Description
Something New Under the Son is a studio album by the American singer and songwriter Larry Norman, released on his own label Solid Rock Records in 1981, distributed by Word. (It was actually recorded back in 1977 and thus labeled “Ruffmix Version 1977”.) The album was written, produced, and arranged by Larry Norman. The album took its title from “an ironic inversion of a phrase in Ecclesiastes”, namely: “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9b). Described by Campus Life Magazine as “the musical misadventures of one underdog pilgrim whose hard luck and bad news reach epic proportions.”
Featuring Larry Norman on lead and harmony vocals, as well as guitar, bass, drums piano, harmonica, and saxophone. Also featuirng sessions musicians such as Jon Linn on guitar, Billy Batstone (of Good News fame), Dave Coy, and Tim Jaquette on bass, as well as Alex MacDougall (of Daniel Amos fame) and Peter Johnson on drums.
Something New Under The Son was included in the Editors’ Choice 1981 list of CCM Magazine, a list featuring 15 albums released during 1981, before the end of November. Also voted Best US Album 1981 in the Readers’ Awards of the British gospel magazine Buzz. (As well, Barratt Band’s debut Playing in the City was voted Best UK Album 1981. Barratt Band actually backed Larry Norman on his European Tour 1981, as documented on the live album Larry Norman and his Friends on Tour.)
Apparently, a Larry Norman album is like hair – the longer you have it, the more it grows on you. Rumor has it that there is a guy somewhere in the bowels of Word (Solid Rock’s distribution company) who keeps playing this disc over and over and muttering that it’s the worst Christian album he’s ever heard.
It’s not. But it has almost nothing in common with run-of-the-mill, Jesus-loves-me albums. Instead, it is a witty and sometimes pathetic journey from despair and loneliness, through conviction, conversion, baptism, evangelical fervor and a vision of rapture.
Drawing on early rhythm ‘n’ blues and rock ‘n’ roll players like Howlin’ Wolf and Chuck Berry, employing haranguing mouth harp, crude distorted guitar riffs and driving percussive elements, this western-born white boy sings the blues – rough edges, dead air and all. And although Norman is not vocally well-suited for the task, his LP is a credible contemporization of early, anti-arrangement rock ‘n’ roll recordings; it stands as a unique (possibly because no one else has been crazy enough to try) tribute to the black gospel origins of rock ‘n’ roll.
Who knows? Perhaps this guerilla music (sic.) will rattle Christendom out of its comfortable horned-and-stringed production high. (Christian poppers and Chrisco-dancers beware.) Norman provides here, among other things, a renegade church meetin’ song, the cryin’ blues, a Berryesque boogie, a renewed, re-Worded version of «Stagger Lee», and a finale that even sets Jagger’s «I’m Going Home» on the path towards heaven. (The album, by the way, contains «Watch What You’re Doing» which also appears on the Phydeaux release, ‘Roll Away the Stone‘, and «Let That Tape Keep Rolling» first heard on ‘Greenbelt Live‘.)
All in all, ‘Something New’ is a different sort of record by an artist willing to let us in on perhaps the only well-kept, yet widely-know secret in Christendom: pilgrim life can be pretty rough, especially on the road. But then, like the Man said, there’s nothing new…
(Best cuts: «Hard Luck, Bad News», «Watch What You’re Doing», «I Feel Like Dying», «Larry Norman’s 97th Nightmare».) [Karen Marie Platt, CCM (What’s New), June 1981]
Here’s my personal pick for Larry’s best and most consistent album. Something New Under The Son is a raw hard blues-rock tour de force. Although not released until 1981, it was apparently recorded quite a bit earlier. Larry’s keyed-up Mick Jagger vocal delivery never sounded better than cuts like the jamming «Let The Tape Keep Rolling» and the Stones-ish «Put Your Life In His Hands». SNUTS may also be Jon Linn’s finest performance on record, tearing things up with his bluesy “guitars, slide, essence and flaming fingers” while Larry blares along on harmonica. Songs are structured around the spiritual journey of a person identified as “pilgrim”. Lots of parallels to Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home, start on «Larry Norman’s 97th Nightmare». Also draws inspiration from John Lee Hooker for the gritty «Watch What You’re Doing» (“Mama killed a chicken, she thought it was a duck…”). This would be Larry’s last great rock and roll statement before a series of spotty ’80s and ’90s releases. [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th Edition]
Another album with a long and complex history. Larry has maintained this should have been a double album but again fell victim to the hand of censorship. Things are further complicated by the fact that Larry’s divorce and the break up of Solid Rock Records’ artist roster had taken place in the four years between the album being finished and released and so many of the references in the lyrics were misunderstood when they were heard for the first time in 1981. Larry was prompted to write, “Contrary to the opinions of some reviewers, this album is not an autobiographical update. It is not literal, linear, not personal or astringently punctiliar. This is a blues album. A storyline is woven through the songs. Sure these songs are about my life, just like they’re about your life. I wrote these songs to express how I feel about passing feelings I have about emotions like loneliness, despair, romantic rejection. If you find yourself unable to identify with these songs, then congratulations… you’ve led a very privileged existence”. The storyline which emerges is one in which an outsider («Hard Luck Bad News») struggles with depression («Feeling So Bad») and the temptation to follow the world’s empty ways rather than God’s way («Watch What You’re Doing») until they invite Christ into their life and it is transformed. After the despondency on side one the pilgrim is then able to leave their past behind on side two and find satisfaction in their life through following Christ and sharing their faith with others. So far only the rough mix version (with the hand-drawn artwork) has been released. An annotated lyric book was sold by Phydeaux which helps to explain the original meaning of the songs and backs up Larry’s claims that other more extensive versions of some of the songs exist. In 1988 Phydeaux issued a special edition cassette with longer versions of the songs and a unique bonus track, the exclusive first take of «Twelve Good Men» with different lyrics than those found on later versions of the song. The album was then re-released on CD in 1993 by Solid Rock and contains the nine songs finally released by Word in 1981 and three pretty good bonus tracks; «Twelve Good Men», «Deep Blue» (from ‘Barking At The Ants‘) and previously unheard rock rough mix of «It’s Only Today That Counts». [Dougie Adam, Cross Rhythms, May 2001]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/something-new-under-the-son/327420840)
LP tracklist (original US release):
Side One
A1. “Hard Luck Bad News”
A2. “Feeling So Bad”
A3. “I Feel Like Dying”
A4. “Born To Be Unlucky”
A5. “Watch What You’re Doing”
Side Two
B1. “Leaving The Past Behind”
B2. “Put Your Life In His Hands”
B3. “Larry Norman’s 97th Nightmare”
B4. “Let That Tape Keep Rolling”
Note: Simultaneously released on 8-track tape, cassette, and 12-inch vinyl LP by Solid Rock Records. Later re-issued on CD. Available at Bandcamp: https://larrynorman.bandcamp.com/album/something-new-under-the-son
Cover Artwork, US Edition
Cover Artwork, UK Edition
This a great album. I was at the mastering session with Larry for this record. I did all of the original artwork for this album. Randy, Larry, Charles, Mark & Janet Heard and myself spent an evening at Randy Stonehill’s house talking photos for the inside album artwork. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately none of the photos made it onto the CD release. [Bobby Emmons, a 2010-comment on the Internet]
Larry Norman acknowledged a deliberate similarity between his album Something New Under the Son and Bob Dylan’s 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home, including a deliberate endeavor to replicate Bringing It All Back Home’s iconic album cover on the inner sleeve of the original Something New Under the Son LP.
“Let That Tape Keep Rolling,” Live at Greenbelt 1979
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