Paul Thorn's New Album Cover

[dolfan]

I'd more or less drifted away from listening to much of him, but he has a new album out now called Pimps & Preachers. He'd just gotten political and I am turned off immediately by political expressions from paid entertainers. Sing, play, make me sing along and clap, but I really, really don't want anything else from you. And, if you offer it gratuitously, I'll probably just check out. Funny thing is, I'm halfway decided to go see him next week in Florence, AL at an acoustic solo set he's scheduled to do. My brother .... who is just now getting interested in Thorn after some of his friends have complimented the guy even though I've been going on about the guy for 5 years and how cool this guy's music sounds to me .... had asked if my wife and I wanted to go next Thursday night to see him. By now, I'm pretty bored with the guy because he really is now saying the same things over and over, and he knows it --- so, now he's trying to stay "edgy" and "cool" by just publicly lashing out at COGOP explicitly (it could be any church, but he was COGOP growing up). These kinds of expressions in song are the last heaves of someone with nothing left to say, IMO.

Anyhow, because we've discussed him here before and some of you know him and his family, and because it looks like this CD may actually be one that pushes him into some new popularity (it is charting on the Billboard Top 100, or it did and I don't know if it still is), I thought I'd share this link and let you view the CD cover art for yourself. The COGOP flag is quite large on the left side of the page, and if you understand where Paul Thorn is coming from with his references, it is not complimentary.


www.paulthorn.com

[MacUser]

Never heard of him. I guess his album cover worked? LOL.



But regardless.. just laugh and love him. Someone in the past apparently failed to show him the true unconditional love of Jesus... let's not fail again.

[cndlou]

I grew up around him, his dad was my pastor and being that his sisters were a bit older than me (and I thought they were all that back then) I was around their home a lot. I have decided after hearing some of his songs and seeing his facebook jabs and pokes at the church and speaking in tongues...I can no longer listen or support him in anyway. I speak when I see him but that is about all... He has come to church once or twice and was ask to sing...and my heart hurts for him... Some of his stuff in the beginning was cute, to say the least, but his newer stuff, his actions and words---well, is a bit more than I can stomach. It offends me... Remember this is just my opinion...

[Rascal]

Never heard of the guy. When I see "stuff" like this, I think this person needs to "get a life" and maybe a job............

[darylscook]

It seems a couple of years ago, His music must have quit getting the attention he thought it needed so he has to doing things to get attention. So Sad.......


Pastor Daryl

[Kevin]

This is indeed sad. I was always proud of his success because I knew his parents and cousins and sisters so well, but honestly,I was never really into his music to start with. Not my style.

On top of that, I know the people he has playing with him, and unless they cut loose live, they're playing below their abilities.

(The keyboardist was my boss back when I worked with Pro Concert.)

I can't really say that the message in this new album is really a shock to me. It happens when you're born in church. It's what you're familiar with and you're going to feel some hurt. Looking at it from a writer's standpoint, you write what you know. The closer the subject is to your heart, the more emotion it will lend to your writing.

Stuff that close is hard to express. I'm betting he's been sitting on this for years waiting until he was far enough separated from the experience to be able to handle communicating it through the flow of emotions.

Been there, done that. I've got a long essay here at the house that I wouldn't dare share with anyone. I wrote it by way of an apology to my mother for the trouble I gave her growing up. She'll never see it because it's got this kind of emotion in it that might hurt or offend others. I'm not finished with it, but I plan on finishing it in the next week or so.

Emotions that need to be dealt with and go away. If I'd been able to get these things on paper earlier, I don't know that I wouldn't have published??? A little slower to act now. No kudos for that though. It's probably just a laziness thing.

It's some of the best prose I've ever written.

[Kevin]

Oddly enough, I checked out the title track, and he's not really bashing the COGOP. It sounds more like he's trying to popularize riding the fence between God and the world...

... except for one thing. If you listen to the first line, the order he puts his mentors in is a little odd for the rest of the song. First comparison is his dad Pastor Wayne first. The rest are talking about fighting first then loving second. I don't know that he meant anything by it, just an observation.

Warning: It does have some language in it. Don't know if he's putting out a censored version or not.

The musicianship is better on this album than the other stuff I've heard from him. Some of it sounds like a cookie cutter version of other songs that came out a few years ago. Wonder if he'll get into trouble with copyrights? Sounds like more than four bars were copied on one of the tracks.

Anyway, just an update. I don't know if any of this matters. Peace.