Thoughts Flung Free From the Music of My Childhood

Rick McNally, June 26, 2025

When I was young “oh so much younger than today,” I ran into an artist named Larry Norman. I was a young Christian who didn’t always fall for the most popular thing around and was attracted to the more eclectic or off-center. I also was big into rock and roll. So, when I heard Larry, something just clicked.

Larry was for me one who spoke the language of what I was going through in my head. I had a lot of things going on in my head, and I was trying to make sense of my life, Christianity, life in early 80’s, my family, and so much more. He spoke about things bluntly and boldly. He was critical of things left of center and right of center — even though I didn’t understand anything “political” at the time. The album “So Long Ago, the Garden” spoke to me the loudest, and the clearest. I don’t know why.

I just went and looked at the album cover and listing anew, having listened to it in is entirety just a few weeks ago, and picked a song that resonated with me deeply. I was driving back from Wisconsin to Michigan a few weeks ago blasting this record and singing along with it — this one made me tear up a bit. The song is “Lonely by Myself.” (see lyrics at the bottom of this page)

I want to talk about the lyrics more than the music, but before we get there I need to say that this guitar solo — that tone — is gold.

Lyrically, it is a modern lament.

The state of mankind is, by and large, a state of loneliness. People are alone when they are alone, and people are lonely when they are with each other. We are dreadfully lonely. It is epidemic. It is also hushed up and ignored.

Loneliness is the first thing which God’s eye named not good. John Milton

When I was a teen I had friends, we did stuff, we did crazy stuff. But deep down I was very lonely. I wasn’t really known, nor did I really know many people. It was superficial. Many of my relationships today reflect that still. But as a teen it was very clear — I was alone.

The chorus of this song tells of the problem, the verses the longing for something more, and the bridge asks questions that beg to be answered. I took this song seriously then. I searched for someone to bridge that gap. I found better friends, friends who were truer and deeper. But there was still something missing.

Try this quote on for size,

The soul hardly ever realizes it, but whether he is a believer or not, his loneliness is really a homesickness for God. Hubert van Zeller

Larry’s tortured bridge, “Who can I turn to? Is there anybody there? Doesn’t anybody care? Ooh doesn’t anybody listen? Doesn’t anybody care?” seeks the world for an answering voice. You will not find it in a book club, or a political movement, or in education, or even in a marriage or girlfriend, but you can find someone who CAN listen and WILL listen and CARES ENOUGH to listen in the Lord.

The Psalms are a flock of lonely birds, flying and fluttering to the heavens — to God.

• I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. Psalm 102:7
• My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest of kin stands far off. Psalm 38:11
• You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness. Psalms 88:18

The words of scripture are not about guilded halls and air conditioning, but about rough edges, rougher people, and the humid conditions of real life that leave us sweaty and keep us up at night.

God is the truest of all friends, and knows us all, yet died for us all in Christ Jesus. There is no better friend. All others may betray and leave us beaten on the roadside. All others may find others and leave us staring at the wall in dismay. Anyone of us capable of relational deception and abandonment. God, instead, calls us near.

When we find ourselves far from God we know that we are the ones that moved. He is constantly calling us home. Nature calls, the Word calls, the Spirit calls — do you have ears to hear?

• The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. Psalm 25:14
• “Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” Matthew 11:19
• Greater love has no man than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

My loneliness has been fulfilled primarily by my relationship with my Lord. He makes all of my other relationships sweeter, and is in the business of healing me of loneliness and repairing broken things.

Jesus is truly “God WITH us.” And that does bring hope to hurting souls.

Thank you, Larry, for pointing 17-year-old me to that friend. Join the friend group!

Sincerely, Rick

Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment. Richard Foster

Pps: Check out the whole album, it in the modern vernacular, slaps.

_______________________

Lonely by Myself / Larry Norman / 1973

If I could find someone who really cared for me
Someone to share my love and keep me company
If I could find someone I’d let them take control
And in exchange for love I’d give my very soul

It’s such a lonely life
I almost cry each night
‘Cause fate has put me on the shelf
I get so lonely, so lonely by myself

If I could find someone who’d really love me right
They’d make my life complete, they’d make my soul shine bright
I’ve looked around the world, I’ve walked down every street
Still I can’t find no one to give me what I need

It’s such a lonely life
I almost cry each night
‘Cause fate has put me, fate has put me on the shelf
I get so lonely, so lonely by myself
I get so lonely, so lonely, so lonely by myself

Who can I turn to?
Is there anybody there?
Doesn’t anybody care?
Ooh doesn’t anybody listen?
Doesn’t anybody care?