Sympathy for the Jesus Rocker
The late Larry Norman pioneered Christian rock
Much has been made of the way some conservative evangelicals have been supportive of the less than virtuous administration of Donald Trump. Much sociological analysis has been made in recent years about the quandaries of faith-based involvement in our pluralistic society. Christians involved as Christians — in this case, poorly, many believe — in public life these days is a
It has not always been so. Until the so-called “Jesus Movement” broke onto the scene in the halcyon hippie days of the late 1960s, there was little talk outside of church circles about religion in culture. While there may not be a direct line from the Jesus Movement to what historian John Fea calls “Trump’s court evangelicals,” much understanding can be gained by revisiting the evangelical renewal that spread like wildfire among countercultural youth as the 1960s turned into the 1970s.
“Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?” is Gregory Alan Thornbury’s book about Christian rocker Larry Norman, doubtlessly one of the most important celebrities and spiritual leaders of that socially significant renewal movement. It provides a lively glimpse into that era and how an evangelical subculture blossomed, creating, for better or worse, what is now known as Contemporary Christian Music (CCM).
Whether or not you listen to the Pittsburgh-based CCM radio stations or know anyone who attends the local CCM concerts, Mr. Thornbury’s work is a fabulously entertaining and culturally informative read.
Mr. Thornbury, until recently the president of The King’s College in New York City, is almost perfect for telling this story. He plays a mean electric guitar, is a culturally savvy evangelical historian and is a student of the aesthetic, cultural and theological fruit of the CCM industry.
If only he had seen Larry Norman perform at, say, the beautiful Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall auditorium in Oakland where his enigmatic, Dylanesque shows were talked about for years in the 1970s. If only he was around when Larry Norman signed with Capitol Records, laying down tracks that talked about Jesus and boldly condemned racism, that extolled a deep relationship with God and condemned the Vietnam War. Mr. Norman was simply stunning in those early years and kept the Jesus Movement close to the Christ-like lifestyle sung about in his popular song portraying Jesus as “The Outlaw.”
“Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?” explores the artistry, cultural significance and business aspects of Mr. Norman’s shows, records and the artist collective and record label he started in Hollywood. Before there was a multimillion-dollar CCM industry, Larry Norman drew together artists and poets, dreamers and visionaries, attempting to forge a new spirit within rock and roll, inviting countercultural kids to faith in Jesus Christ.
He opened for everybody, it seemed, from Jimi Hendrix to Janis Joplin, from The Doors to the Grateful Dead. Paul McCartney was a fan (having famously said that Mr. Norman would become a top-tier star if he’d only put aside the religious message). Billboard said he was “the most important songwriter since Paul Simon.” Some have thought that The Who’s famous rock opera, “Tommy,” was inspired by Mr. Norman’s early experimentation with the form. (Would there have been a “Jesus Christ Superstar” or even “Godspell” without his seminal influence?)
Although “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?” is not a tell-all bio, Mr. Thornbury gives us lots of background texture and fascinating stories. And there are plenty — some fun, some tender, some tragic, as the subject left a trail of broken relationships and business deals gone sour in his colorful wake. Anyone interested in the 1960s counterculture or the rock music scene in the last decades of the 20th century will enjoy this book. It isn’t every rock star who was acclaimed by Bob Dylan and who has an album added by the Library of Congress to the National Registry as “an American musical treasure.” Mr. Thornbury is doing something else here besides telling the personal story of Larry Norman, the idiosyncratic evangelical, a story many have awaited for decades, especially since his death in 2008. In fact, Mr. Thornbury is offering a storied critique of the ways in which the evangelical world too often used the arts as mere propaganda, how aesthetics was too often minimized for the sake of religiosity, and how all of this — Mr. Norman’s clever thoughtfulness notwithstanding — lead to not only a culturally ineffective evangelical faith, but also how that very faith could eventually be co-opted by the business and political interests of modern capitalism.
The subtitle of Mr. Thornbury’s biography is important: He explores the perils of Christian rock. There is a peril to the arts themselves (and the artists, as we see in the tragic stories) when they are too easily harnessed to a didactic message. There is a peril to the integrity of the church when its message is too easily tied to ideologies. And, Larry Norman might have said, as Mr. Thornbury does, that the culture itself is weakened when its best artists and visionaries, including their religious ones, are sidelined and co-opted.