Dec 14

Different Drum

Greatly Appreciated

DIFFERENT DRUM
 
 
“Different Drum” is a song written by Mike Nesmith in 1965.  The song tells of a pair of lovers, one of whom wants to settle down, while the other wants to retain a sense of freedom and independence.  The song is best known for the 1967 version credited to the Stone Poneys featuring a vocal performance by a young and up-and-coming singer named Linda Ronstadt.  The song was Ronstadt’s first hit single, reaching #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as #12 on the Cash Box magazine singles chart.  Ronstadt’s version flips the gender references in Nesmith’s original lyric, replacing “girl” with “boy” when describing her lover, but still referring to him being “pretty”.   (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
Kenny Edwards had been a founding member with Linda Ronstadt in the band Stone Poneys prior to the formation of Bryndle; “Different Drum” was the band’s hit song.
 
(January 2010)
 
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Linda Ronstadt is another singer where I determined to get all of her albums; besides her regular studio albums, I picked up numerous compilation albums of various kinds.  Not all of them are terrific, and I am mostly lukewarm about her country period; but I became a big fan of all three Stone Poneys albums.  They were all tough finds throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s, particularly the original release of the first album before they had their hit with “Different Drum”; even the post-Heart Like a Wheel reissue in 1975 wasn’t that easy to find.  Ronstadt albums have remained available for years and years; her 1980 new wave album Mad Love went out of print just last year. 
 
(April 2012)
 
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The debut 1968 album by Blood, Sweat and Tears, Child Is Father to the Man includes among the cover songs Tim Buckley’s “Morning Glory”.  The Stone Poneys also recorded the latter song, though with the title “Hobo” instead; it is my favorite Poneys song (even beating “Different Drum”) and one of my very favorite Linda Ronstadt songs.  
 
(September 2012)
 
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Thus, I was beginning to tire of Wikipedia, but not before I put together another greatly expanded article on Linda Ronstadt’s first band the Stone Poneys (as well as their three albums).  The Stone Poneys had a big hit with “Different Drum”, written by Michael Nesmith of the Monkees, but all three of their albums are just wonderful and have become some of my very favorite Linda Ronstadt music.  I heard just this week that Linda Ronstadt has Parkinson’s Disease, and that the disease has progressed to the point where she can no longer sing – so sad.  Here is the Stone Poneys article:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Poneys .  

 

(September 2013)

 
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Everyone knows the 1967 hit song by the Stone Poneys, “Different Drum” – written by Michael Nesmith of the Monkees – which appeared on their second album, Evergreen, Volume 2.  By then, Linda was singing virtually all of the vocals solo (except on the album’s surprising psychedelic-flavored title track, “Evergreen (Part One)” which was sung by Kenny Edwards), but it wasn’t always like that.  Many critics think that their first album, The Stone Poneys is even better; on that album, Linda Ronstadt sang solos on only three songs plus one verse of a fourth.  

 
(October 2013)
 
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Over the next several years, I wrote up numerous articles for Wikipedia, mostly on other 1960’s garage rock and psychedelic rock bands and nearly all of the albums in the Pebbles series.  In all, I started over 100 articles and made contributions to Wikipedia that number more than 2,500.  Most of these rock bands are quite obscure to most people, but some are not:  The Outsiders had a major hit with “Time Won’t Let Me” that still gets a lot of radio play.  The same is true of Stone Poneys, Linda Ronstadt’s first rock band who scored with “Different Drum”.  Both of these bands had only a few sentences – what is called a “stub” on Wikipedia – so I fleshed out their stories and also wrote up an article on all of their albums. 

 

(Year 5 Review)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021