Dougie Adams continues his exhaustive trawl through the recorded works of LARRY NORMAN, detailing the Jesus rock pioneer's recordings from 1993 to 2001. Larry makes a comment or two as well.

1967-83
Larry Norman & People!, We Wish You A Larry Christmas, Solid Rock Illegal Noise Series (SRD-864), 1998
This is another CD which started life as a bootleg, rounding up rare tracks from Larry's days in the seriously psychedelic '60s band People! plus the rare "Blow In My Ear & I'll Follow You Anywhere" single by the Flies and the original mixes of a number of songs from the classic 'Upon This Rock' album on Capitol Records. All the tracks were carefully transferred from vinyl to CD with great care. The People! tracks may not be everyone's cup of tea but fans of Larry's early stuff will no doubt enjoy the Flies material and the alternate versions of the 'Upon This Rock' songs. A live performance of "Moses" from 1983 is included too as the last (unlisted) track. Still available and of interest to collectors rather than first time buyers.

1974-93
Larry Norman, Home At Last/Footprints In The Sand (Double CD), (Holland) Spark SK7099,1998
Larry's Dutch distributors issued the albums as a special priced double CD (two for the price of one). Since five songs from 'Home At Last' are also on 'Footprints In The Sand' there are some complaints that duplication or repackaging of Larry's material has reached new heights! Well intentioned offer and 25 songs for £15 isn't bad going! Deleted in USA but available from Spark in Holland.

1998
Larry Norman, The Vineyard (Double CD), Solid Rock Illegal Noise Series (SRD-865), 1999
Fantastic concert from March 1998 which sees Larry trying out a few new and unreleased songs in both his sets on guitar and piano as well as playing a broad range of songs from the various decades of his career. Best of all is the fact that for the most part this is a great performance, rounded off with lots of funny stories, chat and inspired monologues. For the first time since 'Street Level' we are treated to the joys of Larry reciting a poem 'I Am Is' in concert. The Vineyard' succeeds where many other live albums fail, in that it manages to convey through the broad range of songs, the jokes and the prayers and preaching why a Larry Norman concert is more than just an entertaining night out. Deleted.

1969-85
Larry Norman, Rough Street Love Letter (Double CD), Solid Rock Illegal Noise Series (SRD-866), 1999
Four hard to come by LPs are crammed onto a double CD to compete with a growing number of bootleg CDR sales on the internet. The original nine song version of 'Street Level' shares a disc with 'Rough Mix 3 (Howling At The Moon)' while the second CD consists of 'Letter Of The Law' and labor Of Love', two albums which mixed some hit and miss cover version of Tom Howard songs with odd little Larry Norman instrumentals. Even though they weren't the greatest albums in the world they still contained a number of nice performances such as "Where His Soul Touches Down" and "Let The Master Make It Right". 'Rough Mix 3' differs from the LP version (aka Barking At The Ooops') and collects various demos from 1979 to 1985. The bonus tracks caused a bit of a stir, a studio version of "A Woman Not A Maid" from the unreleased 'Rough Mix 2' album, accompanied by a succinct version of "Love On Haight Street" from 1969 (and the long-rumoured 'Rough Mix V album) with Randy Stonehill on guitar and harmony. Sold out.

1997-99
Larry Norman, Father Touch (Double CD), Phydeaux Phan Klubb CD (PPK-001), 1999
The second disc can be dealt with quickly, it is an interview disc with Larry giving his views on the Godspell musical and appearing on Tim DeMoss's radio show on WZZD. The first disc collects together two songs from the 1997 internet gig, two hard-to-get-a-hold-of songs from recent tribute albums and some great new recordings of new songs like "Father Of AN", "Dark Passage", "I Need A Touch" and "Near". Instrumental demos intended for future albums are tagged on at the end. Eight brand new songs, well recorded and appearing on CD for the first time. Deleted. Other items in the limited edition fan club doggee bag included fridge magnets, bookmarks, button hole badges and free backstage passes to any Larry Norman concert anywhere on Planet Earth.

1969-71
Larry Norman & Randy Stonehill, The Cottage Tapes (Volume 1), Solid Rock (SRD-701), 2000
Alternate mixes from Larry's 'Street Level' and 'Bootleg' albums and selections from Randy's debut LP 'Born Twice' with a few bonus tracks thrown in for good measure. Essential! Still in stock at Solid Rock.

2000
Larry Norman, In The Beginning, Phydeaux Limited Edition Concert Series (PDX-200), 2000
Somebody in the office has obviously caught the bug for issuing different series of releases! After the Illegal Noise Series, Historical Archives Series, Phydeaux's Retrospective Series here comes the limited edition concert series... and lo and behold Phydeaux has recently begun another one, the DUFBY series (Dug Up From The Back Yard!). Anyway, the limited edition series was aimed at the kind of Larry fan who likes to buy all the unofficial audience recording bootleg concerts. The idea is to press a small number of copies up from some of Larry's most notable concerts of the year and release a CD made from the top quality digital soundboard (mixing desk) recording. 'In The Beginning' captures Larry live at the Creation West 2000 festival. In the scorching heat Larry and his then new young lions backing band delivering a pretty hot set. While the song selection is a bit conservative with all the songs bar "God Part III" coming from 'Only Visiting This Planet', 'In Another Land' or 'Upon This Rock', this one was quite popular with the diehards on account of the band segment in which Larry (never one to do things by half measures) is supported by four lead guitarists plus some loud, crisp drums and thumping bass. Somehow, this band manage to sound louder and grungier than Beam did in 1998 when they backed Larry. The band are tight, loud and they rock hard and Larry's voice seems in good shape for most if not all of the set. Some of the monologue material is about 20 years old as well but all in all despite the age of the songs and the comedy routines this still sounds quite fresh and hard hitting. Once again, "Six Sixty Six" sounds magnificent with a rocking band accompanying Larry's world weary lyrics and vocals. Available from Solid Rock.

1975-95
Larry Norman, Blarney Stone (Double CD), Phydeaux's DUFBY Series (PDX-203), 2000 Double CD with disc one coming from Trevor King and Paul Shaw's extensive archives. There are 10 tracks of great live versions of familiar songs taken from various concerts and which hadn't been released before or even widely bootlegged. So we have Larry and bands in New Zealand in 1979 then Rotterdam in 1982 plus one track from his solo concert in Londonderry in 1995. Then there are four short vignette (or sample) tracks of songs included on the forthcoming 'Rough Diamonds Precious Jewels: The Belfast Bootlegs' four CD boxed set. The bonus disc, which was included at the last moment for no additional cost, focuses on the late Jon Linn's lead guitar work for Solid Rock Records and features tracks from albums like 'In Another Land', 'Something New Under The Son', 'The Sky Is Falling' plus a home recording of Jon bashfully talking Larry through one of his own compositions.

1974-89
Larry Norman, Sticks & Stones (Double CD), Phydeaux's DUFBY Series (PDX-204), 2000
Phydeaux selects some of Larry's favourite tracks on the numerous counterfeit CD's in circulation and puts them together here. The sound quality is usually OK though in a few places the occasional song sounds very rough. Most of the songs have been sourced from videos such as "Face To Face", "Home At Last", "Brotherly Love Sisters Of Mercy" and "Illegal Observations". A couple of tracks are from the much sought after Chapel Lane LP 'Larry Norman & His Friends On Tour', 'Best Of The Second Trilogy' cassette and Royal Music's long deleted 'Down Under' LP. Most long standing fans will have heard nearly all the music before and own most of the original videos and tapes. That said, it's still a nice compilation of rarities and the full length original recording of "Dear Malcolm, Dear Alwyn" is a welcome surprise and the demo versions of "Trinity" and fumbling live version of "That's What Love Is For" whet the appetite for the finished studio versions which are said to be languishing somewhere in the vaults.

1981-2000
Larry Norman, Rough Diamonds, Precious Jewels: The Belfast Bootlegs 1981-2000 (4 CD Boxed Set), (Northern Ireland) Romanian Relief Records, 2001
Another release which comes courtesy of Trevor King and Paul Shaw's archives. 3 Nearly 90 tracks selected from some legendary Belfast concerts spanning the years 1981-2000 and all soundboard (or mixing desk) recordings. Larry rocking with various bands and performing solo on guitar and piano. A treasure trove of rare performances and previously unreleased songs in addition to some definitive performances of well known numbers. Released a couple of weeks after we went to press (mid-February). Has the look of being the kind of release which will reaffirm Larry's status as a legendary songwriter and performer and rekindle fans' enthusiasm for Larry's live work... even though the amount of live material available is often close to saturation point.

1999~2000
Larry Norman, Tourniquet, currently awaiting release in 2001
In December 2000, 20 CDR copies of this forthcoming album were sold to collectors. There are no more copies left at the moment so don't bother pestering Solid Rock for a copy! This is Larry's first "official" album since 'Stranded In Babylon1 and there are high hopes that it will gain mainstream distribution in America as well as in Europe's Christian bookshops. Many of the 11 songs have appeared on recent live albums and the limited edition Solid Rock CDs of demos and rough mixes. One of the conditions attached to buying a rare CDR copy was that you couldn't discuss the contents with anyone else, but I've heard that the song selection is great and there are a number of fantastic new recordings on offer with a good mix of well produced ballads and loud rock and roll with articulate lyrics on a variety of topics. Can't wait till I get my hands on a copy. Just to confuse things further there is a possibility that when it is officially released this album might be called 'Behind The Curtain' even though it is surely very different from the album of that title which was first mentioned for a 1986 release.

Larry's Comments: 'Tourniquet' contains many of the songs I've been working on for the last few years. It's not a finished statement because I'm still working on other songs which complement its message. I don't really want to talk about it because I feel I've always said too much in advance in the past. Sometimes I've talked about albums which I ended up not releasing, which is the same problem Neil Young had. And Lennon. And even Dylan. When you're really passionate about music it's hard to keep your mouth shut because you want to share your excitement with others. But it's just a real bad idea to talk about projects in advance so I'm trying not to do that anymore.

The two parts of this annotated discography were compiled and written by Dougie Adam, who works as a probationary parish assistant with St Clement's & St Ninian 's parish churches in Wallyford and Musselburgh, Scotland. Dougie acknowledges the help of Larry Norman, Kerry Hopkins (Larry's assistant at Solid Rock) and the following collectors from around the world: Robert Temorshuizen, Mike Rohlinger, Gunnar Lorens Lien and Paul Shaw. Thanks to Jonathon Isaacs and Alasdair Munro for lending Dougie some of their Larry Norman rarities for our pictures.