Larry Norman - Bootleg

I can't put into words the impact Larry Norman's music had on me when I was a teenager. In the mid '70s there were a bunch of older kids who were into Larry Norman, and I wanted to be like those kids. At the time Larry had just released In Another Land (1976), the final album in his trilogy, and a few years later that would be my first Larry Norman album. By the early '80s Larry had started his own mail order company and under the Phydeaux imprint he was releasing some of his earlier albums, and a lot of live and compilation albums. I ate it all up, and went back for seconds. "Please sir, can I have some more?" In his newsletters there was also something new coming, and there was a map of upcoming albums ... that never materialized. At the time though it was still pretty exciting.

I had heard snippets of Bootleg, although thinking on it now, I'll bet it was Street Level (it was, thank you internet) from my friend Gerry, who seemed to have everything when I was a kid. It was an album that always had an air of mystery. As time went by I more or less forgot about this particular album. After the new material dried up, there seemed to be an inexhaustible treasure trove of old recordings that over the course of many, many, many CDs seemed to cover just about everything, except the stuff on Bootleg, although it's been a while since I waded through them.

In 2008 at the age of 60 Larry Norman passed away. It made me sad. He was a polarizing figure who, I'm sure, was as much a saint as he wasn't. Rock and roll is not an occupation for the faint of heart and I'm sure he was as jaded as anyone who'd spent their lives on the road.

Larry Norman during his early years was always on a major label. For the first two albums in his trilogy, after being released from Capitol he would be signed first with Verve, and then he'd move to MGM. After this he formed his own label, Solid Rock, but his distribution arm was handled by Word.

Bootleg covers a time period of four years. Larry was 21 when the first People! album came out, and in 1969 Larry released Upon This Rock on Capitol Records. Despite the album being a creative success, sales were another story, and he would be dropped by the label in 1970. Side one, titled 1968: The Early Years, contains a number of early versions of songs from his debut. Side two was 1969: The One Way Sessions, and many of these songs are featured on his trilogy. These early versions are cool to hear, and the bones of the songs are there, but just aren't there yet.

The second album is also broken into two sections. The first side, 1970 - 1971: Mixed Media, is a collection of interviews. Larry was all of maybe 23 when these were recorded. It's an interesting snapshot of the early Jesus Movement, and there are more than a few references to end times theology that feel very much of a point in time. However, the underlying sense of the secularization of society was something that was occurring, and the fear that Christians were being actively oppressed and rounded up just sounds hollow now. I'm sure there are people who will point to this and say he was right, the method of oppression was more cunning and silent, and accomplished the same ends without firing a shot.

There is an earnestness to his delivery that was very much attuned to his audience. For me, this is more of a snapshot into the man and what helped make him tick. He was a natural storyteller and performer who could have an audience in the palm of his hand before they knew what was happening. I was able to see him on a couple of occasions, once with a band, and once solo, and both times were riveting.

The album closes with 1971 - 1972: Maranatha, which gets back to the music, and there are a number of songs that would become classics (really they are, you just have to be in the right circle) on his later albums. This is probably my favourite section. It's really good.

Bootleg is an album for fans. It's a snapshot of a point in time that's a little like watching old home movies. Some of the songs are unfinished, the quality at times is grainy and a little out of focus.

In short, it's awesome.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

Billy Rankin - Growin' Up Too Fast

Growin' Up Too Fast was never widely released on CD (if at all), and it was one of the albums I really wanted to get back after a basement flood wiped out my vinyl collection in the '90s (when no one really gave a shit about records, and my insurance gave me a couple hundred bucks for an appraised $10,000 collection). Way back in 1984, my (dearly departed and greatly missed) buddy Dave let me borrow his cassette copy, which included a bonus track of "Get It On (Bang A Gong)." When I eventually bought the album, I didn't know it was a bonus track, or even what a bonus track was. If that sentence was hard to read, just go back and skim it. I'm sure you'll get the gist. I'd find out later Billy was an off-and-on-again member of Nazareth and wrote some absolutely killer songs for them. At the time, though, all I knew was this guy laid it out cold with the opening cut, "Baby Come Back," then proceeded to lay down one killer tune after another bef...

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTO's Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) - so who knows, maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust. It seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight-ahead pop or rock. It was leaning toward the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough, the vocals rem...

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