Larry Norman – Page 4

Mark Heard – Appalachian Melody – 1979

This was Mark’s second album and his first on Solid Rock Records.

As is typical on Solid Rock albums the whole gang is on the album. I’ve always wondered why Larry felt the need to sing backup on every album (ok almost all) he produced, but I digress.

The album is a fairly light rock affair but Mark does get closer to the Rock and Roll rank on a few tunes. This is an album that will likely grow on you if a first listening doesn’t really capture you.

Track Listing:
1 – On The Radio – 3:38
2 – Castaway – 3:26
3 – Bless My Soul – 4:04
4 – Here I Am (Once Again) – 3:54
5 – With The Setting Sun – 1:42
6 – Appalachian Melody – 4:17
7 – Happy Cornbread Aniversary – 1:48
8 – Two Trusting Jesus – 4:13
9 – Jonah’s Song – 5:26
10 – Sidewalk Soliloquy – 3:18
11 – The Last Time – 3:16
12 – The Saints – 0:22

And here are the bonus tracks from the 2009 CD release:

Credits:
Mark Heard – acoustic and electric guitars, piano, mandolin, hambone, vocals, harmonies, arranging, co-producer, mixing, photography, album artwork
Larry Norman – background vocals, producer, arranger, photography, album artwork
Randy Stonehill – background vocals
Tom Howard – Fender Rhodes, orchestration
Jon Linn – lead guitar
Flim Johnson – bass guitar
Peter Johnson – drums
Al Perkins – pedal steel guitar, dobro
Chuck Long – electric and acoustic guitars, additional photography
Alex MacDougall – percussion and congas
Janet Sue Heard – harmony, additional photography
Tom Howard String Ensemble conducted by Tom Howard

Randy Stonehill – Paradise Sky – 2008

During filming of David Di Sabatino’s Larry Norman documentary, “Fallen Angel” the producers wanted to use various Randy Stonehill songs. This was a problem however, as the rights to those recordings were still owned by Larry Norman’s record labels who needless to say weren’t interested in working with the producers.

Randy however owned the rights to the songs so it was decided to send him back into the studio to rerecord the songs they wanted to use. The result is this album which includes songs from Randy’s first few albums.

The songs are very well produced and this album is an enjoyable visit back to the early days of Randy Stonehill.

Tracklist
1 – Keep Me Runnin’ – 4:57
2 – One True Love – 4:27
3 – King Of Hearts – 4:34
4 – Norman’s Kitchen – 4:11
5 – I’ve Got News For You – 4:30
6 – Even The Best Of Friends – 4:23
7 – The Winner – 3:38
8 – Counterfeit King – 5:34
9 – Trouble Coming – 4:34
10 – First Prayer – 3:20
11 – Good News – 4:10

Credits:
Design [Art Design] – Joe Redmond, Lara Kulczycki
Engineer [Engineered By] – Mike Pachelli
Executive-Producer – Ray Ware
Liner Notes – David Di Sabatino, Randy Stonehill
Photography By [Back Cover Photo] – Susan Uston
Photography By [Cover & Digipak Inset Photo] – Wayne Armstrong
Photography By [Insert Photos] – CCM Magazine*, Duane Pederson, Jerry Hauser, Leonard Stonehill, Pamela Newman, Pauline Stonehill, Hollywood Free Paper*, Randy Stonehill
Producer [Produced By], Arranged By – Mike Pachelli, Randy Stonehill

Daniel Amos – Horrendous Disc – 1980

The album Horrendous Disc by Daniel Amos was a very popular early 80’s CCM album.

While it was released in 1981 it has a strong mid 70’s sound. The reason for this is that it was actually recorded in 1978. It was rejected by Maranatha Music and ended up in the hands of Solid Rock Records.

For reasons only known to Larry Norman (owner of Solid Rock at the time) it was not released until 1981. It played a part in a messy situation that ended up with Daniel Amos at Newpax Records.

All that said it was a well received album with the single “I Love You #19” still very popular.

Track Listing:
1 – I Love You #19 – 3:33
2 – Hound Of Heaven – 4:06
3 – (Near-Sighted Girl With Approaching) Tidal Wave – 3:05
4 – Sky King (Out Across The Sky) – 4:05
5 – On The Line – 5:20
6 – I Believe In You – 3:45
7 – Man In The Moon – 4:00
8 – Never Leave You – 3:08
9 – Horrendous Disc – 5:20

Credits:
Bass [Uncredited], Backing Vocals [Uncredited] – Marty Dieckmeyer
Drums [Uncredited], Percussion [Uncredited], Backing Vocals [Uncredited] – Ed McTaggart
Guitar [Uncredited], Lead Vocals [Uncredited], Backing Vocals [Uncredited] – Jerry Chamberlain, Terry Taylor
Keyboards [Uncredited], Backing Vocals [Uncredited] – Mark Cook (2)
Percussion [Uncredited] – Alex MacDougal*
Producer [Uncredited] – Daniel Amos, Mike D. Stone

Larry Norman – Home At Last – 1989

Larry released this album in 1989 which has mostly new material. Originally released as a 2 LP set, it was also released as a CD and was re-released in 2007 on CD.

The CD only contained sides 1, 2, and 3 of the LP’s. Side 4 of the LP was a live recording of 4 songs. The LP is relatively rare and I’ve never even seen a copy.

One of the favourite tracks was “Sitting In My Kitchen” which was a rework of Randy Stonehill’s “Norman’s Kitchen”.

Track Listing:
1 – Lonely Boy
2 – My Feet Are On The Rock
3 – Country Church
4 – Sitting In My Kitchen
5 – Camel Through A Needle’s Eye
6 – Nightmare #49 (Part One)
7 – Oh How I Love You
8 – Queen Of The Rodeo
9 – He Really Loves You
10 – Here Comes The King
11 – Letters To The Church
12 – We Three Twogether
13 – Somewhere Out There
14 – Selah

Credits:
Larry Norman – vocals, harmonies, guitar, piano, saxophone, harmonica, keyboards
Charles Norman – vocals, guitars, bass, harmonica, keyboards, percussion, drums
Sarah Norman – vocals, harmonies, percussion
Beki Hemingway – vocals, harmonies
Jon Linn – guitar
Bob Somma – guitar
Jellybean Jaquette – bass, engineering
Dave Spurr – drums
John Campbell – keyboards
Steve Goomas – piano
Dan Cutrona – keyboards

Real 80s CCM Podcast #2 Stonehill, Lifters, Larry

Episode #2 Featuring

Randy Stonehill
The Lifters
Larry Norman
Scott and Ray talking about old music
Another guest appearance by Gena the dog

To view this episode with its original live video, see it here on Youtube:

Listen to just the audio below, or Right Click Here To Download

Randy Stonehill – Born Twice – 1971

This is Randy’s debut record from 1971 or maybe 1973. This copy is marked 1973. He has another release from 1973, “Get Me Out of Hollywood” but this isn’t that one.

Side one is a live recording that sounds a little like a church basement, but also a lot like an old school coffee house performance. The crowd is incredibly courteous, completely silent during the songs and responsive to each one. You can almost picture someone sitting in front of Randy holding a little microphone and a hand held cassette tape recorder. I think it was a higher quality affair than that, but it is this intimate.

Side two is a series of studio songs, several of which would later be recorded in more famous versions by Larry Norman. Some were released with different song titles. Larry produced this album, so it’s a little unclear how the songwriting credits were supposed to work. In particular, the song “Norman’s Kitchen” ended up on Larry’s 1990 album “Home At Last” titled “Sitting In My Kitchen”

This is a rarely heard treat that shows us the early start of Randy Stonehill, who is still going strong with a busy touring schedule over 45 years after recording this.

Track Listing:
1 – I Need You
2 – Hand In The Hand
3 – He’s Got The Whole World
4 – Help Me Lord
5 – Thank You
6 – Never Can Repay
7 – All Right Now
8 – Passing Stranger
9 – I Love You
10 – Christmas Time
11 – Norman’s Kitchen

Credits:
Producer, Arranged By, Photography By – Larry Norman

Randy Stonehill – Welcome To Paradise – 1976

This album was Randy’s third and at this point Randy was a very accomplished musician.

His song writing had always been very strong but now his guitar work was catching up. For many this album was their first exposure to Randy Stonehill and it had strong sales numbers.

Larry Norman both produced and played guitar on the album.

Point of trivia is that T-Bone Burnett joined the album as a bass player.

Track Listing
1 – King Of Hearts – 4:53
2 – Keep Me Runnin’ – 5:57
3 – The Winner (High Card) – 3:43
4 – Lung Cancer – 3:31
5 – Puppet Strings – 4:25
6 – First Prayer – 3:08
7 – I’ve Got News For You – 3:49
8 – Song For Sarah – 3:28
9 – Christmas Song For All Year ‘Round – 3:56
10 – Good News – 2:54

Credits:
Acoustic Guitar, Vocals – Randy Stonehill
Bass – The Mighty T-Bone
Conductor [Charts And Baton] – Anthony Harris
Drums – Mark Walker
Electric Guitar, Piano, Harmony Vocals – Larry Norman
Engineer – Andy Johns
Engineer [Co-Engineer] – Tom Trefethen
Lead Guitar – Jon “Wonderfingers” Linn
Management – Street Level Artists Agency
Producer, Arranged By, Photography By, Design [Album Design] – Larry Norman
Typography [Lettering] – Joe Taylor
Written-By, Performer [Performed By] – Randy Stonehill

Larry Norman – bARCHAEOLOGY / Labor of Love – 1984

The songs on Labor of Love are a refreshingly different sound to hear from Larry Norman. They are far less brooding, and much less singer-songwriter or blues artist approach to songs. The reason? These songs are written by Tom Howard.

Labor of Love is one of 3 records included in the bARCHAEOLOGY boxed set released in 1984. Labor, and Letter of the Law, another of the 3 records in the set are comprised mainly of songs written by Tom Howard. There was also an album released called Quiet Night, under the name “Larry Norman & The Young Lions” although there is no evidence that the Young Lions were anyone other than Larry and his brother Charly. Actually that’s a pretty credible theory.

Larry was promoting Tom Howard on the Solid Rock label, and produced one album for him. Apparently at one point Larry decided that if he recorded some of Tom’s songs, they would be easier to promote, and it would result in better album sales for Tom.

There isn’t any evidence that this was a big boost for Tom Howard’s career, but he did have a few albums out on his own, including the one on Solid Rock Records.

There are a couple of “L’Etudes” tracks here, which are the only pieces written by Larry on this record. They serve as interludes between some of the songs.

Track Listing:
1 – Where His Love Touches Down
2 – Let The Master Make It Right
3 – Stairway L’Etudes
4 – Farther On
5 – Come On In
6 – Piano L’Etudes
7 – Mansion On The Sand
8 – Twilight L’Etudes
9 – Higher Calling
10 – Jesus Is The Song
11 – Drum L’Etudes
12 – One More Reason

Larry Norman – Something New Under the Son – 1981

This album is probably Larry’s best straight out Rock and Roll album.

Recorded in 1977 it didn’t get released until 1981 due in part to difficulty with Word Records. In fact Word censored “Watch What You’re Doing”. Given these difficulties, this album was the end of Larry’s distribution agreement with Word Records. It was also his last release on Solid Rock Records, which was actually shut down before this album was released.

As a teen I remember loving “Watch What You’re Doing” though now I can enjoy all of the album with more years of life experience under my belt.

Track Listing:
1 – Hard Luck Bad News
2 – Feeling So Bad
3 – I Feel Like Dying
4 – Born To Be Unlucky
5 – Watch What You’re Doing
6 – Leaving The Past Behind
7 – Put Your Life In His Hands
8 – Larry Norman’s 97th Nightmare
9 – Let That Tape Keep Rolling (C:12/L:6)

Credits:
Bass – Billy (Shazam) Batstone*, Dave Coy, Tim Jaquette
Drums – Alex MacDougall, Peter Johnson (3)
Guitar, Slide Guitar – Jon Linn
Producer, Arranged By, Written-By – Larry Norman
Vocals, Guitar, Drums, Bass, Piano, Harmonica, Saxophone, Harmony Vocals, Photography By, Artwork – L.N.*

Larry Norman – Rebel Poet, Jukebox Balladeer: Anthology – 2008

This double album was released on vinyl shortly after Larry’s death in 2008. I have a lot of different anthologies that he released over the years. White Blossoms from Black Roots being one of the ones that was meant to be career-spanning at the time. This one includes his real mainstays, the songs he became known for, and probably the ones that were his favourites.

It’s pressed on heavy vinyl and I’ve only played my copy a few times. I remember discovering each one of these songs decades ago, and I think that’s the point of the collection.

This would have been the last thing Larry worked on before he died. Larry wrote short descriptions for each song on this record in September of 2007. They are included in the liner notes pictured, check out the photo.

The opening track is the version of I Love You from his time with the band People!. The recording sounds a little 1969 because it is. This was a radio single at the time and would have been released under Columbia Records. After that, Larry struggled with releasing his music on his own with complete control, and there is probably a lot that we will never hear.

True to LN fashion, the back of the jacket lists 5 tracks on each side of disc 1, but there are 4 on side A and 6 on side B. The same thing happened on disc 2. Ha Ha World is listed as the last song on side A but it is actually the first song on side B. At least the record labels are correct. Not a big deal, but the details always seemed to be a killer at SR Studio.

The lead-out etching on side 1 of disc 1 says “Death is conquered while you slumber.” This is an obvious homage to Larry’s passing. He used that phrase many years earlier in liner notes and it seemed to come up here and there. The other half of the rhyme is “Seven is the perfect number,” which is etched in side 2 of disc 1.

The 20 songs in this collection come from only 6 different albums, and 6 tracks are from Only Visiting This Planet, and 5 are from In Another Land. Larry obviously considered this to be his core work.

The etching on side 3 says “quasioxymoron: numbers don’t count.” This is a riddle we saw in the liner notes of Something New Under the Son. We have our guesses about it but no official sources ever answered any questions about Larry’s most cryptic notes.

Side 4’s etching says “Only Visiting This Planet Larry Norman (1947-2008)” Fitting. And the 7 is backwards.

Track Listing:
1 – I Love You
2 – I’ve Got To Learn To Live Without You
3 – I Am The Six O’Clock News
4 – The Great American Novel
5 – Moses: A Blues Recital And Meditation Of 40 Years On The Road
6 – Peacepollutionrevolution
7 – Pardon Me
8 – Reader’s Digest
9 – Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?
10 – Baroquen Spirits
11 – Nightmare #71
12 – Watch What You’re Doing
13 – Without Love, You Ain’t Nothing (Righteous Rocker)
14 – The Outlaw
15 – Ha Ha World
16 – U.F.O.
17 – I’ve Searched All Around The World
18 – I Wish We’d All Been Ready
19 – Rosemary’s Baby (The Omen-666)
20 – The Sun Began To Rain