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Larry Norman -> Larry Norman -> Goodbye to the Leader of the Gadfly Gang
Post Info TOPIC: Goodbye to the Leader of the Gadfly Gang
Rick Johnson

Date:
Goodbye to the Leader of the Gadfly Gang
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Wikipedia defines "gadfly" as a term for people who upset the status quo by posing unsettling or novel questions...

Years ago (following seeing Larry in concert) I bought a copy of "Almost So Long Ago the Garden" from Larry's Phydeaux mail order, and sent a letter with the order.  I was in college and had just read Plato, where he described Socrates as a "gadfly" attempting to better society in Athens by speaking honestly no matter what the personal cost.  Full of freshman enthusiasm I wrote Larry saying that I thought he was a "gadfly" to the church, willing to upset "church" folk with his long hair and provocative music to make Christianity more real for kids like me.  When I received my copy of "Almost So Long Ago the Garden" along with it came a handwritten note thanking me for my thoughts and warmly encouraging me, which was signed "from the Gadfly Gang".

Almost thirty years later and my theology isn't the same (noone could call me a fundamentalist or an evangelical anymore) - but the raw emotion of Larry's music still speaks to me on a spiritual level - prodding me to still reach out to God.  He remains a "gadfly" to me in that regard, someone who makes it hard to ignore the fact that we are all spiritual beings.  So even though I am very private about my religious and spiritual views, I had to respond to Larry's death.

So Goodbye to the leader of the Gadfly Gang, I will miss you!   

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Larry Norman -> Larry Norman -> Goodbye to the Leader of the Gadfly Gang