Deep Dive: Tom Paxton, Outward Bound

Welcome to Deep Dive, where we delve into the far end of the Rhino vaults to shine the spotlight on an album that you may or may not be familiar with.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of OUTWARD BOUND, the third album by acclaimed folk singer Tom Paxton. Unlike a number of his peers, Paxton had resisted the urge to upgrade his sound and “go electric,” as it were, which kept him squarely in the same musical realm where he’d started but also showed that he wasn’t going to let concerns about commerciality change his music.

With his trusty fellow folkies Barry Kornfeld (second guitar) and Bill Lee ( bassist) still in tow, much as they’d been from the beginning, Paxton turned in a collection of tunes that made it easy for fans of his first two LPs to step aboard this album as well. Songs like “Leaving London,” “My Son John,” “One Time and One Time Only,” and the title track are among the highlights, and if there are some tracks that creak a bit with age because they’re past the expiration date of their topicality – “Is This Any Way to Run an Airline?” and “Talking Pop Art” certainly leap to mind – then one need only remember the time frame in which the album was released to find a better degree of appreciation for their lyrical content.

It’s also interesting – if a little depressing – to realize just how appropriate Paxton’s song “I Believe, I Do” still is:

I Believe, I do, I believe it’s true.
I believe exactly what they tell me to.
I believe, I do. I believe it’s true.
I’m a simple guy, I believe.
Oh the building inspector came around,
And he poked his head inside my door
Just as the plaster missed his head
Then he smiled and said,
“Well the building looks quite safe to me."
And I believe, I do, I believe it’s true.
I believe exactly what they tell me to.
I believe, I do. I believe it’s true.
I’m a simple guy, I believe.
The politician told me just the other day,
That he really didn’t want the job at all,
But he would make this sacrifice for me,
If I would only place my trust in him.
And I believe, I do. I believe it’s true.
I believe exactly what they tell me to.
I believe, I do. I believe it’s true.
I’m a simple guy, I believe.
And the labor leader told his membership,
That his limousine was no extravagance at all.
His cocktail parties at Miami Beach,
Merely helped him roll the Union on.
And I believe, I do. I believe it’s true.
I believe exactly what they tell me to.
I believe, I do. I believe it’s true.
I’m a simple guy, I believe.
The Commissioner of Public Safety called,
On the people to support their local cops,
Who never ever use any extra force,
When a kindly word would do as well.
And I Believe, I do. I believe it’s true.
I believe exactly what they tell me to.
I believe, I do. I believe it’s true.
I’m a simple guy, I believe.

Ironically, Paxton would lose a little of his own simplicity when he released his next album: Morning Again, which hit shelves in 1968, found him finally slowly beginning the process of expanding his sound beyond guitars and bass. As a result, OUTWARD BOUND is, to some degree, the last of its breed. That said, it’s still a folk treasure that’s worth admiring even half a century beyond its initial release.