Larry Norman

Rebel Poet, Jukebox Balladeer: The Anthology (Arrco)

“Harry Nilsson beat me to the punch with ‘Can’t Live If Living Is Without You,'” annotates Norman on one of 20 Anthology tracks months before his death Feb. 24. Nilsson, Bread’s David Gates, Harry Chapin – both coasts of 1960s post-folk – count the Corpus-born/S.F.-bred spiritualist an equal in 1970s minstrelsy turned activism. From Vietnam (“I Am the Six O’Clock News”) to the Zombies (“I Love You”), and even “Rosemary’s Baby (The Omen – 666),” think Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky.”

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This article appears in June 20 • 2008.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.