Larry Norman Message Board

APX Remembers Larry Norman
March 11, 2008, 1:29 am EDT

Two weeks ago, the Christian music world mourned the passing of one of its founding fathers, Larry Norman, the author of such classics as "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" and "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music." He was 60 years old, and died from heart failure after battling health issues in recent years.

We received many emails from fans regarding this matter, and we regret that we didn't put something in last week's newsletter about it. ApologetiX lead singer and lyricist J. Jackson had this to say: We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Larry Norman. I've cited him many times in interviews when people ask about audience responses to what we do, and I've explained how Larry was one of the first to open the door for Christian music.I first heard of Larry Norman from my old college roommate, Lance, who had some of his music on cassette. I thought he had a funny name, and I wouldn't have been caught dead listening to Christian music in those day anyway. But I quickly discovered, devoured, and disseminated Larry's music after becoming a born-again Christian a couple years later. We had the honor of meeting Larry at the Creation music festival in 2000, when he actually came to visit our CD table and told me he'd visited our website. I told him we were huge fans of his and that he was a huge influence on me. If you listen closely, you can hear Larry's influence in our lyrics for sure.Like Keith Green, Larry could have you laughing one minute with one song and weeping the next with another song. Larry even graciously donned an ApologetiX shirt and posed for a picture with us.In the early days of my playing guitar for church groups, etc., and jamming with ApologetiX, we used to play "The Outlaw," "The Rock That Doesn't Roll," and others that leant themselves to my limited guitar-playing skills.The opening verse of our song "Jehovah" (parody of "The Joker" by Steve Miller) on the "Wordplay" CD was very influenced by "The Outlaw." It wasn't intentional, but as I was finishing up the lyrics in 2006, I thought it made a nice mini-tribute to Larry.I have many Larry Norman songs on my iPod, and I own "Upon This Rock," "Only Visiting This Planet," "So Long Ago The Garden," and "In Another Land" on CD. I also have "Home at Last" on cassette from when it came out, plus many other songs from old cassettes. I told Larry in person that his song to his son, "Somewhere Out There" from "Home at Last," had left a lasting impression on me even before I had kids, and now more than ever since I am a father of four.We'll miss Larry, but we'll look forward to seeing him again someday.

Anonymous wrote:

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must look out that apologetix CD and have a listen

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Anonymous wrote:

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I didn't say they were funny but i do think they are talented. I sometimes have one of their CD's on at work, and have been able to have some very interesting conversations started by their work. Many seeds have been planted thanks to customers asking about what they are hearing. I also play many other artists at work, and very often use larry's work to get people started talking about Christian music, this usually leads into deeper conversations about what being a "Christian " is. I've found this a great door opener. With Apologetix they can be listening for a while because they know the songs ,but something is not just right ,so they listen harder then ASK!

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they consider themselves to be a Christian parody band. Well, here's the definition of parody in Webster's dictionary:

1 : a literary or musical work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule

2 : a feeble or ridiculous imitation

i don't doubt that they're being used of God and that people are coming to the Lord through their music and concerts, but in all honesty they aren't very good (although they've definately improved since their first couple albums). There's a ton of better Christian artists, and if parodies are your thing, Weird Al is better than this. Christian lyrics and parody songs just don't go very good together.

Bob Shriver wrote:

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   This Christain band, Apologetix, is very talented.  I've seen them in concert.  They keep the show moving one song after another, many times coming out from behind the stage as a character for the song they are about to play.  They bring the Gospel message to all in the audience.  

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i saw them live at my church a couple of years ago....and i didn't like their music, but that's just me, i think parodies of any kind are pretty lame. i respect Apologetix, and i can appreciate their boldness and zeal, and god is definately using them, but it's just not for me. i get absolutely nothing out of it, but for those of you who do that's great. to each their own.