87: Larry Norman – Something New Under the Son

Larry Norman - Something New Under the Son

There are a couple of things about Christian rock I need to address before continuing. First, I grew up in Arkansas surrounded by a hostile Southern Baptist atmosphere. I got into Christian rock as an alternative to the mainstream music I was told would send me to hell (not joking). There's a whole story there I will write about one day. But my point is I'm now a grownup and have pretty much shed my bizarre religious baggage and have a more objective view of religion. As a result my hindsight is a little more objective than it used to be and I can listen to Christian rock again without wanting to beat the crap out of somebody.

The second point is Christian music, when I was growing up, was pathetically behind mainstream music. The premiere Christian artists sounded more like imitators of mainstream music than artists in their own rights. However, there are a few standouts. These standouts had an effect not just on me, but on the entire music industry. There were artists who influenced other musicians with their unique approach. To ignore those influences is to have intellectually dishonest School of Rock. Well, I hate hypocrisy. Hypocrisy was one of the defining attributes of my hard core Baptist upbringing that made me flee religion. So I won't be hypocritical of the music that influenced me and others just because Christian artists created it. So today's pick along with about four others from my list deserve to be heard without prejudice.

Larry Norman's Something New Under the Son (1981) changed the way I saw music. Larry Norman was a life-long Christian and musician who changed the Christian music scene forever. He was the pioneer of modern Christian music. However, he was such an excellent and prolific song writer, his sphere of influence reached musicians as diverse as Paul McCartney and the Pixies.

Larry Norman's approach to music was based on the same against-the-grain view he held in his personal philosophy. He was straightforward and addressed real issues such as hunger, drugs, and poverty in his music, unlike most Christian musicians of the time. Add that to his style of folksy rock music and he captured a following. My introduction to Larry Norman was with Something New Under the Son when it first came out. It was given to me by a guy who knew Larry Norman and Randy Stonehill when he was growing up. While not his first or most critically acclaimed album, it's my favorite because it represents who Larry Norman was. This album is a collection of eclectic songs, some humorous and some serious. The album cover looks like an artist's mock-up of a an album cover going through review with scratched out text and hand-written notes.

The music is complete Larry Norman. His recognizable voice and off-the-wall lyrics are embedded within great tracks. Something New Under the Son is one of the few LPs I kept hoping to rip it one day. Fortunately Amazon now has it at their MP3 store. My favorite tracks are "Let That Tape Keep Rolling", "Hard Luck Bad News", and "Watch What You're Doing". This album is a piece of rock history to be studied at School of Rock regardless of your religious affiliation.