Description

So Long Ago the Garden: The Trilogy, Part Two – THE PAST. The day of man – time’s last stroke ticks… it both began and ends at six. (Only Visiting This Planet and In Another Land being the first and the third installments, respectively.)

So Long Ago the Garden is the third major label album by the American singer and songwriter Larry Norman, released on MGM Records in November 1973. July 1973, Larry commenced the recording in Beatles sideman George Martin’s AIR Studios in London, England; once again with Bill Price engineering and Jon Miller, Rod Edwards and Roger Hand producing (a team known as Triumvirate Productions). Over the weekend of July 21, a state-of-the-art Neve 32/24 console had been installed in Studio Two, and three days later Larry was the first artist to use it. An advertisement promoting the album release was featured on the frontpage of the November 10, 1973 issue of Billboard Magazine.

On So Long Ago the Garden Larry was supported by a stellar cast of British session musicians including guitarist Mickey Keen of Hudson Ford and a rhythm section consisting of Dave Wintour on bass and drummer Michael Giles of King Crimson fame, as well as the horn section of the Scottish funk and R&B group The Average White Band, Malcolm Duncan and Roger Ball.

Trivia: The Editors Discuss Their Faves of ’73, as featured in the December 29, 1973 issue of CashBox Magazine, picked Larry Norman as one of three artists named Best New Male Artist, Bruce Springsteen and Elliott Murphy being the two others: “In splitting this category three ways, the choices are Bruce Springsteen, Elliott Murphy and Larry Norman, three folk-rockers with a definite hint of vintage Dylan in their lyrical compositions. Each is equally able to incorporate a hard rocking musical companion for those lyrics, and once folks start listening closely, each will undoubtedly become a superstar in his own right. Springsteen seems most likely at this point.” (Cashbox was one of several magazines that published charts of song popularity in the US. Cashbox’s most prominent competitors included Billboard and Record World. Unlike Billboard, Cashbox initially combined all currently available recordings of a song into one chart position with artist and label information shown for each version, alphabetized by label.)

While perhaps not as immediately accessible as Only Visiting This Planet, So Long Ago The Garden never the less contains some of Larry’s most fascinating, enigmatic and personal songs. The gospel-edged «Soul Survivor», the sprightly upbeat «Meet Me At The Airport (Fly Fly Fly)», the mesmerizing «She’s A Dancer», the slow swampy funk-blues of «Be Careful What You Sign» – all of these numbers grow better and better with each listen. «Christmas Time» (co-written by Randy Stonehill) remains a classic bit of commentary on holiday commercialism. More fine piano blues in «Lonely By Myself» while «It’s The Same Old Story» and «Baroquen Spirits» show Larry at his most melodic. Another homage to Dylan with mega-bizarre dream sequences on the blues-thumping 6:22 closing track «Nightmare» (“love is a corpse, we sit and watch it harden; we left it oh so long ago the garden”). Look for the original fold-out cover on the MGM label. The photo on the front apparently generated some controversy – was Larry wearing any cloths? The 1980 green-bordered Phydeaux re-issue (also known as Almost So Long Ago The Garden) is listed here mainly because it contains two tracks not on the original issue («Up In Canada» and the Caribbean-flavored «Peacepollutionrevolution»), while dropping «Soul Survivor» (even though it’s listed on the sleeve). [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th Edition]

Remarkably both ‘Planet‘ and ‘Garden’ were hard to get a hold of in the seventies because MGM Records went bust in 1974 and never had enough money to promote or distribute those classic albums. An early Phydeaux newsletter announced, “This should have been Larry’s finest album, but corporate censorship and commercial concerns marred the version which was eventually released. The album proved to be an artistic disappointment to Larry and confusing to some who bought the album”. In the ‘Something New Under The Son‘ lyric book Larry wrote, “The full length version of ‘So Long Ago The Garden’ has 12 songs on it and they are more revealing than any other album”. Whereas ‘Planet’ commented upon the contemporary world and Christ, ‘Garden’ was intended to be a statement about the past and God the Father. The CD booklet lends another hand in explaining the album’s central concepts, ‘So Long Ago The Garden’ redirected Christian topicalism into an ancient world of ignorance and self-absorption with its personal poetry. Everyone is the centre of his own universe, especially without a knowledge of God. The characters of these songs suffer great sadness and misguided joy… This is not an album of typical love songs and rock anthems, it is a very serious and sober examination of the human condition and the map of the human heart”. A number of songs have been listed as being originally intended for the album before being removed by the record company, these are: «Up In Canada», «Butterfly», «I Hope I’ll See You In Heaven», «Kulderachna», «If God Is My Father», «Righteous Rocker # 2». In an attempt to make the album more commercial and less religious MGM Records added two songs which had been recorded as B-sides for singles, «Meet Me At The Airport (Fly, Fly, Fly)» and «Christmas Time».

Larry’s comments: ‘So Long Ago The Garden’ was a difficult album to record. It was fun, too. Paul McCartney was in the other room recording «Live and Let Die» for the James Bond movie. Brian Eno was in Studio C with Robert Fripp making an avant garde album. But MGM was pressuring me not to make another Christian album and my manager started doing drugs and emptying out my bank account and the arranger was trying to make «She’s A Dancer» into a totally different song that what I wanted it to be. But the «Nightmare» song came out perfectly balanced and «Lonely By Myself» came out really nice with that Mellotron effect. We had to lock all the doors when we recorded it because in those days the Union declared the Mellotron illegal. Even The Beatles had to lock up when they recorded «Strawberry Fields Forever» and «I Am The Walrus» with the Mellotron or tape samples because you could get in big trouble for not using real musicians and the Union could blackball you so that no string players would cross the line and record with you. No horn players. Now it seems funny, but in those days if one Union got on your case they could tell other Union men not to light your Albert Hall gig, not to give you any electricity, not to pull the curtains open. And if you couldn’t play Union houses all that was left was grungy non-Union pubs and clubs.

In 1981 Phydeaux issued a completely different special edition version on LP then later on tape titled ‘Almost So Long Ago The Garden’. Phydeaux’s version of the LP included some of the new mixes of the songs which first appeared on the 1977 Australian Starstorm LP and a version of «Nightmare» with all the missing words re-instated! Just to confuse matters further, there are two Phydeaux versions, one of which has «Fly, Fly, Fly» but not «Soul Survivor» and on the other pressing the situation with those two songs is reversed! The CD re-issue 1992 is more or less the original MGM version plus three decent bonus tracks from the same era. The only differences with the MGM LP listed earlier is that an edited version of «Baroquen Spirits» is used in place of the longer MGM album version and the Starstorm mix of «Christmas Time» is preferred to the MGM original. The excellent «Up In Canada» and rough mix band versions of «If God Is My Father» and «Dear Malcolm, Dear Alwyn» make up the bonus tracks. Produced by Jon Miller, Rod Edwards and Roger Hand of Triumvirate Productions and co-produced by Larry Norman for Street Level Productions. Mixed by Tony Scotti and Larry Norman for MGM Records. Recorded in AIR Studios London during August and September 1973, this album made recording history as it was the first to be recorded in England on 24 track. The CD has just sold out. Nearly 30 years after it was first recorded and after four different versions of the album on various formats we have still to hear the original 12 song version as Larry intended! [Dougie Adam, Cross Rhythms, May 2001]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/so-long-ago-the-garden-bonus-track-version/280421672)

LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. “Meet Me At The Airport (Fly, Fly, Fly)” – 3:35
A2. “It’s The Same Old Story” – 4:05
A3. “Lonely By Myself” – 3:40
A4. “Be Careful What You Sign” – 4:55
A5. “Baroquen Spirits” – 4:58

Side Two
B1. “Christmas Time” – 3:32
B2. “She’s A Dancer” – 3:20
B3. “Soul Survivor” – 3:35
B4. “Nightmare” – 6:22

Note: The original US album edition was housed in a gatefold sleeve (with lyrics printed on the inside). Later re-issued on LP (BONE 777-6) by Larry Norman’s own label Phydeaux featuring the MGM singles “PeacePollutionRevolution” and “Up In Canada”, but not including the original album track “Soul Survivor”. “Nightmare” is resung as well and includes the five missing words. The LP back of the Phydeaux cover actually gives “Almost So Long Ago The Garden and The MGM Singles” as the album title. Available at Bandcamp: https://larrynorman.bandcamp.com/album/so-long-ago-the-garden

Gatefold Cover Artwork

Engineers Bill Price and Gary Edwards at AIR Studios during the So Long Ago the Garden sessions. (Photo featured in the November 1973 issue of Studio Sound Magazine.)

An advertisement promoting Larry Norman’s album So Long Ago The Garden was featured on the frontpage of the November 10, 1973 issue of Billboard Magazine: “Larry Norman’s new album “So Long Ago The Garden” SE 4942 has just been released and features both sides of his new single “It’s The Same Old Story” and “Christmas Time” K 14676. All cuts are Larry Norman originals. The entire album was recorded in London for MGM Records. (Advertisement)”

So Long Ago The Garden is part two of the trilogy. It represents a journey into the grave of the past. I’m standing there on the cover as Adam once stood in the garden, without any provision of clothing or knowledge of evil or any force except the relationship he has in his heart with the Lion of Judah. And Adam is standing there in oneness with the Lion. I really worked for hours taking pictures in Africa both of myself and of lions, hoping to capture a certain ambience for the graphics of the album. The back cover represents what happened just after the fall. Satan’s snake-skinned feet standing triumphantly over the fallen apple. You’ll notice that there are two bites taken out of the apple. A big bite and a little bite. The big bite, of course, was the woman’s. I shot the back cover in England, over a period of two days. I dragged a huge wardrobe mirror downstairs into the front yard and set it on the ground to try to capture the sky and clouds, and make it look like the devil was standing throughout all eternity gloating over Adam and Eve’s fall. I wanted a cold and dispassionate mood to the back cover, and a photo without any sense of humanity. Again I spent a lot of time getting my message the way I envisioned it. There were no red apples to be found in any of the markets that were large enough, so I got the largest green apple I could find, and used some of Pamela’s fingernail polish to paint it red. Then I realised that I hadn’t taken the bites out, so I had to go all the way back to the store for another apple, pre-bit it, and painted it red. That’s how much of an effort I had to go through to get it right. I was trying to show that before the fall there was peace in Adam’s life and that he was one with nature, in his own environment in God’s Garden … and that after the fall there was no warmth at all. No provision for peace, not until God sent the second Adam, Jesus. A journalist who wrote for Rolling Stone Magazine said he didn’t think the cover was successful graphically because the front seemed completely different style-wise from the back. He missed it entirely. [Larry Norman]