This afternoon I received my long-awaited copy of the “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music” documentary on DVD. Produced by RIGHTRIGHTRIGHT, the film is NOT a “Christian video”. Actually, it was directed and filmed by two non-Christians.
I found it VERY informative. The interviews with various sub-culture “Christian artists” that are not in the “Christian Mainstream” were very interesting and thought-provoking.
The “bonus footage” of the full-length interviews (some of them), too, were very informative and interesting to watch in their entirety. I was NOT impressed with the “loose tongues” of a few of the artists, though to a secular audience, it probably isn’t even noticed.
I wasn’t impressed, either, with the rocky-filming of the film, though it’s a documentary and wasn’t shot “professionally” by any means.
Contrasting views by various musicians throughout the film leave more questions than answers, too. On one hand we have a musician declaring that there is only ONE truth – Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God – and that He is the only way to Eternal Life in Heaven. And on the other hand we have another musician declaring their belief in God and Jesus, but finding NO correlation to their relationship with Him and their “job” as a musician.
I take this “contrast” as a discussion-starter in my own head (Jess fell asleep halfway through) – and I can see this film causing discussion across “Christian-circles” worldwide, even.
Artists that I was into “back in the day” litter the show-footage as well as interview-footage, like – Larry Norman, Danielson, MxPx, Squad-Five-O, Steve Taylor, and Five Iron Frenzy.
It was an enjoyable, odd-angle look into a scene that I otherwise wouldn’t have had an in-depth interaction with.
Was this filmed at Cornerstone?
yes it was!
Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music was a great song by Geoff Moore and the Distance as well back in the day…great band.
Thanks for sharing. Very interesting. He sounds to be more intelligent than I gave him credit for. Quite eloquent.
Hi! My name is Tim DeMoss. I’m a disc jockey from Pennsylvania and am in the process of writing Larry Norman’s biography. While I have a lot of material from interviews, time spent with Larry, and so forth, I believe a great way to tell his story is to invite others (like yourself) to share their stories of Larry as well. I did a “Yahoo†search, and your link/blog was one of those listed, so I wanted to extend the invitation to you to contribute. Personal interactions, concert experiences, how his music affected you and your friends/family, rumors you may have heard, questions you may have—those are all examples of how you might participate.
The details and background are at http://www.thelarrynormanstory.com. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. Please also feel free to forward this on to anyone you believe would a) like to submit their thoughts or questions or b) simply be made aware of the biography’s progress and completion.
Thanks very much!
Sincerely,
Tim DeMoss
timmyd@wordfm.org
timmyd@safeplace.net