Larry Norman Primer and Discography (1968–1981)
Of all the Jesus People musicians and early Christian rockers, Larry Norman is perhaps the best-known and most-mythologized. Every author who writes about the origins of Christian rock and the music of the Jesus People Movement, myself included, discusses Larry Norman as the “father of Christian rock.” This is perhaps a little misleading, inasmuch as other Christian rock and roll bands were performing, recording, and releasing music around the same time as Norman’s Christian career: The Mind Garage’s pioneering “electric mass,” Sons of Thunder’s Till the Whole World Knows (1968), as well as performances by Agape and the All Saved Freak Band all either pre-date or were contemporaneous with Norman’s celebrated album Upon this Rock (1970; recorded in 1969). Nonetheless, Norman’s prior experience as a rock musician, his showmanship, and his ability (and predilection) to spark controversy have all contributed to his reputation as the most significant Christian rock originator in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Norman comes ready-made with his own origin story: as a songwriter and singer for the San Jose-based psychedelic rock band People!, he scored a hit single with “I Love You,” a cover of the song by The Zombies. Recently converted to evangelical Christianity, Norman pushed to title People!’s debut album off of their cover of Wayne Raney’s “We Need a Whole Lot More of Jesus (And a Lot Less Rock and Roll).” The way the story is usually told, Capitol (People!’s record label) balked at this, and — with the support of Norman’s bandmates — titled the album I Love You (1968). Norman left the band in protest when the album was released.* This conflict has since become a defining moment for Norman’s persona: giving up a record contract and a promising music career in favor of his Christian convictions. Another version of the story, one told by David Stowe in his book No Sympathy for the Devil: Christian Pop Music and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism (2011), is that the break-up largely resulted from tensions between Norman’s newly-converted evangelical Christianity and his bandmates’ belief in Scientology.
Regardless of the truth of Norman’s departure from People!, we do know that he worked as a staff songwriter after leaving the band, primarily focusing on musicals. In 1969 he auditioned for a Los Angeles production of Hair but turned down an offer to play George, uncomfortable with the musical’s “glorification of drugs and free sex.” Instead, he signed a solo recording contract with Capitol for what became Upon this Rock (1970). His persona and reputation as the father of Christian rock is partly due to the mythology around his quitting People!, some (most?) of which was self-made; but certainly his success is also partly due to the fact that he came to Christian rock as an already-experienced songwriter and performer, able to connect with listeners and also savvy enough to navigate the music industries in ways that suited his goals. Many of the early Christian rock artists have this in common with Norman: Keith Green, Barry McGuire, and the Talbot brothers (John Michael and Terry) are just a few other Christian rock pioneers who were experienced in the secular market.
Although Larry Norman was incredibly prolific throughout his career as a recording artist—releasing albums on major record labels early in his career, establishing his own indie record labels, and collaborating with other indie labels (including international labels)—he is best known for a subset of his 1970s output: his first solo record, Upon this Rock (1970) and the following trilogy of Only Visiting this Planet (1972), So Long Ago the Garden (1973), and In Another Land (1976). In the 1980s and later, Norman increasingly forged his own path through the music industries, unwilling (or unable) to sustain a stable, productive relationship with any of the major or long-running indie Christian record labels. Ultimately, this too became part of his mythology: the original Christian rock rebel remained on the peripheries of the Christian music industries as they professionalized, grew, and became big businesses (yoked to the secular major labels) in the 1990s and beyond. His final performance at Cornerstone Festival in 2001 was something of a homecoming, and in the early 21st century he was feted by the Christian music establishment: CCM magazine ranked Only Visiting this Planet (1972) as #2 in their list of the “100 greatest albums in Christian music” in 2001 and voted him into the CCM hall of fame in 2004, and the Gospel Music Association inducted him into its hall of fame in 2001. People are still learning about and discussing Larry Norman: a 2018 biography of Norman generated some publicity, including a feature on NPR’s All Things Considered, and John J. Thompson featured an interview with Norman’s son Mike on The True Tunes Podcast in 2020.
The discography below is a (very small) subset of Robert Termorshuizen’s comprehensive Norman discography, which lists 128 distinct releases (!!!). Here, I include the two People! albums to which Norman contributed and the studio albums he released during his “classic period” only. I do not include live albums, compilations, or post-1981 releases, of which there are many. In the list below I have included the year and record label of initial release. Most Norman albums have been released several times, on different labels, often with different tracklists. Termorshuizen’s discography and Norman’s Discogs page provide these details.
People!, I Love You
YouTube link (mysteriously missing the title track)
Released by Capitol Records
Released 1968
People!, Both Sides of People!*
Released by Capitol Records
Released 1969
Upon this Rock
Released by Capitol Records
Released 1970
Street Level
Released by One Way Records
Released 1970
Bootleg
Released by One Way Records
Released 1972
Only Visiting this Planet
Released by Verve Records
Released 1972
So Long Ago the Garden
Released by MGM Records
Released 1973
In Another Land
Released by Solid Rock Records
Released 1976
Streams of White Light into Darkened Corners
Released by AB Records
Released 1977
Something New under the Son
Released by Solid Rock Records
Released 1981
*: People!’s second album, Both Sides of People! (1969), contains songs recorded during the same sessions as I Love You (1968). Although Norman does perform on these recordings, he is not credited on the album.
Sources: Discogs’s Norman page, Robert Termorshuizen’s Norman discography, Wikipedia’s Norman page; Larry Norman on Spotify