A Bible Story by David Di Sabatino
If you could combine the onstage magnetism of Mick Jagger, the lyrical brilliance of Bob Dylan, and the personal fragility of Brian Wilson, you would only have begun to scratch off the surface of Larry Norman. This documentary—Fallen Angel: The Outlaw Larry Norman—recounts the rise of the father of Christian rock music. He was the rock ‘n’ roll Billy Graham’ of the 1970s, and the film follows him through to the height of success at Solid Rock Records. And then documents his personal meltdown and subsequent fall from grace, which exiled him to the margins of the Christian subculture he helped create.
A study in polar contrasts, Larry Norman’s story presents a complex character grappling with the price of genius; a struggle made all the more difficult because Norman chose to make his mark within a religious subculture which had yet to define its place in the world. Too religious for the rock ‘n’ rollers but too rock ‘n’ roll for the religionists, Larry Norman is the perpetual outsider, ultimately imploding under the weight of trying to fuse his position as the musical voice of the Jesus movement with his desire for ’70s rock superstar status. Is he the misunderstood musical prophet of the Christian world? Is he an outlaw conning the faithful? Larry Norman was a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction.
Told mainly from the perspective of those who worked with him and loved him during the height of his success, feel the power of the music he created as refracted through the inconsistencies of the life he led. Experience the forgiveness offered by those most hurt and witness a glimmer of grace against the backdrop of moral failure. Fallen Angel is a rock n’ roll epic of biblical proportions.
Fallen Angel centers on Nornan’s establishment of Solid Rock Records in the mid-1970s and culminates with his death in early 2008.
Fallen Angel includes interviews with the following people:
• Sir Cliff Richard
• Randy Stonehill (member of Solid Rock Records)
• Pamela Newman (ex-wife)
• Philip Mangano (former manager)
• Ray Ware (Christian artist manager)
• Holly Benyousky (owner of Street Level Artists Agency)
• Tom Howard (member of Solid Rock Records)
• Steve Scott (member of Solid Rock Records)
• Geoff Levin (member of People)
• Denny Fridkin (member of People)
• Terry Taylor (member of Daniel Amos)
• Jerry Chamberlain (member of Daniel Amos)
• Ed McTaggart (member of Daniel Amos)
• Brad Durham (Solid Rock Records employee)
• Heidi Bartruff (ex-fiancee)
• Mike Roe (Christian music artist)
• Brian Healy (Christian music artist)
• Brian Quincy Newcomb (Christian music journalist)
• John Styll (former editor of CCM magazine)
• Dale Ahlquist (ex-brother-in-law).
source
Thanks for finding this one too Brad! (or whoever found it).
Everybody's damaged, everybody's been hurt, and everyone's hurt somebody. Artists doubly so, Christian or otherwise.
We do God's will from time to time despite ourselves our intentions and our pride. To be a part of Providence is God's gift to us, not our gift to the world. Put your hope in God, not men.