Only Visiting This Planet [Original recording]

Larry Norman | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl
• Original Release Date: 1972
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording
• Label: Verve
• ASIN: B000MC6XBG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,140,407 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Voted in 1990 by CCM magazine as the greatest Christian album ever recorded, this record truly shines with great lyrics sung to great melodies. Even if you don't believe in the rapture, the power and passion of "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" is unmistakable and understatedly intense. Other songs such as "The Outlaw" take on the ballad song form to sing about Jesus in a timeless Dylan-esque manner. "The Great American Novel" sings through tears of despair about hypocrisy among both Christians and non-Christians alike. This is the record that begat a thousand clichés, but the sincerity with which Norman's message is delivered belies any skepticism for the triteness of his words. Sarcasm and humor also grace this record in the form of "I Am the Six O'Clock News" and "Reader's Digest." This record is a one-of-a-kind collection that resonates both with the time period and with all the time that has passed since; a remarkable achievement for Norman, whose records are often admittedly hard to take and whose behavior causes many a head to itch. (Mark W. B. Allender, All Music Guide)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Among CCM's Most Influential Albums for Good Reason, August 25, 2005

By 

A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com "What should ... (Glen Ellyn, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Only Visiting This Planet (Audio CD)

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

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Among CCM's Most Influential Albums for Good Reason, February 18, 2007

By 

A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com "What should ... (Glen Ellyn, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Only Visiting This Planet [30th Year Anniversary Edition] (Audio CD)

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

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Awesome Achievement, May 1, 2006

By 

Mark W. Pettigrew (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Only Visiting This Planet (Audio CD)

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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