Album Reviews
Movies
Concert Reviews

Top 10
Resources
Contact Us

In the seventies, Larry Norman was twenty years ahead of his time in how he was able to create artistic masterpieces of rock records out of the truth of Christian faith. His work, especially what became known as the Trilogy ­, Only Visiting This Planet, So Long Ago, The Garden, and In Another Land - was strong enough to sit with anything in the “real” world. The songwriting, the production, the playing, the very artwork were unequalled in Christian subculture for many a long year. He was the inspiration and benchmark that everyone had to reach. By the end of the decade Norman had retreated from releasing albums and live recording but at the beginning of ‘81 he returned with a British tour and at last the release of another great piece of work Something New Under the Son.

That May he walked out on the Assembly Buildings stage in Belfast the night Ballymena United won the Irish Cup for the first time in aeons and the whole country was waiting for the imminent death of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. His charisma from the moment he appeared until he left was mesmerizing. With the band he rocked, like Jagger could rock, his trademark blonde hair flying around like some special effect. His solo acoustic stuff was intimate, powerfully insightful and as humorous as any stand up comedian.

These were radical sound bites of faith in the twentieth century and the evidence of the generation gap between a rocker and the established Church. I remember thinking that if Jesus were alive in 1981 he would look just like this and during "UFO" I looked up at the roof expecting to find out if I was right. Norman had been to Belfast before and for the next two decades it was the scene of regular nights of Norman eccentricism and the sale of an abundance of LP’s and CD’s only available at gigs.

Without doubt, us in Belfast have had the privilege of watching the history of Larry Norman. We have seen him rock, seen him go solo acoustic, we have seen him suffer from physical demons of his mind and been to Larry Norman concerts that even Larry Norman could not make it to because of a heart attack. We have seen him recover his health and we have seen him look very vulnerable during songs and prayed he’d make it through and then watched him rock it in the second half. If there was to be a box set of Norman’s greatest live moments then there was no better place for its documentation than on the stages of this troubled city. That is what Trevor King and Paul Shaw have been doing these past fifteen concerts and at the beginning without any CD release in mind. But do not be fooled by the word “Rough” in the title or the by-line Belfast Bootlegs. This is Norman in many cases without fancy equipment but the recordings are far from poor in quality and the performances are strong.

Rough Diamonds * Precious Jewels is the history of Larry Norman live and has just about every song that he has performed live anywhere in these last twenty years. We also get a huge dollop of his humorous poignancy in improvised yarns. The four CDs are crammed full of songs familiar and a good smattering of the very rare. Whether you are looking for the old faithfuls like "The Rock That Doesn’t Roll," "I Wish We’d All Been Ready," and "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music" or for those like "Near," "I Am Is," or "If I Were a Singer, or his versions of the old Gospel songs "If I Got My Ticket" and "Swing Low Swing Chariot" improvised in his explanation of how rock ‘n roll is not of the devil but had its roots in the faith that inspired old Negro spirituals, then you have it here under the one roof. What the historical nature of the work reveals is that though Norman’s songwriting, and particularly his lyric writing, lost its originality in later years, his performance and delivery was able to carry the shortfall. Songs like "The Long Hard Road" or "Elvis Has Left the Building" may have sounded trite and twee in any other hands or lips. At the same time what it reveals more than anything else is what a solid back catalogue the man has.

That, like Dylan, he has kept his songs alive, growing, moving, changing with time means that this is far more satisfying than a box set of the old recordings. That it is released to raise money for Romanian orphans and that Larry has paid for the pressing so that all of your money goes to that project makes it even more a necessity. It is simply the essential Larry Norman whether you have everything else or nothing at all. Not that rough but very precious; and not only if, like me, you’d been there! Gloat!!!!!

Steve Stockman 11/4/2001