The release of "So Long Ago the Garden" in November 1973 caused controversy in the Christian press primarily due to its album cover, which some insisted featured a naked Norman, and that this was proof he had fallen away from God. As John J. Thompson explains: "The cover featured a seminude Norman with a photo of a lion superimposed on his skin. The symbolism (an Old Testament prophecy referred to the Messiah as 'the lion of the tribe of Judah,' and C.S. Lewis' Narnia series made a Christlike figure out of a lion named Aslan, as well as the obvious insinuation of Adam in the Garden of Eden, flew over the heads of many people, who focused on a patch of grass covering Larry's nether parts".