The Great Larry Norman
Who is Larry Norman?
Whenever I hear that question after dropping the name, I feel the need to stick my finger down my throat and allow my dissatisfaction to pour out. There is something wrong with the universe when such an accomplished and significant individual is not known by everyone.
The name usually comes up when I talk about a wedding day in 1991, in which the world of The Supreme Aglet first came in to perfect balance. My new bride and I were honored, beyond our ability to express how honored we were, to have the great Larry Norman sing for us during the ceremony and at the reception.
While you could easily prance over to Larry Norman's Web site before reading today's Supreme Aglet, I would ask that you kindly allow me to introduce him, particularly in the spirit of chiding you for not knowing who he is in the first place.
Those who know The Supreme Aglet personally are familiar with my early career as a world famous rock star. Surely, it will come as a shock to my minions that my fame and success would never have materialized but for one man: Larry Norman.
Other bands, now exceedingly successful both in a commercial sense and in the sense of communicating Christian values and hope, owe their very existence to Larry Norman. But for Larry Norman, there would be no Audio Adrenaline, no Skillet... Or going back a bit, no Stryper, no Petra, no Steve Taylor...
The list of successful gospel rock bands and artists is very long, and Larry Norman practically invented the genre.
Even so--even with the avalanche of talent that has followed Larry Norman--there was, is, and will always be, only one Larry Norman. His body of work is unparalleled in any rock genre. From the disturbingly analogous Be Careful What You Sign, to the haunting I Wish We'd All Been Ready. From the unabashedly straightforward Why Don't You Look Into Jesus? to the one that first posed the question to the traditional Christian church and launched the contemporary Christian movement: Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?.
Larry acquitted himself well at our wedding. He was humble, soft-spoken, and generous. Most who were at the wedding knew who he was and the significance of his accomplishments, yet he treated Mrs. Supreme Aglet and me as if we were the rock stars. He did absolutely nothing to show his celebrity and instead allowed the focus of the ceremony to remain on the two for whom the ceremony was given, and he even availed himself to several of our guests after the reception, treating them to a movie.
Yet when called upon to perform at the reception, he spared nothing to give the crowd Larry Norman even though he was nursing a sore throat. More importantly, his performance of "The Tune" created the perfect setting from which an eternal partnership would be launched:
I was alone, and without love
Hope was fading fast
Slipping right on past
Then by some grand design
She came along, and heard my song
And sang the harmony
She was right on key
And she was right on time
And now I'm hers, She is mine
We sing together, now
She knows the words, somehow
And I love her true
And we sing the tune
Love is a song from heaven
She is the love that I've been given
I was alone, I was unsure
She reached out to me
And she helped me see
That I still had a chance
To open up, to come alive
And to love again
It was only then
That I joined in the dance
And now I'm hers, She is mine
We sing together, now
She knows the words, somehow
And I love her true
And we sing the tune
You may now introduce yourself to Larry Norman, and learn more about this refreshingly unique and widely loved human being, and the world of the Supreme Aglet is once again in perfect balance.
Whenever I hear that question after dropping the name, I feel the need to stick my finger down my throat and allow my dissatisfaction to pour out. There is something wrong with the universe when such an accomplished and significant individual is not known by everyone.
The name usually comes up when I talk about a wedding day in 1991, in which the world of The Supreme Aglet first came in to perfect balance. My new bride and I were honored, beyond our ability to express how honored we were, to have the great Larry Norman sing for us during the ceremony and at the reception.
While you could easily prance over to Larry Norman's Web site before reading today's Supreme Aglet, I would ask that you kindly allow me to introduce him, particularly in the spirit of chiding you for not knowing who he is in the first place.
Those who know The Supreme Aglet personally are familiar with my early career as a world famous rock star. Surely, it will come as a shock to my minions that my fame and success would never have materialized but for one man: Larry Norman.
Other bands, now exceedingly successful both in a commercial sense and in the sense of communicating Christian values and hope, owe their very existence to Larry Norman. But for Larry Norman, there would be no Audio Adrenaline, no Skillet... Or going back a bit, no Stryper, no Petra, no Steve Taylor...
The list of successful gospel rock bands and artists is very long, and Larry Norman practically invented the genre.
Even so--even with the avalanche of talent that has followed Larry Norman--there was, is, and will always be, only one Larry Norman. His body of work is unparalleled in any rock genre. From the disturbingly analogous Be Careful What You Sign, to the haunting I Wish We'd All Been Ready. From the unabashedly straightforward Why Don't You Look Into Jesus? to the one that first posed the question to the traditional Christian church and launched the contemporary Christian movement: Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?.
Larry acquitted himself well at our wedding. He was humble, soft-spoken, and generous. Most who were at the wedding knew who he was and the significance of his accomplishments, yet he treated Mrs. Supreme Aglet and me as if we were the rock stars. He did absolutely nothing to show his celebrity and instead allowed the focus of the ceremony to remain on the two for whom the ceremony was given, and he even availed himself to several of our guests after the reception, treating them to a movie.
Yet when called upon to perform at the reception, he spared nothing to give the crowd Larry Norman even though he was nursing a sore throat. More importantly, his performance of "The Tune" created the perfect setting from which an eternal partnership would be launched:
I was alone, and without love
Hope was fading fast
Slipping right on past
Then by some grand design
She came along, and heard my song
And sang the harmony
She was right on key
And she was right on time
And now I'm hers, She is mine
We sing together, now
She knows the words, somehow
And I love her true
And we sing the tune
Love is a song from heaven
She is the love that I've been given
I was alone, I was unsure
She reached out to me
And she helped me see
That I still had a chance
To open up, to come alive
And to love again
It was only then
That I joined in the dance
And now I'm hers, She is mine
We sing together, now
She knows the words, somehow
And I love her true
And we sing the tune
You may now introduce yourself to Larry Norman, and learn more about this refreshingly unique and widely loved human being, and the world of the Supreme Aglet is once again in perfect balance.
posted by The Supreme Aglet at 8:35 AM
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