Larry Norman: "Rock The Flock" - Bruce Atchison

This born-again rock musician proved that Christian music Needn't be sombre and lifeless. When he left the Band People in 1968, Larry Norman became an influential Christian solo artist. Check out one of his songs here:

When I was young, elders in the church kept nagging me about my love of rock music. It was of the Devil, they insisted. Some worry-warts even said I'd become possessed if I kept listening to that "satanic" music. Another complaint those churchgoers made was that the messages in rock songs would lead me astray.

Nothing of the kind happened. Neither did I get hooked on drugs as those panicky elders feared. Being truly born again, I was zealous for Christ. I often confronted students and teachers with biblical views and I even handed out tracts.

Psalm 66:2-4 (Bible in Basic English) encourages worshippers to be joyfully loud. "Make a song in honour of his name: give praise and glory to him. Say to God, 'How greatly to be feared are your works! Because of your great power your haters are forced to put themselves under your feet.' Let all the earth give you worship, and make songs to you; let them make songs to your name. (Selah.)"

Likewise, Psalm 95:2 (BBE) says, "Let us come before his face with praises; and make melody with holy songs."

The elders of my church remind me of 2 Samuel 6:16 (KJV) which reads, "And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul's daughter  looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised  him in her heart."

Music, like writing, is just a tool. It can hurt or help, depending on the person who wields it. Having God-honouring songs and books means that we believers can enjoy the style as well as the content.

"Why should the Devil have all the good music?" - Bruce Atchison

"You mustn't listen to that ungodly racket," elderly Christians often admonished me when I was a teen. Those church members had absolutely no grounds for concern. My commitment to God was so strong that I often sang along with the radio, replacing the secular lyrics with praises to Jesus. Those elders never understood that rock music fed my soul in a way that Christian Contemporary Music utterly failed to do. In my upcoming How I Was Razed memoir, I tell how I found a record that provided me much-needed encouragement in the spring of 1978. Though the manuscript still needs extensive editing, here is how I discovered that the Devil didn't have all the good music after all.

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To keep from sinking into the depths of despondency, I borrowed records from the Edmonton Public Library's downtown branch. After a hard day of visiting firms and filling in application forms, I made a point of stopping there on my way home. Among the secular records, I found an album called Bootleg by Larry Norman. I had heard of this Christian rock star while attending high school but I couldn't afford to see him in concert. When I put the first disk of the double LP on the turntable, I felt like the ugly duckling discovering he was a swan all along. Here was somebody actually playing serious rock music with lyrics about Jesus. Songs like I Think I Love You, Ha Ha World, What Goes Through Your Mind, Blue Shoes White, and Why Don't You Look Into Jesus? "fed" my soul. Larry's tunes had none of the condescending attitude of Sister E's "young people's" LP, or the corniness of Sister R's "spritely tunes." Though "home taping" is technically theft, I recorded the songs I liked best and listened over and over to them. Three decades later, I bought the album directly from Larry's Solid Rock label and asked the Lord for forgiveness.

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Please visit the Larry Norman website to learn more about this remarkable Christian rock pioneer. Though he died on February 24, 2008, his music lives on. As for information about me and my books, Please visit my Inscribe writers group page.