Larry Norman is by far the Elvis/Chuck Berry/Bill Haley of Classic Christian Rock all rolled into one - and he got zero credit for it.

?

I've always heard Larry Norman referred to as the "Grandfather of Christian Rock", etc. I think he's well recognized as an early pioneer.

(but I may be missing your meaning. Also, apologies for being such a "yes, but" naysayer these days . . .)

You're probably right.

Jared, thank you for posting this!

I just went and watched him do "Why should the devil have all the good music?" at Creation '99.

Dude was a genius.

From Wikipedia,

Norman died on February 24, 2008, aged 60, at his home in Salem, Oregon with family and friends present.[68] The previous day he had posted a message regarding his illness on his website:

I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God's hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home. I won't be here much longer. I can't do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. In the past you have generously supported me with prayer and finance and we will probably still need financial help. My plan is to be buried in a simple pine box with some flowers inside. But still it will be costly... However money is not really what I need, I want to say I love you. I'd like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. There will be funeral information posted on my website, in case some of you want to attend. We are not sure of the date when I will die. Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again

While he may be called the "Grandfather of Christian Rock" I think he may be largely forgotten or even worse ignored. To my knowledge he get no airplay at all. It does my heart good to see you younger guys acknowledge him.

Bill, I really get what you are saying regarding his put down of the Apollo program. The program did indeed bring a lot of information and advances that we would otherwise not have. Unfortunately it did bupkis for anyone's salvation.

Did I spell bupkis correctly?

The program did indeed bring a lot of information and advances that we would otherwise not have. Unfortunately it did bupkis for anyone's salvation.

Well, it did feature possibly the most widely-viewed public reading of scripture in history.

I got into the 77's in the early 90's when a friend played me their "Sticks and Stones" album. I started listening to them from then on. I've got the boxed set of their first three albums and a few of their later ones.
I saw them in concert a few times, as they were still recording and touring throughout the 90's, mostly alongside some of the good Christian alternative bands of the time like Prayer Chain and Plankeye.

I also really got into The Lost Dogs, the classic Christian rock "supergroup" with 77's Roe, The Choir's Derri Daughtery, et.al.

Brian, I know. I guess I was just making a little light.

But, also. . . some of the men who got us to the moon (guys like Gene Kranz and Glynn Lunney, the astronauts, of course, those brave young engineers in mission control) are personal heroes of mine. They inspire me. A few of them (Charlie Duke, Jim Irwin, now passed) who walked on the moon were either believers at the time, or became believers later (Irwin credited some of the awe of his mission for his deeper faith). Jim Lovell, Frank Borman, and Bill Anders braved a journey never before done - first men to orbit the moon - and read from Genesis to the whole earth on one of their last orbits. This was in December of 1968, one of the worst years for the U.S. in recent memory. They redeemed it, somewhat, by doing that.

In other words. I'm a class-A nerd. But I've studied this stuff deeply, and I can't tell you the profound respect I have for the generation that got us to the moon.

I know it has nothing to do with salvation (never thought it did). But I sometimes react negatively (and unfairly, I'm sure) to people who dismiss the American space program, at least the one in the sixties, and early seventies, when it reached for greatness. Most of the time they don't know what they're talking about, and think we just did it for the rocks.

I feel like I've gotten crossways with a number of people on the blog these past few days. I'm not trying to, but things I say rub wrong sometimes, I suppose. I'm trying to learn . . .

I hijacked this thread with my throwaway comment and I shouldn't have.

Jared - you absolutely did not annoy me - I learned a lot (as always) from our conversation.

i miss Larry Norman terribly although we never actually met. i had the chance once as he was doing a concert in Guelph Ontario and he went into the men's washroom to shave, i should've been more assertive and just followed him in, sat on the sink and said a little prayer for him. i didn't do that but i said little prayers for him intermittently since then. when i learned he had passed ... i grieved.
he was formative as i became a man. much of the music i listened to (and still listen to) was Larry Norman tunes and my mp3 player is still probably about 60% full of Larry tunes.