The Great Change: Turning Cathy into a Lawyer

Last summer it was the Huey Lewis and the News Live at 25 concert DVD that came out around finals time. This summer it's the Paul Thorn concert DVD that I just got today. It's fabulous. Full of the songs and stories I remember from his shows, plus a bunch I hadn't caught in the 9 or 10 shows I've heard before. I'm constantly surprised by the depth of his repetoire, and I don't think there's a song in the bunch that doesn't immediately make itself at home in my mind. They're funny, they're poignant, they rock. On top of the lyrics, on top of the hooks, on top of the personality and on top of the band he's also got a great, gritty voice. Not gravelly - it's smooth - but it's got enough texture that emotion really sticks to it.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying getting to know him better as an artist, and I suspect that there will be plenty to discover over the course of the long upcoming summer.

Like today, when I saw on the DVD a clip from a documentary from 1992 where he was interviewed about his life up until that point. He'd been a boxer coming out of high school and culminated his boxing career with a fight with Roberto Duran (an experience which provided him with his "theme song," "I'd Rather Be a Hammer Than a Nail"). But he lost, and it soon became clear that his boxing talent was not going to carry to the pinnacle of the profession. So he returned home to Mississippi and his job in a chair factory installing springs, all the while keeping alive his dream of supporting himself through music.

In the interview he talked about the futility of lots of people's existence, going to work to get money to buy food to get the strength to go to work so they could get money to buy food to get the strength to work some more... But that wasn't for him, he declared. His dreams were different. But then he cautioned, ""If you're dreaming, don't share your dreams with people that ain't dreamin', because they'll laugh at you and they'll mock. Dreamers need to be around other dreamers."

I think this comment helps explain why I've always liked him.