So Long Ago the Garden was controversial because Norman's previously blatant Christian beliefs were more veiled on this album.

In the song "Shot Down", on the album In Another Land, Norman responded to accusations by fellow Christians that he had abandoned his faith in search of fame and fortune.

So Long Ago The Garden was as definitive a statement as I could make about the emptiness of our lives without Christ, just how lonely and wretched we truly are.

One song would talk about a man trying to find satisfaction and true love, and expecting a woman to somehow fill all of his needs and be his whole world.

[4] However, financial problems at MGM, which would result in its collapse within fifteen months, "couldn't adequately promote or advertise the album.

I tried to keep the polished "commercial" singles separate from the artistic music made for the album, as I intended with "I Love You" during my days at Capitol Records.

[9] As part of a Compleat Trilogy series, in 2008 Solid Rock released a version of this album that restored two of the withheld songs.

The release of So Long Ago the Garden in November 1973[10] caused controversy in the Christian press primarily due to its album cover,[11] which some insisted featured a naked Norman, and that this was proof he had fallen away from God.

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".

Bonus tracks differ on various CD releases In the lyrics of the surrealistic song "Nightmare," a character (specifically, a "marionette of Harpo Marx") supposedly says "exactly 89 words" to the narrator, who says "count 'em" before proceeding to quote them.

The version from Almost...So Long Ago the Garden and the MGM Singles adds a further 5 words ("we sleep till he arrives"), bringing the count up to 99.