Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Among CCM's Most Influential Albums for Good Reason, August 25, 2005
Larry Norman's music is usually only available through his eponymously named website. As his albums are reissued as remastered CDs, it is good to see them more publicly available.
Norman didn't invent Christian music, but he helped define what it could be for the late 20th century. Long before Amy Grant, DC Talk, and Michael W. Smith was a long-haired guy wearing black talking about politics, Jesus and love. Churches weren't sure what to do with him, and the secular music world wasn't sure they didn't like him. His wasn't a hippie, or was he? Believers and atheists were conflicted, and Norman wound up forging a change in modern Christian music.
Norman was funny in his shows, with the kind of humor never heard at church camp, and with a message that left Christians unsettled. "Only Visiting This Planet" was one of the albums to showcase Norman's lyrical style and biblical insight, first being released in 1972.
His signature song, "I Wish We'd All Been Ready," would have been enough to make this a worthy album. Futuristically, he laments for those who did not accept the salvation of Christ prior to the Second Coming.
"Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music" answers the scorn of the church, and the cynicism of the world.
"I Am The Six O'clock News" aims sharply at the sense of complacent distance we have while watching the news of international violence, using the currency of the Viet Nam war as his backdrop.
"Why Don't You Look Into Jesus" is directed at Janis Joplin, as Norman watched, as we all watched, the self-destruction of one of the greatest blues voices ever. Norman saw the problem and gave a suggestion. The song, with edgy lyrics, was banned from being played on many Christian radio stations.
"Gonorrhea on Valentine's Day,
And you're still looking for the perfect lay,
You think rock and roll will set you free,
You'll be dead before you're thirty-three,
Shooting junk till you're half insane,
Broken needle in your purple vein,
Why don't you look into Jesus, he's got the answer."
"The Outlaw" highlights the sometimes forgotten aspect of Christ's life, that in his three years prior to crucifixion, he lived as a rebellious, wanted man hanging out with the dregs of society. The clean-cut, anti-hippie suburban churches bristled, and sometimes, embraced Norman because of this challenging reminder.
"Some say He was an outlaw, that He roamed across the land
With a band of unschooled ruffians and a 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."
I fully recommend "Only Visiting This Planet" by Larry Norman.
Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Once voted best Christian Rock Album of all time!, December 10, 2004
And deservedly so! On top of that it was so rock and roll that Christian Bookstores often refused to carry it. Produced by the George Martin Production team (yes - the Beatles producer George Martin).
In my opinion - Larry has had many good cds worth buying. But there are three GREAT ones:
Only Visiting This Planet is possibly the best. Rock and Pop and ballads. Amazing! Listen to anything on the "second side" for proof. Or the "first side."
Second place for pop fans - In Another Land. More pop oriented. The production sounds a bit home made at times, but still excellent!
Second place for blues and hard rock fans - Something New Under the Son. Blues and hard edged (psychadelic at times) blues. Another killer album (if you'll pardon the expression). The song "Watch What You're Doing" impressed Frank Black of the Pixies so much that he named their first album "C'mon Pilgrim" after part of the lyrics of that song. IT IS THAT GOOD!
Other cds worth buying (check out Larry's site at guess where) are Upon This Rock, So Long Ago The Garden, Home At Last, Stranded in Babylon and Tourniquet. I own all these except So Long Ago - I liked the original version better. The one available now is Larry's preference. There may be others that are good or great but I haven't heard them.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Awesome Achievement, May 1, 2006
I accepted Christ as my Savior in 1969 (right before I entered high school), and within a year's time, I had been made aware of Larry Norman (via ads in The Hollywood Free Paper, a Christian counterculture paper published in Berkeley CA by Duane Pederson). I bought my first two Larry Norman LPs through a mail order form in that paper, and immediately fell in love with Larry's music. But it wasn't until "Only Visiting This Planet" was released that Larry's music really took flight. The album was amazing, in my opinion, not only because it showed that Christians could make really good rock 'n' roll (with considerably better production values than his first Christian rock albums had demonstrated), but also because it dramatically expanded the definition of what constituted Christian music in terms of subject matter and lyrics.
Who could have guessed that a song which talked explicitly about seedy and disreputable things such as drug addiction and venereal disease could glorify the Lord? In his song "Why Don't You Look Into Jesus?", Larry proved that there is no topic which can't be redeemed when one sees the world through the eyes of one who knows the Savior.
I heard Larry a couple of times at a Christian coffeehouse (the New Wine Coffeehouse) in my hometown of Springfield, MO, and I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Larry when he visited my church, Evangel Temple Assembly of God. I was impressed with his unique sense of humor, his humility, and his love for the Lord.
If anyone ever decides to open a Christian Rock Hall of Fame (and they really should, since there was a lot of good music being made in those early days), there should be a lifesize statue of Larry planted firmly in front of the front doors. In his prime, Larry was more radical than most secular rockers ever dreamed of being, because he truly used his talents to make the world a better place.
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NOTE: If you don't see an image of the album cover, it may be because you're reading this review on the page containing a list of all of my reviews. For some reason, a thumbnail of the album cover doesn't appear on that page, even though cover art for other items I've reviewed does appear next to them. But click on the link to the individual review, and you'll see the original album cover.
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![So Long Ago The Garden [20th Year Anniversary Edition]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pbywsiLGL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
by Larry Norman 
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