
Larry Norman, Stranded In Babylon (US
Remix), Solid Rock/Sonrise (SRD-016), 1993
The main
changes from the European version are that Larry has cut some verses
from the bonus track "Under The Eyes" and edited out one verse from
"Love Is A Commitment", shortened some of the instrumental and come up
with a different running order for the tracks. Still available on CD
from Solid Rock.
1991
Larry
Norman, Children Of Sorrow, Street Level Records (SLD-023),
1994
A pleasant live album released in aid of the CCPC
child foster placement centre Larry has supported for years in Oregon.
At the time of its release 'Children Of Sorrow' was the only album
where you could find many of these songs on CD, a situation which no
longer exists now. Nonetheless if you like hearing Larry live you
should like this one as he is in pretty good form whether it be on
guitar or piano. Charly and Dan Cutrona drop by for two great songs, a
smokin' "My Feet Are On The Rock" and an awesome "A Woman of God". Out
of stock.
1992
Larry
Norman, Totally Unplugged (Volume 1), Street Level Records
(SLD-024), 1994
An edited document of Larry's first gig
after his major heart attack earlier that year. Mr Norman is in
amazingly good voice even if his health is not the best. A couple of
songs from 'Stranded In Babylon' are included amongst the greatest
hits and sound amazing. But the highlight of this intimate and
personal concert has to be his jaw-droppingly great cover of "Weight
Of The World". The cassette version had different songs and a
different running order. No longer available.
1974-93
Larry Norman, Footprints In The Sand, Street
Level Records (SLD-025) / (Holland) Spark Music (SK 7047),
1994
The first compilation album in quite a
while. Comparable in quality with the 'White Blossoms From Black
Roots' collection. These 16 songs are among Larry's most personal and
are mainly culled from the CD versions of 'Something New Under The
Son', 'Home At Last' and 'Stranded In Babylon'. "If You Don't Love The
Lord You'll Fall" and "I Hope I'll See You In Heaven" appear on CD for
the first time. Deleted in its single CD format.
1993-94
Larry Norman, A Moment In Time, Street Level
Records (SLD-026), 1994
10 new songs recorded in the
studio, plus the live version of "Right Here In America" from 'Street
Level' and a radio spot by Larry in support of the campaign to change
the laws in Oregon to outlaw child pornography. These recordings were
all demos or rough mixes for the 'Pushing Back The Darkness' album
which was never finished. This collection compounds the trend of
recent years suggesting that Larry has rediscovered his ability to
write and perform again. Worth tracking down second hand copies for
the chance to hear songs like "Long Hard Road", "Elvis Has Left The
Building", "You Shall Be Saved" and "The Solid Rock". The last time
Larry rocked this hard and sounded this bluesy was on 'Something New
Under The Son'. The cassette version was different to the CD version.
Both are out of stock.
1969-96
Larry Norman, Remixing This Planet, N-Soul
Records (NSD 9936), 1996
Eight songs from Larry's
seminal 'Upon This Rock', 'Only Visiting This Planet', 'So Long Ago
The Garden' and 'In Another Land' get the remix treatment along with
two newer classics, "If The Bombs Fall" and "God Part III". Larry is
not the only person left wondering just what happened to his classic
"UFO" after Virus decide to follow an X-Files sorta vibe and erase the
very lyrics which made the song great in the first place! Elsewhere
things are a bit hit and miss, but overall not bad. The remixes fall
into one of three categories: dance, radio friendly pop, revved up
guitar rock. Scott Blackwell almost always hits the right spots on his
five remixes. Still available on CD from Solid Rock.
1972-88
Larry Norman, White Blossoms From Black
Roots (Book One), Solid Rock (SRD-041), 1997
This time
round Larry had more input on song selection and axed a number of
slower songs from the first version and chose better mixes of some of
the more recent songs. 12 songs in all plus Mark Heard's ghetto dub
mix of "Soul On Fire". The new booklet slightly complicates things by
giving many of the tracks subtitles like alternate rock remix or
acoustic remix or live dance mix when in most cases these are the same
mixes as featured on the original CD! Still available.
1976-94
Larry Norman, Gathered Moments: Somewhere In
This Lifetime, Howling Dog Records (HDR-701), 1998
Compiled, produced and edited by Normaniacs-in-chief Terry Leskewich
and John Wood, this is a collection of bootleg material which spans
from the mid-'70s to the mid-'90s. Most of the songs are audience
recordings of concerts but there are a few much sought after studio
rarities on offer too. The sound quality and performances vary quite a
bit, indeed a number of songs were improvised on the spot and hardly
rank among Larry's best efforts and don't bear repeated listening. But
then again there are a few songs from the unreleased 'Rough Mix'
studio compilations and "Rock The Flock" makes its first appearance on
disc after regularly wowing concert audiences in the previous couple
of years. Perhaps the standout track is the piano vocal studio
performance of "Parson Brown" (aka "Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting?").
Still available and mainly of interest to collectors and enthusiasts.
1998
Larry
Norman & Beam, Shouting In The Storm - Flevo 2, Solid Rock
(SRD-798) / (Holland) Spark Music (SK 7098), 1998
Another visit to the Flevo festival pays dividends. Backed by Beam
for the second time that year, Larry shows that he's not living in the
past as he delivers a set of tunes from recent albums and previously
unheard songs with only a few oldies to supplement them. With Beam in
pretty good form the new arrangements of "Six Sixty Six" and "Shot
Down" almost transform those numbers into the category of new songs!
Elsewhere the crowd gets really into the reggae tinged "Let It Go"
while a rewritten "Bombs" is almost as dramatic a finale in this set
as "Messiah" was in the 1989 set. The cover of dc Talk's "Jesus Freak"
doesn't come off as well as the studio rehearsal on 'Breathe In
Breathe Out' or the tribute version. Overall pretty good and nice to
have a live album with Larry backed by yet another intuitive and
sympathetic backing band. There are two very slightly different
American and European versions although both contain the same songs in
the same order and have the same booklets. Out of stock in USA but
still available in Europe through Spark.
1997-98
Larry Norman, Copper Wires, Solid Rock
(SRD-800)/(Holland) Spark Music (SK 7093), 1998
Not
exactly a bonafide new studio album but a very nice compilation of
songs which were first posted on Larry's official website. Some
encouragingly good new songs rub shoulders with a few outstanding
cover versions on a set that was recorded quickly in a couple of
weeks. One of Larry's most accessible pop albums with an interesting
use of cover versions: Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready", Pete
Seeger's "Turn, Turn, Turn" and Dylan's "When He Returns" are all
utilised to reiterate Larry's core message of previous decades;
namely, that we need to be prepared for Christ's return.
Larry's Comments: 'Copper Wires' refers to the physical conduits of communication in computers and telephones. A Christian magazine had said I once was a bright light but had become a dark cloud, that I had turned away from the Church, my friends and my family and they speculated that I had lost my musical ability and possibly my mind. They didn't call up my parents or my church or my friends to see if any of it was remotely factual. I had just financed a 50th wedding anniversary surprise party for my folks, bought my church a brand new sound system and curtains and given money to several friends who were having trouble. But maybe I have lost my ability and my mind. Only time will tell, right? So 'Copper Wires' is just my own communique to people, saying nothing at all about the gossip but going right back to the Garden of Eden and working my way up to modern times using my own new songs and other songs I really love. I end with "When He Returns" because that's where it really all ends, or rather begins anew, isn't it? And I put on some bonus tracks from our first internet gig years before, which was one of the very first Christian internet concerts, or maybe even the very first. And I'm kind of saying, "You can use the copper wires to gossip about others, or you can use the copper wires to glorify God."
Still available from Solid Rock and in Europe from Spark. There is no noticeable difference between the American and European versions except that they have different picture discs and booklets.
1998
Larry
Norman & Beam, Breathe In, Breathe Out (Double CD), Solid Rock
(SRD-799), 1998
One of my favourite recent CDs from
Larry. He cut this double album live in the studio in 10 hours as he
rehearsed for his 1998 European tour with Beam. You get the feeling
that Larry has been waiting to team up with a band who are as able as
Beam to follow his intuitive instructions like "do something
psychedelic!" and they happily oblige. Beam seem as comfortable
rocking out at full volume on epic versions of "Jesus Freak", "That's
When Jesus Knew", "Friendship's End" and "I Wish We'd All Been Ready"
as they are providing subtle acoustic backing on "Goodbye Farewell", a
jammed version of "Like A Rolling Stone" or a little rock opera number
"Is God Dead?" from the '60s. Some fans didn't like the couple of
false starts, studio chat and second takes which were left in, but for
me this is perhaps Larry's most enjoyable rock album ever. It might
have been a genuine classic if he had put in a few fades, edits and
added one or two overdubs. No longer available.
1979
Larry
Norman, Live At The Mac, Solid Rock Illegal Noise Series
(SRD-863), 1998
Without doubt this has to be by far the
worst album Larry has put out. Randy Leyton, the original distributor
of this bootleg, claims that the tape release attained legendary
status. The Solid Rock newsletter is more dismissive, "It sucks", they
warn. Basically this is a very poor quality audience recording of a
show from Larry's 1979 tour backed by a band comprising of several of
the leading lights from the Solid Rock label. It's hard to comment on
the quality of the performance as the most striking thing about this
CD is the amount of times the cheapo tape recorder's microphone gets
bumped or the tape gets chewed up! That said, the bonus track, "Lonely
By Myself recorded at another show and on a different tape recorder is
stunning. Solid Rock's artwork also improves things and the front
cover has Larry sitting just behind Jimmy Carter... yes, then
President of the United States of America! Part of the thinking behind
releasing this one seems to have been to make it available at a less
ridicul ous price for the collectors who were trying to track down the
original bootleg copies and paying inflated prices. Only 200 copies
were pressed and Solid Rock are currently giving this away free to
anyone also buying 'We Wish You A Larry Christmas'.