In 1977 Norman recorded "Something New under the Son" a blues-rock concept album that some regard as his "tour de force", and as "one of the roughest, bluesiest, and best rock and roll albums of his career or the whole industry", that took its title from "an ironic inversion of a phrase in Ecclesiastes", namely: "there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9b). While Norman explicitly denied this album was autobiographical in the accompanying lyric songbook, many years later some critics challenged this claim, arguing "Norman was struggling through his own divorce and identity crisis at the time". In 1999 Norman responded by arguing that when he completed the album, he was happily married and that several of the songs were written before he had met his wife. Norman indicated that the songs chronicled "Pilgrim's" journey into faith. On this album Norman deliberately "took lots of musical & lyrical parts from old blues songs and from Bob Dylan songs". Norman acknowledged a deliberate similarity between his "Something New Under the Son" and Bob Dylan's 1965 album "Bringing It All Back Home", including a deliberate endeavor to replicate "Bringing It All Back Home"'s iconic album cover on the inner sleeve of the original "Something New Under the Son" LP album. Jesus Music historian David Di Sabatino described the album as "Musically reminiscent of The Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street""(1972) The album's artwork is an excellent attempt to parallel Bob Dylan's "Bringing It All Back Home" (1966). "Nightmare #97" imitates the "false start" of Bob Dylan's 115th Dream and uses the opening line and a similar tune of Lloyd Price's version of Stagger Lee. "Watch What You're Doing" uses the opening line of Stump Johnson's "The Duck Yas-Yas-Yas". With the song "Let That Tape Keep Rolling" Norman pays homage to Mick Jagger and Van Morrison. Norman explained the philosophy behind this album: