Why should the devil have all the good Music?

Listening to Newsboys took me back to my early days as a Christian when there was a big debate about what kind of music was acceptable in church.  More traditional sections of the church thought rock and roll was of the devil.  People played LPs (for the younger among the audience - 12 inch vinyl records) backwards listening for satanic messages and using what they heard as a basis for denouncing particular bands and records.

As someone who had no church background, the debate seemed totally irrelevant. There were better things to do than play records backwards.  After all, who had the time when there was a great big world who did not know Jesus and if the music was good why not use it to praise God.  William Booth did the same in the Salvation Army, using popular tunes of the day as hymn tunes.

As a reminder of those days here's as old favourite.  Larry Norman, who gave up a commerical music career to sing for Jesus.  The first is a live session from 2001.  Sound quality is not great, but it's good to see Larry, even if somewhat older than I remember him and not reaching the high notes anymore.

The second is the same track, this time taken from his album so the sound quality is better.  Don't wait for the image to move - it doesn't!

For those who would like a little background, Larry was brought up in a Southern Baptist Church where interest in music of any kind was strongley discouraged.  According to Larry his father banned him from listening to rock and roll on the radio.  Despite this ban, or perhaps because of it, Larry really got into the music of his generation and he went on to to have a profound effect on the Christian music scene.  Just goes to show, as he said, 'You can't keep a good man down'.  Larry died in February 2008