Larry Norman Might Get The Fame He Wanted, But In The Wrong Way

Larry Norman passed away in February and in many ways, the time immediately following his death was probably the height of his popularity, with tributes and obituaries coming from such corners as Entertainment Weekly, Christianity Today and even here. Norman’s death seemed to crystallize his weird, scattered fame, with those who had experienced his music and subsequently departed the insane world of Christian culture mourning alongside people who had ridden along the whole time. With the forthcoming release of Fallen Angel, a documentary on Norman’s life, things might get stranger and uglier.

Some of the disagreement over Norman’s mixed contributions to the world showed up in the comments section of our own obit, which attracted a few contentious posts regarding Norman’s business dealings or his own mythology. Part of the general disagreement stems from David Di Sabatino, whose 2005 film Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher originally featured Norman’s music. Di Sabatino gets his chance to tell the story of his fallout with Norman in a piece in this week’s OC Weekly.

Three years ago, David Di Sabatino was understandably excited when Larry Norman, “the Father of Christian Rock Music,” e-mailed him to say the film Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher was “beautiful.”

“That was a kick to me,” says Di Sabatino, sitting at the kitchen table in his Garden Grove home on a sunny mid-September afternoon—seven months after Norman succumbed to heart failure at age 60. “Here was a guy that I spent a lot of time in my youth thinking had hung the moon.”…

Di Sabatino had sent Norman a rough cut of the documentary that did not yet include music. He knew songs from Norman’s early-1970s glory days would be perfect for the Frisbee soundtrack.

But as the veteran musician and newbie filmmaker were in talks about the soundtrack, Di Sabatino says he discovered music from that era belonged not to Norman, but rather the giant EMI label. Perhaps naively, Di Sabatino went on to add some early Norman tracks to the version of Frisbee that hit the festival circuit, confident he’d later secure EMI’s permission….

Shortly after Norman blessed Di Sabatino’s documentary film on his life in 2005, Di Sabatino received an e-mail from someone who attended one of the musician’s concerts, at which a 19-song Frisbee CD was being sold. In the liner notes, Norman wrote, “I have been asked to contribute to the film project by allowing the use of my music in the film. The songs on this CD are some of the songs that are being used. A few others are also in the film, but often used as snippets or short segments to back up Lonnie’s changing life and carry the story forward.” Norman asked listeners to tell him what they thought about allowing use of his songs in the film.

Di Sabatino says he had no previous knowledge of the CD. When he protested, he says, Norman “went on the offensive, telling me to take the music out of the movie.”

In this process, Di Sabatino began his next project: A film about Norman, which Norman refused to participate in after the disagreement over Frisbee, and the fallout is all over the OC Weekly article. Fortunately for Di Sabatino’s sense of being right, he benefits from a) being alive, and b) having a positive relationship with the indie weekly. In the story, Di Sabatino discusses attacks from Norman’s fans (which, having been on the bad end of a band’s fanbase before, is certainly plausible), but he doesn’t mention the posts flooding nearly every corner of the Christian music internet that are devoted to slandering Norman with, among other things, the accusation of having fathered an illegitimate child. (Many suspect that those posts, or at least some of them, have come from Di Sabatino.)

Di Sabatino says his story of Norman is one of “a broken man who still managed to move masses closer to God,” but it’s hard to see it that way when Di Sabatino seems to disagree somewhat with the basic premise of Norman’s faith, like when he says that Christians act “like they have all the answers.” But any disagreement with Di Sabatino’s version of events is dismissed largely outright by the OC Weekly; the story is flooded by those who seem content to finally have an outlet to tell their side of the Norman story. These versions of events may or may not be true, but the sniping will certainly make for a more interesting documentary. Larry’s brother Charles gets two paragraphs to tell his family’s side of the story, which isn’t kind to Di Sabatino, but without any sort of followup from David. From my perspective, it’s hard to blame Norman–who made very little money for someone so often called a “genius” and an “innovator”–for trying to get something from his involvement in a movie with some buzz, especially since Di Sabatino seemed happy enough to use Norman’s music to enhance his film.

In one obituary, Di Sabatino was quoted as saying “There’s a possibility that he’s living in Thailand and this is all a ruse. That might offend a lot of people, but that’s how he was… I don’t believe that, but then again, if you told me that’s where he was, I wouldn’t bat an eye.” In my corner of the world, when you find yourself saying “That might offend a lot of people” to preface a remembrance of someone who died only a few days earlier, something’s not quite right. Make no mistake, I certainly see Norman as a complex character and there’s little dispute he did some people wrong, but I’m dubious of how this particular story is going to be told. I really hope my suspicions are incorrect.

David Di Sabatino Is Drawn to Charismatic Christians. But Nothing Prepared Him for Larry Norman [OC Weekly]
Earlier: Larry Norman, R.I.P.