Only Visiting This Planet - Larry Norman (1947-2008)

Yesterday was a very sad day for Christian Music. After struggling with health issues for more than a decade, Larry Norman died yesterday (February 24) in Salem, Oregon.

For those of you who are of the younger generation, Larry was to Contemporary Christian Music what Elvis was to Rock and Roll. If you asked the average CCM fan today what the first Christian Rock album was, they would not have the slighest idea. However, back in 1968, a young 21 year old created a groundbreaking album called "Upon This Rock" on the Capitol label, which was probably a decade ahead of its time. "Upon This Rock" is often referred to as the "Sgt. Pepper's" of Christian Music.

Most CCM critics and reviewers regard Larry's "Only Visiting This Planet" as the best, or one of the top 3 Christian albums of all time.

I was a huge fan of Larry's in my younger years and saw him in concert 5 times, once driving with some friends to Norman, Oklahoma to the "Boomer Theater" to see him. When I bought his albums via mail order in late high school/early college, Larry's dad would write nice personal notes on the packaging when he sent things to me.

Many people also are not aware that a mini rock opera written by Larry during his days with the band "People!" is credited by many as the inspiration for Pete Townshend's writing of "Tommy". (The Who was on tour with People! and saw their performances night after night in the late 60's).

My personal favorites of Larry's are:

• Nightmare (from So Long Ago the Garden) - [one of the best Christian lyrics ever written]
• Reader's Digest (from Only Visiting This Planet)
• The Great American Novel (from Only Visiting This Planet)
• I Am the Six O'Clock News (from Only Visiting This Planet)
• The Outlaw (from Only Visiting This Planet)
• Forget Your Hexagram (from Upon This Rock)
• I Don't Believe In Miracles (from Upon This Rock)
• Unlucky Blues (from Something New Under the Son)

For those in our youth group, we listened to "In Another Land" while setting up for the Valentine's day banquet a few weeks ago. Kind of ironic, isn't it.

Larry was also eloquent in interviews, magaine articles and in liner notes. I'll close with my favorite sections of Larry's liner notes to "In Another Land"

"today there was no bomb scare . . . just the reality that something exploded long before we knew it, and now we are living in the fallout. all of us are crippled and mutated from the radiation of that moment, but from the outward appearance we look normal, at least to each other. the earth is a dying planet, man a dying race. there are strange things in the sky at night. some people say that it is help from other planets, but i fear that it is evil let loose, vaporizing and streaking across the universe.

funny sad place we've turned this world into, the courts free killers on technicalities, people are starving and we burn and bury food because the economy would fluctuate if we fed them, women seem to be trying to rule the world now that the children have proven themelves incapable of establishing love and world peace; only a few generations ago women started dressing like men and now men are starting to dress like women, the world sems to be crumbling and yet people are eating and drinking and living unnaturally as though there were no right and wrong, as though their lives will never end.

Some people say there is no God, others say that we are all God. sometimes i look out over the city late at night and all the lights look like diamonds and rubies on a black jewelers cloth, all set in straight little rows and sprinkled on the hillsides - and i wonder how we have ever fallen so far. and then i look up in the sky with its far superior jewels; i look up and find myself waiting. and smiling." - Larry Norman, September 1975

Here, there be music . . . . soon . . . . .

Well, we're finally close to finishing our "music room" which we've been working on (or should I say not working on very much) for the last 14 months. Over the weekend, the boys and I got all of the insulation in place.

To those we've mentioned the project to, I've included some pictures, and will offer some explanations as well. This should help some of you who've expressed an interest in doing the same.

The picture above shows the southwest corner of the room. The funny looking insulation is called "Sound Attenuation Fire Blankets". They are made of a wood by-product and have much greater sound dampening characteristics than normal insulation. In addition, as their name implies, they are VERY fire-resistant. They are however, murder to work with. They are very itchy and smell like sheep when you first put them up.

Here is a picture of the stuff, up close and personal:



We placed this stuff on of the inward facing walls between the ceiling joists. You'll also notice some steel strips in the first picture. These are RC (Resiliant Channel). They are tacked on the studs and the drywall is attached to it, and either not attached to the studs at all, or attached only at the points where the Resiliant Channel intersects with the drywall. This reduces contact points where sound can be transferred to the wall. (BTW - the first picture does not have all of hte RC in place).

We also placed R-24 fiberglass insulation below the Fire Attenuation Sound Blankets in the ceiling (going the opposite direction) to provide extra sound insulation. Because the ceiling had to be lowered, we put this right above the new ceiling (which is what you see in the picture). This also creates an acoustic "dead space" between the R-24 layer and the Fire Attenuation Sound Blankets in the ceiling joists.

Our next step is to get the drywallers in to finish the drywalling, then we paint. Our plan is to do at least two of the walls in EVH's "Frankenstrat" design. The other walls may be a Beatles wall or a music/instrument brand logo wall.

We'll keep ya posted and provide pictures when it's all done.