Those Unbelievable Believers:
The Blessed Sounds of
Incredible Christian Song Demos

Brought to you by Deuce of Clubs

For those who doubted my claim of bug-ass insanity on the part of Mr. Larry Norman, Hippie Gospel Singer, I pass along this forwarded email from his "Phan Club"

(Note: snide comments appear in small font; dropped names are presented in bold face)

From: Larry Norman_email_list
Date: May 7, 2006 7:17:56 PM MST
Subject: MAY NEWS FROM LARRY NORMAN.COM

MAY ­ JUNE — E­NEWSLETTER

1. Solid Rock Army — "Third Tour of Duty" — Have you enlisted in the Ultimate Phan Club

Phan. Dood. That is so phat.

by joining The Solid Rock Army? You get a draft card, dog tags,private website for reading special "Field Reports" and Significant Discounts on ALL CDs, DVDs, T-Shirts, Books and everything else that is coming out. ( Last year this included TWO Phanzines, and FIVE unannounced Solid Rock gifts)

2. First Maxi-Single of 2006 — Army Only ­ ( FREE ) — "The Road That Leads to Home" ­ ( "The Hospital Tapes" )

SO HAVE YOU JOINED THE ARMY YET? IF NOT . . . THEN WHY NOT?

I blame sanity. Pernicious sanity!!! (Shakes fist to the heavens)

Some of the upcoming free Maxi­Singles are actually full­length CD Album songs of studio recordings which have NEVER BEEN RECORDED BEFORE, AND NEVER RELEASED BEFORE. The fabulous "Phanzine" is written by Larry and Michael Norman and has so far featured a private, unpublished portrait of Bob Dylan and his Dog, faces side by side. Bob's eyes have never looked more blue; (Ideal for framing)

(WTF?)

And a great story about Dylan and the dogs written about in some of his songs.

(And again: WTF?)

Then there is the "Bono Feature" in every issue. Photos of Larry and Bono, together.

This has to be a joke. doesn't it have to be a joke?

Inside information on Bono and what he's doing in his ministry to reach out to the dying world.

Ah, thank heaven. It is a joke.

The behind­the­scenes, never published story of why the band has had a spiritual re-awakening. Some of this comes directly from Jack Heaslip, the band's pastor who travels the world with them. These spiritual changes have also been explained to Larry by Bono.

And the joke just keeps getting funnier.

Larry was invited to fly to The White House and have a private lunch with Bono and one other person, a senator's aide who was steering Bono around the day he addressed Congress about "dropping the debt" to help third world countries.

Then there was the night Larry was planning to meet with Bono in London. Bono's father, Bob Hewson, passed away that day. Larry spent three intimate hours with Pastor Jack as Bono 'coptered from London back to Dublin." You will also see Bono's artwork, created for a children's book, not released in America, and you will meet Bono's friends who remain fairly invisible to the media, but spend many hours on many nights.

Nobody else spends many hours on many nights. Nobody! This is an exclusive.

Great photos of Bono's private life. Bono makes Larry try on his sunglasses. They clown around briefly, all caught on film.

And soon to be aired on Fox: When Zooropas Attack!

So there are plenty of photos in addition to plenty of personal insights into the world around us.

Larry might write about such things as the Guns and Roses member who came to live with him for several weeks. Or the brief time he spent with Jimmy Carter, or Larry's Uncle Max Rafferty, Superintendant of education for Ronald Reagan or Oliver North backstage after Larry's concert, and the disconnect with President Bush which has strongly affected Larry.

(I can't believe that Larry Norman isn't writing this himself, in the third person. There is too much name-dropping for it to be anyone else.)

Larry gets around. He's always been a political force at work, keeping his work under the radar. Now he feels he's got nothing to underplay anymore, so he's just telling everything.

He's never written an autobiography so this is kind of is, all coming out in vignettes.

There are personal accounts of the good, the bad, and the wacky including Michael Moore and Dudley Moore. Also the behind­the­script secrets of Mel Gibson's The Passion and the problems with the American Mega­Church.

The Phanzine is always filled with original articles, not rehashes of the daily news. And not opinions . . . just the facts. And there are strictly humorous articles, Biblical archaeology, health watch . . . basically everything that Larry has been interested in for years. You will discover as much about the real Larry Norman as you will about the wide world of his travels and experience and his view of modern Christianity, current culture and prophetic insights into coming conflicts.

This magazine is revolutionary and revealing, and it's FREE to those who have joined the Army.

Larry Norman's Army: Be All the Crazy You Can Be!

What else is coming out right now?

3. A Note From Mr. God — Full Color Animation DVD - directed by Rachel Peters — award winning graphic artist and cartoonist — Also Emmy and Academy Award "Oscar" winner Kaj Pindal plays the part of Larry in the film.

4. Monsters.2 — The hippest music Larry ever recorded, instrumentally. Very hot band ­ The Young Lions.version 2.

5. How Then Shall We Live ? ( The Fehrion Learning Center presents Larry at his absolute funniest. )

6. Wounded Lion — This documentary recording of Larry singing in Europe on a government radio broadcast

7. Alligator — the band's great debut studio album.

8. Mark Lemhouse ­ His latest CD: "The Great American Yardsale", produced by Charles Norman. This album won "The Muddy Waters Album of the Year Award".

Nobody muddier than Larry Norman.

9. John Fahey ­ Larry's friends and other world class performers in the studio re: the Grammy Award winning artist Rolling Stone magazine called "A folk-blues innovator of the 1960s who became a post-punk hero in the 1990s." The album, which contains a never before released song from Fahey's last ever acoustic recording session, features a stellar lineup of world famous musicians.

Some of the musicians included are the great George Winston,

(A.K.A. Mr. Tinkle)

Peter Lang, Stefan Grossman and John Renbourn, Paul Geremia, Woody Mann, Mark Lemhouse, Tinh, Terry Robb, Mitch Greenhill, classicist John Doan and Mayne Smith

10. The Norman Conquest — T­Shirt

11. Monsters.1 — T­Shirt

12. How Then Shall We Live? — T­Shirt

13. Only Visiting This Planet — Patch

14. Missing Pieces ( with the Deja Vu Links )

15. Ten Times Two — HILARIOUS, SPONTANEOUS, UNPRECEDENTED

UNREHEARSED, UNPOLISHED, UNLISTENABLE

16. Snapshots From The '77 World Tour

17. Slinky ­ NOT THE OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK TO THE FILM "FRISBEE"

Thanks for making that distinction.

18. The Norman Conquest — If you've heard this at a friend's house ­ YOU WILL WANT TO OWN IT.

MAKE IT YOURS, HAVE YOUR WAY WITH IT, FORCE IT TO PERFORM DEGRADING ACTS.

19. Live At The Elsinore — On-Site Mix ( Two CD set, Frank Black ( Black Francis ) of THE PIXIES! Larry with Joe Cocker's Grammy Awards pianist, the five blind boys from Liberia,

NOT THE FIVE OFFICIAL BLIND BOYS OF OFFICIAL ALABAMA

The Severin Sisters, Gary Pomeroy from People!2 , and many more guests do duets with Larry.

20. Live And Kicking — DVD ­ Larry travels with his Indian friend Brander in this very professional production.

GO TO THE WEBSITE TO SEE THE PRICES AND DISCOUNTS.

FUTURE PLANS:
We are trying to see if Larry will be well enough to perform one concert this year. We want to hold it at the Reed Opera House in Salem and film it. Our plans are to have an indoor carnival for a few hours before the concert begins and a private party the next day at the band's house ­ the same place that the party was held last year. Right now we have no idea when this might be or if Larry will be able to do this at all. We're just hoping that there will be some way to celebrate his 50th year as a Christian songwriter and performer.

Coming out later this year, the full­length studio film of the "Stranded in Babylon" sessions, featuring the MTV quality song video: God Part III. Bonus track is an interview in the studio.

Also, the official DVD of The Elsinore Theatre concert. And a film about Larry's Seaside Festival concert and his brief tour through Europe.

NEWS OF BIOGRAPHIES:
Larry started writing and performing in 1956. It's hard to believe, but that was FIFTY YEARS ago! Two books are being written about Larry. One in Europe by writer Alan Gibson and one in America by writer Tim DeMoss.

And BOTH books are inviting people to be part of writing the history of Larry.

Everyone whose contributions are compelling and quotable and are used in the book will have their name attached to their contribution in the book ­ and will also receive a FREE, autographed CD of SOME MUSIC, UNRELEASED ANYWHERE ELSE, BEING RECORDED THIS LAST WEEK AND FOR THE REST OF MAY ­ SPECIFICALLY FOR THE OCCASION AS A WAY TO SAY THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO CONTRIBUTE TO THE BOOK.

Any anecdotes? ( Funny stories? )

Any unexpected sightings? ( Like at a restaurant after the concert? )

That would be totally unexpected, that a singer might go to a restaurant after a concert.

Did you meet the person who you ended up marrying at one of Larry's concerts?

If only it were Amy Grant making this request, hey, Yma?

Did you have problems that seemed to be addressed at one of his concerts?

Yes. This one time it was too loud so I asked the soundboard engineer to turn it down.
(For the record, he told me to be warm, be blessed, and to get stuffed. That was soooo unannointed.)

Did you have your life "turned around" by his music, or something that he said from the stage? Or said directly to you after the concert?

Actually, what turned my life around was when Larry ran off with my wife.

Do you remember anything funny that happened at the concert you were at?

What rumors have you heard about Larry over the years?

Really wild ones, most of which were contained in the liner notes of Larry's albums.

What wild theories have people concocted about him?

That he knows tons of famous people.

What are some good things you've heard about him from other people?

Do you know anyone who was positively affected by Larry's music or his appearance at a concert?

Do you remember anyone being afraid of Larry because they didn't understand his music?

Besides the entire music industry, you mean?

Or maybe they thought he wasn't a Christian, for any reason. His hair? Wearing blue jeans in a church?

Only Satan and Larry Norman would wear blue jeans in church. 'Cos they're both so COOL.

Some political comment he made? Some theological point he expressed?

For some of you, this might go back 35 years when he was first considered Christianity's bad boy because of his startling stand­up comedy routines and songs which seemed to say that America wasn't the most perfect country on earth?

Larry was also the first artist to stand up against various theologies like "the prosperity doctrine", "backwards masking", etc. So he took a lot of hits from the Christian community.

Clearly, Larry has been taken a lot of hits from something.

And he was criticized for his message of feeding the poor and street witnessing to prostitutes and drug addicts and bringing them into the church as part of Christ's mandate to us as believers.

Did Christ receive roughly 30% of the popular vote, or was a mandate different back in Bible times?

And then there were Larry's sarcastic comedies about the space program and American politics . . .

Does this give you any ideas or remind you of things you heard or experiences you may have had because of his music or his concert appearances? You can write something that is quite long.

A book, for example. If you do, CONTACT US!!! As you may have gathered, we'll put out just about anything.

Or you can write about one or several things that you recall.

This is a great chance to get your memories published, get your perspective down in print. This is going to be fun. If you want to contribute ­ do it as soon as possible.

The book is scheduled for a Fall 2006 publication which means it will probably be finished during the Summer ­ so you need to submit your contributions very soon.

====================================

If you want to have any of your memories or anecdotes published in one or both of LARRY'S TWO BIOGRAPHIES, please write to:

TheLarryNormanStory.com

[ mail to: submissions@thelarrynormanstory.com ]

IF YOU ARE AN AMERICAN OR CANADIAN CITIZEN.
( The American Biography has been written by Tim DeMoss )

OR: ===================================

larryukbook@solidrockrecords.co.uk

IF YOU ARE A EUROPEAN OR BRITISH CITIZEN
( The European Biography has been written by Alan Gibson )

My anecdote takes place on the Concorde, in international airspace over the Atlantic Ocean. Can that go into a third book? How about if it involves Francis Schaeffer, Guy Kibbee, and a marionette of Harpo Marx?

====================================

HEALTH UPDATE:
Most of the above is "good news". But there is some "bad news" too and we are asking for prayer for this.

Larry is fighting the good fight. He has been in the hospital every month since the beginning of this year. April was the month of his birthday and he's been in the hospital THREE TIMES in April. Larry is in great spirits but has had bronchial pneumonia that lingered for six weeks and blood pressure that dropped from "normal" ( 140/95 ) down to 58/42. He was kept in the hospital for eight days as the doctors tried to raise his blood pressure up back to normal. ( They settled for 98/72. ) Larry owed thousands of dollars when he was finally sent home after these six trips to the hospital. He is stabilized now, and is well enough to be singing in the studio, though his voice is a kind of raspy croak for now. But that never hurt Bob Dylan, Leon Russell or Dr. John and we think the album he is now recording for the "biography contributors" sounds great.

AND THIS IS THE BAD NEWS:
Larry is now legally blind in his right eye and his left eye is beginning to dim as well. He needs eye surgery as soon as possible or he is going to go completely blind. It's a degenerative problem that can be reversed if treated soon enough, or irreversible if postponed for too long.

So, as much as we hate to say this, he needs help. If you feel led to pray for him, PLEASE DO. If you feel led to donate some money to his medical fund for his operation, he would be so very grateful. His fund is named, "Larry Norman Medical Trust Fund" and the Revocable Trust is in charge of all money that is donated. The money is used strictly for Larry's medical needs which have been extensive.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us and we will help in any way we can.

Thank you and God bless you.

Kristin and Silver

_______________________________________
If you wish to be removed from this list please reply with "REMOVE"in the subject line.

Are you KIDDING?? How do I get on MORE lists like this??

(Gracias to the forward-thinking RobbL )