#83 THE ASTONISHING, OUTRAGEOUS, AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, UNBELIEVABLE, DIFFERENT WORLD OF GARY S. PAXTON by Gary S. Paxton (1975)

The Astonishing, Outrageous, Amazing, Incredible,
Unbelievable, Different World of Gary S. Paxton (1975)
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In 1976 I was a 14-year old south Alabama preacher’s kid with a rapidly developing ear for music. I was a pretty good piano player if I do say so myself. My parents, always eager to encourage my gift of music and my participation in ministry, were thrilled that I wanted to perform what they called “special music” during a Sunday night church service. That song turned out to be, There’s Got to Be More to Livin’ Than Just Waitin’ to Die by the one and only Gary S. Paxton. Let’s just say it was attention-grabbing, to say the least. We’re talking about a Pentecostal church in the Deep South that regularly featured songs like I’ll Fly Away and When the Roll is Called Up Yonder during the worship time (we called it “the song service”). So you can imagine the shock that these mostly blue-haired folks must’ve felt when they heard their pastor’s teenage son sing lines like, “You hardly ever see a smile anymore / They’re afraid you’ll steal their gold dentures” and “There’s got to be more to lovin’ than hoppin’ in and out of the sack.” 

Let's just say it was a while before I was asked to provide any more “special music.”

It would be very difficult to describe the Christian music phenomenon that was Gary S. Paxton in the mid- to late-70s to people who weren’t there to experience it firsthand. But I’ll try. Take an early Carman, mix in some Weird Al Yankovich, blend in some Swirling Eddies, stir in a little bit of early Steve Taylor and Chris Christian, and mix it all together with a healthy dose of P.T. Barnum and Donald Trump. The Carman, Yankavich, Taylor and Eddies references refer to Paxton’s knack for novelty songs and humor. And, like Chris Christian, he was a successful producer who didn’t always play well with others. As for the Barnum & Trump references? Paxton claims that songs that he has either written, co-written, published, produced, arranged, engineered, or for which he sang (either as a solo artist or lead singer on someone else’s record), or for which he was the label owner, have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide since 1956. He’s always been quite the promoter.

Now, due to Paxton’s gift for promotion and tendency to exaggerate, it’s nearly impossible to accurately relate all of the details of his life and career. If all that he says is true, then it is one amazing story. So, with that disclaimer, let’s go all the way back to the beginning.

Gary Sanford Paxton was actually born Larry Wayne Stevens on May 18, 1939, in Coffeeville, Kansas. He was the child of a 14-year old unmarried mother who allowed him to be adopted by a Christian family. He ended up living on a Coffeeville farm with no electricity, no running water, and no heat. Gary’s adoptive parents gave him a new name and a strict Christian upbringing. But he says that his childhood became a nightmare when he endured sexual molestation at the hands of a neighbor for two years (age 7 to 9) and was later diagnosed with spinal meningitis at age 11. None of this could dampen his love of music, however. The family moved to Arizona and Gary started his first band at age 14.

Paxton (right) as "Flip"

He soon found stardom as “Flip” in the pop duo “Skip & Flip.” 

Their recording of Gary’s song It Was I became a smash hit and landed them on television with Dick Clark. They followed that success with another chart-topping single, Cherry Pie. Skip & Flip eventually parted ways, and Paxton became more involved with other aspects of the music business – producer, label owner, and engineer. He had more chart-topping, million-selling singles – Alley Oop in 1960 and Monster Mash in 1961. He soon realized that he was a workaholic with an entrepreneurial flair. He ended up working with over a thousand groups in the 1960s; he seemed to be constantly opening and closing record labels, working in five different studios that he owned. Paxton quickly built a reputation in the Hollywood music scene as a talented but eccentric jack-of-all-trades. It was said that Brian Wilson admired him and Phil Spector feared him.

By 1967 Paxton fled the parties and drugs of Hollywood and relocated to Bakersfield, CA. There, he ran a variety of businesses, including a record label, a music store, two studios, a marina, a mountain hotel, a radio show, and rental houses.

Paxton (center, kneeling) recorded the mega-hit
"Alley Oop" with the Hollywood Argyles

It was soon time to hit the road again, this time to Nashville. Unfortunately, a change in scenery seldom if ever resulted in any true, positive life change for Gary. He remembers, “I’d walk along the streets with my long blonde hair down to my waist. I wore boots up to my knees and wore a flag for a cape. I kept going into places with my songs, dressed like that, and the police kept arresting me.” Following the suicide of a business partner, and unable to shake the demons of drug and alcohol addiction, Gary wandered into a church and made a life-changing decision. “I was walking around completely stoned and kept hearing this voice in my head,” recalls Paxton. “I was walking up and down Music Row, and there was a little Christian bookstore and a church there. Don Pinto was the pastor; Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant went there when Amy was about 15 or 16. I went in that church, drunk out of my mind. They said I ought to come back. So I did – the next week. Rev. Pinto said, ‘You need to get saved…from yourself!’ So I went down to the front, got saved and baptized, and that was the last time I ever touched drugs or alcohol.”

Paxton produced the Imperials' Grammy winning
album "No Shortage" in 1975

Keeping one foot in the secular music business (he had some huge success as a writer and producer for country artists in the mid-70s), Paxton also began to try his hand at Gospel music following his dramatic conversion. His “Midas touch” worked there as well. He wrote popular songs for The Imperials like No Shortage and My Child, Welcome Home. Other Christian music successes came with typical Paxton titles such as If You’re Happy (Notify Your Face) and If Nobody Loves You, Create the Demand. He won Grammys as writer and producer for The Blackwood Brothers and The Imperials.

Then in 1976, Jesus Music’s eccentric uncle took center stage as an artist in his own right. He released an album with an unusual gatefold cover that featured Paxton, smiling, bearded, and dressed in a red jumpsuit and hat, coming up out of a manhole cover. If that didn’t clue us in that this was going to be something entirely different, the album title itself would leave no doubt: The Astonishing, Outrageous, Amazing, Incredible, Unbelievable, Different World of Gary S. Paxton. Even though Paxton had already been around for a lifetime or two in the music industry, this record served as an introduction to most Christian music listeners. And what an introduction it was.

Paxton infused this record with the same eccentricity, individuality and hippie humor that had characterized much of his work in the ‘60s. Lyrically, the surreal and satirical would be set to humorous poetry. One reviewer has since described it as being like a cross between Steve Taylor and Frank Zappa. Musically, Paxton alternated between country, gospel, rock, disco, and funk. You never knew just what you were going to hear next!

Side One of ‘Astonishing, Outrageous’ was somewhat calm and was – with the exception of one song -- a slate of listenable Christian country-folk ballads. The album began with the autobiographical Different World, which told the story of Gary’s conversion complete with a spoken word intro that effectively introduced the artist to the listener:

“Hi. My name’s Gary S. Paxton. Don’t forget the ‘S.’ That’s one-third of my whole name! All of my life I’ve done a lot of weird things. I dress strange. I talk strange. Ooh, I live pretty strange, too. Mostly, I’ve done things to get people to notice – just to get folks to pay attention. But, you know, all of us do that in one way or another. Now, though, something’s happened to me that’s really put me in a different world. I’d like to tell you about it…”

If you think my head’s in a different world 

Then, brother, you’re right
If you think my mind’s in another dimension, 

Then, brother, you’re right
I’m in the world, not of it
Heaven is my home and I know I’m gonna love it
If you think my head’s in a different world, then brother you’re right

Weeds was a fairly pedestrian ditty that asked the question, “Is your life an ugly weed or pretty flower?”

The anti-racism anthem Love, It Comes in All Colors and the thought-provoking I Wonder If God Cries were standouts. The latter challenged the listener’s view of how we view Father God:

I wonder if God cries 

When we do the things we do
Do teardrops fill His eyes 

‘Cause He loves us oh so true
Sometimes I feel such hurt 

When I try to realize
That even though He’s God, 

I Wonder if He cries

I wonder if God cries

Is His heart filled with pain
Does He bow and weep 

When we damn His holy name
I wish I could see Him 

And for the world apologize
When we stumble so

I wonder if God cries

Maybe time will tell 

When we reach that distant shore
With all His children home

Maybe God will cry no more

Side One did include one upbeat country-rock song called, Whatcha Gonna Do When You Ain’t a Kid No More?

Whatcha gonna do when your youth is a memory?
Whatcha gonna do when your teenage years move on?
Whatcha gonna do when Bandstand’s gone and your feet can’t fit the floor?

Mortality and aging seemed to be on Paxton’s mind quite a bit throughout his career. He would later write songs like Lord, How’d I Get to Be Such An Old Man? and When the Meat Wagon Comes for You.

Layed Back (In His Love) completed Side One. It carried the same message as Chuck Girard’s Slow Down and Lay Your Burden Down, though not nearly as effectively.

Side two offered zany, harder-edged, rock-oriented tunes with the biting social commentary that Paxton eventually became known for as a Christian artist.

It opened with Jesus Keeps Takin’ Me Higher and Higher. This song, much like Jesus Made Me Higher by The Imperials, argued that Jesus’ love was much preferred to the artificial high offered by drugs, alcohol or other coping mechanisms. Like so many of Paxton’s songs, this one made extensive use of horns and contained what seemed like a ridiculous number of key changes (maybe to help illustrate the words “higher and higher?”). By the end of the song, you almost feel sorry for the female backup singers!

The aforementioned There’s Got to be More to Livin’ Than Just Waiting to Die was up next, and musically, it would’ve been right at home on an early Daniel Amos record (think: Meal or Skeptics’ Song). Like Terry Taylor and Randy Stonehill, Paxton often used humor to help the medicine go down a little easier:

There’s got to be more to lovin’ than hoppin’ in and out of the sack
There’s got to be more to bein’ a friend than getting’ stabbed in the back
Well, everybody acts so two-faced / And sometimes I see three
Everybody walks around so spaced / Freedom isn’t really free anymore

There’s got to be more to dyin’ than a personal hole in the ground
We ought to do a lot more tryin’ while we’re up a-walkin’ around
Or someday you’ll regret it / And then too late you’ll cry
There’s got to be more to livin’ than a-waitin’ to die

If you thought Randy Stonehill’s Lung Cancer was confrontational, try Paxton’s You Aint Smokin’ Them Cigarettes (Baby, they’re Smokin’ You). In the song he 1) calls smokers “walking pollution” and 2)  tells smokers that they will one day “be a pile of ashes, all crispy through and through.” He gets away with it because it’s all said and sung with a smile by a crazy guy in a red jumpsuit and hat, with a huge cross around his neck. Gotta love the 70s.

Victim of the System decried those who refuse to work, abdicate responsibility, game the system, and then play the victim card. Gary was having none of it. It’s one of the better songs on the album.

Quit yellin’ “Victim of the system!” / Do an honest day’s work
Quit claimin’ “victim of the system” and stop actin’ like a jerk
Well, there ain’t no doubt there’s plenty wrong with our society
But you can’t blame the system only while your mind is free

Well, that’s jive / ain’t we alive?
Man, get on the ball / you’re just lazy, that’s all

Nobody in Christian music dared to point a finger like that! I mean, Larry Norman, Keith Green, Glenn Kaiser, Steve Camp and Steve Taylor were at times pretty confrontational, but this Paxton guy took it to “a whole ‘nother level.”

Looking back, a lot of the lyric content on this album and those to follow was highly critical of the state of Christendom and of the United States of America -- morally, spiritually and politically. Many songs had a prophetic edge to them. Paxton’s dire warnings might’ve been taken a bit more seriously, had it not been for the zany antics and comical voices and arrangements.Sophisticated Savages described the insanity of the modern world with references to impending destruction, complete with a woman’s voice repeatedly screaming, “Rape!” at one point in the song:

We’re sophisticated savages / drowning in our ravages
While recreating earth, our island home
Gladly, what we loathe we typify / Claiming we self-sanctify
While agitating water, air, and stone

We’re sophisticated savages, floundering in averages
While claiming we’re superior in our plight
Madly, we demand we know it all / and scoff away the Master’s call
While blaming God for all we’ve caused not right

We’re sophisticated savages, spewing hellish adages
While plotting systematic suicide
In the name of change we kill and maim
Life and death is just a game
Blindly, we portray satanic pride

We’re sophisticated savages, drowning in our ravages
Trying to redo what God has done

The song makes use of sound effects and builds to a fever pitch before the listener hears an explosion (nuclear warfare?). Which leads into the album’s closing track, a gentle reminder that God has everything under control, and that Jesus is patiently waiting for us to surrender our hearts and lives to Him.

Another autobiographical testimony song, He Was There All the Time turned out to be the runaway ‘hit’ from the album and was recorded over 100 times in five languages by other artists. On this record, Paxton begins the last song the same way he began the first – with a spoken word intro:

“I guess now that you’ve listened to this group of songs, you can see that something has completely turned me around. That ‘something’ is Jesus Christ. And you know what?...”

Time after time I went searching for peace in some void
I was trying to blame all my ills on this world I was in
Surface relationships used me ‘til I was done in
And all the while Someone was begging to free me from sin

Never again will I look for a fake rainbow’s end
Now that I have the answer, my life is just starting to rhyme
Sharing each new day with Him is a cup of fresh life
Oh, what I’ve missed! He’s been waiting right there all the time

Waiting patiently in line
He was there all the time

‘Astonishing, Outrageous’ won Gary S. Paxton a Grammy Award for Best Inspirational Performance in 1976.

Paxton would remain on a similar path over the course of his next two albums – 1977’s More of the Astonishing… and 1978’s Terminally Weird but Godly Right. If anything, he actually kicked it up a notch, taking on overweight believers (Fat, Fat Christians), alcoholism (Whiskey Wet), materialism (There Goes a Cigar Smokin’ a Man), and abortion (The Big A = The Big M). He asked the musical question, “Will there be hippies in heaven?” and then said, “I certainly hope so, because I really did want to go.” He sang about “VD from foolish proposals” and “churches with unisex steeples.” He took on “limp-wristed valets,” “lezzies,” and “welfaring mothers hatching their troops without daddies.”

Gary S. Paxton’s life and times always had a fair amount of craziness swirling about. Early in his career, by his own admission, he was married to one woman and simultaneously engaged to two others; he tells of an incident in 1980 during which he was attacked and shot three times by hit men who were trying to avenge a music deal gone bad; while in the hospital a business partner embezzled a half million dollars from him, resulting in his sleeping in a sleeping bag on a concrete floor for two years; he went bankrupt and lived on welfare and food stamps after having been a very wealthy man four or five different times; and then he was rumored to have had an adulterous affair with Tammy Faye Bakker during his time of appearing on the PTL Club television program – a charge that he vehemently denies. 

A recent photo of Paxton performing on a television show in Branson, Missouri

Paxton now lives in Branson, Missouri with his fourth wife; he suffers from hepatitis C and almost died from the disease in 1990. So if you like your Christian musicians all squeaky clean and wrapped in a big, shiny, pretty package, Gary S. Paxton is probably not your favorite artist. But at age 72, he’s still telling it like it is. “The reason our country’s economy is bad is we’ve murdered 55 million potential taxpayers,” he says.

“I’ve had to begin again with Jesus,” says Paxton. “If you have God on your side, no matter what, you can begin again. I thank God for every trial, every scar, every setback I’ve ever had because they help you grow.”

Gary S. Paxton was inducted into the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999.