So Long Ago the Garden
| So Long Ago the Garden | ||||
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| Studio album by Larry Norman | ||||
| Released | 1973 | |||
| Recorded | 1973 | |||
| Genre | Christian rock | |||
| Label | MGM Records | |||
| Producer | Rod Edwards, Roger Hand, Jon Miller | |||
| Larry Norman chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |   |
So Long Ago the Garden is an album recorded by Larry Norman, released in 1973. It is the second album in what came to be known as his "trilogy," which began with the album Only Visiting This Planet and concluded with In Another Land. So Long Ago the Garden was controversial because Norman's previously blatant Christian beliefs were more veiled on this album. In the song "Shot Down", on the album In Another Land, Norman responded to accusations by fellow Christians that he had abandoned his faith in search of fame and fortune.
On 7 August 1973 Norman entered AIR studios in London to record his favorite album, the second album in his Trilogy, So Long Ago the Garden, which was produced by The Triumvirate of British producers Rod Edwards, Roger Hand, Jon Miller. According to John J. Thompson, "lyrically, as the title suggests, the album reflects on the nature of the human condition. The songs deal with characters ... knee deep in the madness of life without God". In a 1980 interview, Norman explained the purpose of So Long Ago the Garden:
It is my favourite album, and one of the most banned and misunderstood albums that I've recorded. Christians don't seem to be as aware of, or as sensitive to, the dire state of humanity as they are about the pleasant growth of their Christian walk. So Long Ago The Garden was as definitive a statement as I could make about the emptiness of our lives without Christ, just how lonely and wretched we truly are. I alternated songs. One song would talk about a man trying to find satisfaction and true love, and expecting a woman to somehow fill all of his needs and be his whole world. The next song would be Lonely By Myself. Strictly about a man looking for something, and he doesn't know what it is. We know it's God, and he knows it's something like great universal love, but he can't find it, and it causes him Ecclesiastical despair. Then Be Careful What You Sign, making that choice between God or Satan, and the song after that was making a choice between your own integrity, or giving up your integrity for things like love, whatever momentary, ephemeral things that we look to for lasting happiness. So it was all a very premeditated and carefully written album.
By 1 October 1973 these recording sessions were completed and the recordings were submitted to MGM. However, financial problems at MGM, which would result in its collapse within fifteen months, "couldn't adequately promote or advertise the album. The corporate attention was focused on more pressing things like survival and solvency". According to Norman, the record company dropped several Christian songs, including "Butterfly," "If God Is My Father," "Kulderachna", and "I Hope I'll See You In Heaven", in favor of more lightweight love songs like "Fly, Fly, Fly" and "Christmastime', both previously released as singles. Norman discussed this matter in 1991:
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