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Post by sliderocker on Nov 6, 2013 12:14:09 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker re. "Down So Low": I think Linda was probably aiming for a blues/gospel arrangement on it; and while I agree the backing vocals are a bit much at times, it is what it is. And one has to admire Linda (for the millionth time, of course) for really wailing it in that fairly straightforward blues fashion, and belting that last "Down so low" with that typical Ronstadt ferocity (IMHO). I wonder what Linda thinks of her version of the song today? Probably thinks she was terrible, of course, and that singer Tracy Nelson, who wrote the song, did it better. I've sometimes wondered if some interviewer could just get Linda sit with them and go track by track on all of the albums and get her opinion on each and every song? Surely, she couldn't be dismissive of them all? I thought I had read at one time that Linda had never heard or played her own records, her memories of the songs being when they were recorded. I thought if she's never heard her own records, the finished product (the album) could've sounded much different to the recording process, what with the studio wizardry that was available. Of course, Linda probably could find something to fault in the songs if she didn't like the music in the first place.
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Post by erik on Nov 6, 2013 12:54:20 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker re. "Down So Low":
Probably ambivalent at best, most likely. But then again, she and Tracy both sang together on the bluegrass song "Rock, Salt, And Nails" on Earl Scruggs' 1971 album I Saw The Light With Some Help From My Friends; and in one interview (I wish I knew where I could find it), Tracy recalls Linda being in a scrunched up position but singing a high note that, to the effect, she, Tracy, "couldn't reach if somebody had goosed me."
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Post by I've Got To Know on Nov 7, 2013 0:43:26 GMT -5
love one for one. great song. I think she did well with it at the Greenwich Village Bitter End show. eddiejinnj I like the song as well - as heard on "Evergreen, Vol. 2," but in fairness to the live performance, Linda was working with what essentially was a different band, and live performances were almost always different to the recorded versions, especially in the 50s and 60s. A musician or singer could sound great on the record but the playing and singing live could sometimes be another thing altogether. What often sounded great on record sounded ragged live. I don't know if Linda and her band were mixed through a mixing board at the Greenwich Village gig, or if her mike was plugged into the guitar or bass amplifiers, but the problem for me wasn't her singing at all. It was the band's playing. Linda's singing was always spot on but the band didn't sound so good. But, here again, I don't think they were so much the problem as maybe there wasn't a mixing board and a sound engineer to improve what was being heard. For the record it was shot in a TV studio made up to look like the Bitter End, not the actual Bitter End
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Post by kgreen on May 25, 2015 7:30:40 GMT -5
Nice Article!
ANATOMY OF A SONG Linda Ronstadt's 'Different Drum' She and songwriter Michael Nesmith talk about her first hit By MARC MYERS Updated Oct. 31, 2013 1:09 p.m. ET
When the red light went on at Hollywood's Capitol Studios in 1967, singer Linda Ronstadt was scared. There to record "Different Drum"—her first lead-vocal single as a member of the Stone Poneys—Ms. Ronstadt was expecting to sing an acoustic ballad version of the song accompanied by her two bandmates.
Instead, a new faster arrangement had been written, a rhythm section and string players were brought in to replace the other two Stone Poneys, and Ms. Ronstadt had just seconds to figure out how she was going to phrase the lyrics and make the song work.
Released in September 1967, the single—written by future-Monkee Michael Nesmith—peaked at No. 13 on Billboard's pop chart, launching Ms. Ronstadt's career and ushering in a new solo female folk-rock era. Ms. Ronstadt, 67, author of "Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir," published in September; Mr. Nesmith, 70; harpsichordist Don Randi, 76, and Stone Poney Bobby Kimmel, 73, talked about the song's evolution. Edited from interviews:
Michael Nesmith: In 1964 I had been playing guitar in folk and bluegrass bands and wanted to sing solo. So I began writing songs. I wrote "Different Drum" early one morning on the back porch of my San Fernando Valley apartment. The lyrics, about a breakup, came fast—but they had nothing to do with my personal life. I was newly married with a pregnant wife.
Whenever I wrote, I liked creating little 'movies of the mind.' I was thinking about two lovers—one of whom decides they love different things. In later years, comedian Whitney Brown referred to "Different Drum" as the first "it's not you, it's me" breakup song.
In 1965 I met John Herald of the Greenbriar Boys trio. We sat down and began sharing songs. John loved "Different Drum" and slowed it down when he recorded it the following year for Vanguard Records.
Linda Ronstadt: I moved from Tucson, Ariz., to Los Angeles in 1965 to sing with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards. There were plenty of gigs at folk clubs then. Kenny played a Gibson mandolin, Bobby played a Martin guitar and I sang harmonies.
Naming our folk trio the Stone Poneys was Kenny's idea. He got the name from Charley Patton's song "Stone Pony Blues." In those days, the word "stone" also meant "heavy, man." Bobby was writing most of the songs then—but for his voice and range. At some point in late '66, I wanted a song that suited my voice so I could sing lead.
That's when I heard the Greenbriar Boys' single "Different Drum." I knew it could be a hit for us. In 1967, our producer at Capitol, Nik Venet, set up a recording session. It was at Capitol's Studio B, where Frank Sinatra recorded. The plan was to record three songs in three hours that day.
I thought we were going to record an acoustic ballad version of "Different Drum" with Bobby and Kenny. But when I walked into the studio, there were other musicians there I didn't know. Bobby and Kenny played on two of the songs, but on "Different Drum," Nik asked them to sit out.
Bobby Kimmel: Kenny and I didn't mind. It was always going to be a solo vocal feature for Linda anyway, and Nik wanted more going on instrumentally behind her. Kenny and I stood in the engineer's booth and watched and listened.
Ms. Ronstadt: At first, I wasn't happy. I thought we'd have a better shot on the radio with an acoustic version, since groups like Peter, Paul and Mary were having hits. But Nik insisted. He said he had asked Jimmy Bond to write an arrangement and brought in Don Randi to play harpsichord, Al Viola on guitar and Jimmy Gordon on drums. Bond played bass, and Sid Sharp arranged and conducted a string section. They were all there.
We didn't rehearse. I was just thrown into it. I was completely confused. I didn't have the lyrics in front of me—I sang them from memory. Since I can't read music, I didn't have a lead sheet either. I knew I could remember the words, but I wasn't sure how to phrase them with the new arrangement and faster tempo.
Different instruments pull different textures out of my voice, which was conditioned to sing with guitar and mandolin. The harpsichord and strings were going to be harder. We recorded the second take without any overdubbing. That became the version you hear on the record.
Don Randi: Jimmy Bond had me play a double-keyboard harpsichord that day, to give the song a psychedelic-pop feel. I only had the chord changes and made up the rest on the spot, including the solo. I had been trained as a classical pianist, so giving it a classical feel wasn't a problem.
By '67, I had recorded as part of L.A.'s Wrecking Crew studio band on hundreds of rock recordings, including sessions with the Beach Boys and Phil Spector. This was a nice change-up. Nik knew his stuff and went to bat for Linda with us before she came in, Nik told me, "Wait until you hear this girl sing. You won't believe it."
He was right. She had this innocence and humility that won me over. If she had been frightened, you'd never have known it. Linda was so down-to-earth and natural—she even recorded that song barefoot.
How the Harpsichord Fueled '60s Pop Ms. Ronstadt: I first heard the single when the band's car broke down in September '67. Soon after we pushed it into a gas station, I heard the guitar-harpsichord intro faintly coming from a radio in back of the garage. The mechanics had it tuned to KRLA—L.A.'s Top-40 AM station. I was stunned.
Mr. Nesmith: I first heard Linda's record on the radio in Philadelphia, while riding in a limo with the Monkees. No one in the car believed I had written the song. Linda did more for that song than the Greenbriar Boys' version. She infused it with a different level of passion and sensuality. Coming from the perspective of a woman instead of a guy, the song had a new context. You sensed Linda had personally experienced the lyrics—that she needed to be free.
Mr. Kimmel: The irony, of course, is I didn't sing or play on my group's biggest hit. But you know what? It wouldn't have mattered even if I had. It was Linda's time.
Ms. Ronstadt: I'll be honest—I was never happy with how I sounded. It took me 10 years to learn how to sing before I had skill and craft. Today I will break my finger trying to get that record off when it's on. Art wasn't meant to be frozen in time like that.
Everyone hears something in that song—a breakup, the antiwar movement, women's lib. I hear fear and a lack of confidence on my part. It all happened so fast that day.
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2015 8:58:59 GMT -5
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Post by dan diorio on Jul 2, 2015 4:06:01 GMT -5
hello, all linda fans,what great about these forums is that new& older fans can share some memories,first my LOVE&FEELINGS for her have been special,when the first stone poneys LP was out it was on the new release rack in the dept store,riight next to doors 1st LP,monkees 2nd,LP,I looked at the cover and saw someone special,I was 14,and I kept staring at the photo and I was in love,the first girl I was serious with could pass for her twin,she was my type ,hair style,dark hair,height,etc,anyway this LP did not sell well,even though it was om emi-capitol,it was dominated or stepped on by the heavy male group scene,BEATLES<MONKEES,<.DOORS<JEFFERSON AIRPLANE>MOTOWN>HENDRIX<ASSOCIATION,the 45 could have possiabley gone to #1,just to much competition in the singles,it simply did not have the ingreidents for a #1,on the west coast it did,not on the east coast,NY where I was,its funny at the end of 67 this so called song came out called JUDY IN DESQUISE<WITH DIAMONDS<,it went to # 1 for a month,then HELLO/GOODBYE,DAYDREAM BELEIVER wiped it out of the box,that shows us sometimes a silly track like that can do something and sell a lot,getting back to diff,drum,the AM stations played the 45 from a tape loop in a 8tk cartridge,FM stereo stations were starting,and they made a 8tk from the LP,or got it from the record company,the other formats were 8tk tape,cassette,open-reel,capitol did not release all LPs on open -reel,cassette,8tk was more popular,even if it went gold,the ponys 2nd LP did,maybe through the capitol record club,which sold all 3 formats to members,as far as I know all the stone ponys LPs were never on release in other places,like england,,france ,germany,japan,even though all american LPs were well know& popular,and emi was a big record corp,also the LPs went out out print in 69 when capitol changed their label design,from the black to the green label,I could be wrong about this but I did not see them anywhere,its funny In 1995 when capitol put out all 3 ponys they switched the un-editted diff drum with the edited on,on the back it still had the full time,2:46,can anyone tell me why,and they sold well&went out of print for whatever reason,dont think they were out in other countries,I have written capitol for a extensive ressiue with the original labels,session notes,photos,with other versions of diff drum,tk-1,2, with studio chat & false starts,THAT WOULD BE A REVELATION,when the DIFF DRUM LP came out it should have had the un-edited version,plus the true stereo mix of the 45,shes-a very lovely woman,another capitol error the next major Lp was the greatest hits vol1 retrospective capitol years,icon cd,best of,collection 2cd on rhino stil no un-edited diff drum can anyone tell me the reason getting back tomy true affection for her & that feeling I had & still have to this day,we HAVE THE SAME BIRTHDAY.JULY 15th,LETS ALL FANS WISH HER A GREAT UP_COMING BIRTHDAY AND MORE TO FOLLOW,and that capitol re issiues her catalog the correct way,thanks for reading my letter,DAN<DIORIO<<<<
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Post by germancanadian on Oct 3, 2018 17:31:29 GMT -5
Great song, wonder why she hardly sang it live after she went solo. It was her first big hit and it's on her greatest hits albums.
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Post by rick on Oct 3, 2018 17:51:01 GMT -5
I only saw Linda sing “Different Drum” live once in the 38 times I saw her perform live. It was in the mid-‘70s when she still had “Long, Long Time” and “Love Has No Pride” in her set, too.
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Post by eddiejinnj on Oct 3, 2018 18:00:34 GMT -5
I would love to have seen her do DD in the mid70s. I would have loved to hear the tone and phrasing. Eddiejinfl
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Post by erik on Oct 3, 2018 18:57:47 GMT -5
Quote by rick:
Over the years, Linda has always showed various levels of ambivalence over her recording of the song (the arrangement, which was nothing like what she originally had in mind, was very much baroque folk-rock). I would surmise that the further Linda got into her career, the "less" she needed even the obvious early Top 40 hits like "Different Drum" or even "Long Long Time", and the larger her repertoire became. One can argue whether or not this is a bad thing for Linda to have done (at some point, late in her career, she even dropped "You're No Good"), but it is what it is. Just speaking for myself, I only saw her three times, and rather late in the game (1995; 2004; 2006); and of course "Different Drum" had long since disappeared from her setlist, along with "Long Long Time" (although with the latter, some of our members say they actually did hear her do this in concert even as late as the late 1990s).
The issue of her opinion as a singer, whether it's extreme modesty or (unjustly) extreme self-deprecation to the point of making fans feel guilty that they were ever fans of hers, is one that I don't think is ever going to be solved to anybody's satisfaction. And it all started, as does so much of her story, with "Different Drum" itself, since it came fairly early on in her career (remember she was 21 when the song became a big folk-rock hit). Personally I've always felt she could remain her modest self while at least being more self-reflective, because she demonstrated, probably better than anyone else ever did, that no one can have a four decade-long career in so fickle a business as the music business by being terrible (although most of today's pop tarts are proving otherwise [grumble, grumble...])..
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Post by erik on Aug 11, 2019 10:48:01 GMT -5
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Post by the Scribe on Aug 11, 2019 16:00:20 GMT -5
Maybe I am just getting old and remember things differently but I don't recall Mike Nesmith ever being part of the Greenbriar Boys band. Linda knew the song from that band and didn't know until after her version was recorded and pressed while looking at the label she discovered Nesmith had written it. I also thought the Poneys recorded it but before it went to press her then producer only used her vocals and the Wrecking Crew (of some sort) provided the rest. Anyway, I just found a similar version of the way I recall it and posted it below this review. Just for the record.
When I first saw Linda in concert (1972) someone yelled out to her "sing Different Drum" to which she replied "I don't really know that song" which puzzled me but if you read the story of the song below you will understand why. Now it makes sense. Plus her current band with the Bowden cousins, Mickey McGee and Ed Black were not practiced on the song.
All this being said I am glad for this first review and the deserved attention Linda is getting. Just quibbling with history for accuracy.Linda Ronstadt's 'Different Drum'She and songwriter Michael Nesmith talk about her first hit By Marc Myers Updated Oct. 31, 2013 1:09 pm ET www.wsj.com/articles/linda-ronstadt8217s-8216different-drum8217-1383149206
When the red light went on at Hollywood's Capitol Studios in 1967, singer Linda Ronstadt was scared. There to record "Different Drum"—her first lead-vocal single as a member of the Stone Poneys—Ms. Ronstadt was expecting to sing an acoustic ballad version of the song accompanied by her two bandmates.
Linda Ronstadt (shown in 1968) was caught off guard in the studio when confronted with new musicians and a faster arrangement. HENRY DILTZ/CORBIS
Instead, a new faster arrangement had been written, a rhythm section and string players were brought in to replace the other two Stone Poneys, and Ms. Ronstadt had just seconds to figure out how she was going to phrase the lyrics and make the song work.
Released in September 1967, the single—written by future-Monkee Michael Nesmith—peaked at No. 13 on Billboard's pop chart, launching Ms. Ronstadt's career and ushering in a new solo female folk-rock era. Ms. Ronstadt, 67, author of "Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir," published in September; Mr. Nesmith, 70; harpsichordist Don Randi, 76, and Stone Poney Bobby Kimmel, 73, talked about the song's evolution. Edited from interviews:
Michael Nesmith, who wrote the song pre-Monkees. MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
Michael Nesmith: In 1964 I had been playing guitar in folk and bluegrass bands and wanted to sing solo. So I began writing songs. I wrote "Different Drum" early one morning on the back porch of my San Fernando Valley apartment. The lyrics, about a breakup, came fast—but they had nothing to do with my personal life. I was newly married with a pregnant wife.
Whenever I wrote, I liked creating little 'movies of the mind.' I was thinking about two lovers—one of whom decides they love different things. In later years, comedian Whitney Brown referred to "Different Drum" as the first "it's not you, it's me" breakup song.
In 1965 I met John Herald of the Greenbriar Boys trio. We sat down and began sharing songs. John loved "Different Drum" and slowed it down when he recorded it the following year for Vanguard Records.
Linda Ronstadt: I moved from Tucson, Ariz., to Los Angeles in 1965 to sing with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards. There were plenty of gigs at folk clubs then. Kenny played a Gibson mandolin, Bobby played a Martin guitar and I sang harmonies.
Naming our folk trio the Stone Poneys was Kenny's idea. He got the name from Charley Patton's song "Stone Pony Blues." In those days, the word "stone" also meant "heavy, man." Bobby was writing most of the songs then—but for his voice and range. At some point in late '66, I wanted a song that suited my voice so I could sing lead.
That's when I heard the Greenbriar Boys' single "Different Drum." I knew it could be a hit for us. In 1967, our producer at Capitol, Nik Venet, set up a recording session. It was at Capitol's Studio B, where Frank Sinatra recorded. The plan was to record three songs in three hours that day.
I thought we were going to record an acoustic ballad version of "Different Drum" with Bobby and Kenny. But when I walked into the studio, there were other musicians there I didn't know. Bobby and Kenny played on two of the songs, but on "Different Drum," Nik asked them to sit out.
Bobby Kimmel: Kenny and I didn't mind. It was always going to be a solo vocal feature for Linda anyway, and Nik wanted more going on instrumentally behind her. Kenny and I stood in the engineer's booth and watched and listened.
Ms. Ronstadt: At first, I wasn't happy. I thought we'd have a better shot on the radio with an acoustic version, since groups like Peter, Paul and Mary were having hits. But Nik insisted. He said he had asked Jimmy Bond to write an arrangement and brought in Don Randi to play harpsichord, Al Viola on guitar and Jimmy Gordon on drums. Bond played bass, and Sid Sharp arranged and conducted a string section. They were all there.
We didn't rehearse. I was just thrown into it. I was completely confused. I didn't have the lyrics in front of me—I sang them from memory. Since I can't read music, I didn't have a lead sheet either. I knew I could remember the words, but I wasn't sure how to phrase them with the new arrangement and faster tempo.
Different instruments pull different textures out of my voice, which was conditioned to sing with guitar and mandolin. The harpsichord and strings were going to be harder. We recorded the second take without any overdubbing. That became the version you hear on the record.
Don Randi: Jimmy Bond had me play a double-keyboard harpsichord that day, to give the song a psychedelic-pop feel. I only had the chord changes and made up the rest on the spot, including the solo. I had been trained as a classical pianist, so giving it a classical feel wasn't a problem.
By '67, I had recorded as part of L.A.'s Wrecking Crew studio band on hundreds of rock recordings, including sessions with the Beach Boys and Phil Spector. This was a nice change-up. Nik knew his stuff and went to bat for Linda with us before she came in, Nik told me, "Wait until you hear this girl sing. You won't believe it."
He was right. She had this innocence and humility that won me over. If she had been frightened, you'd never have known it. Linda was so down-to-earth and natural—she even recorded that song barefoot.
Ms. Ronstadt: I first heard the single when the band's car broke down in September '67. Soon after we pushed it into a gas station, I heard the guitar-harpsichord intro faintly coming from a radio in back of the garage. The mechanics had it tuned to KRLA—L.A.'s Top-40 AM station. I was stunned.
Mr. Nesmith: I first heard Linda's record on the radio in Philadelphia, while riding in a limo with the Monkees. No one in the car believed I had written the song. Linda did more for that song than the Greenbriar Boys' version. She infused it with a different level of passion and sensuality. Coming from the perspective of a woman instead of a guy, the song had a new context. You sensed Linda had personally experienced the lyrics—that she needed to be free.
Mr. Kimmel: The irony, of course, is I didn't sing or play on my group's biggest hit. But you know what? It wouldn't have mattered even if I had. It was Linda's time.
Ms. Ronstadt: I'll be honest—I was never happy with how I sounded. It took me 10 years to learn how to sing before I had skill and craft. Today I will break my finger trying to get that record off when it's on. Art wasn't meant to be frozen in time like that.
Everyone hears something in that song—a breakup, the antiwar movement, women's lib. I hear fear and a lack of confidence on my part. It all happened so fast that day.
www.wsj.com/articles/linda-ronstadt8217s-8216different-drum8217-1383149206
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Post by erik on Aug 11, 2019 17:56:38 GMT -5
Obviously Nesmith's recollection is the correct one: he wrote it in '65; the Greenbriar Boys (led by John Herald) recorded their version; and then came Linda's.
Of course, I would dissent on the idea that "Different Drum" is a hit single frozen in the time it was made. It definitely is of its time (1967-68), but I think it is a hit record for all time.
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Post by Partridge on Aug 12, 2019 23:48:09 GMT -5
The original release of Different Drum on the first pressing of the LP differed in length from the 45 RPM version and all subsequently released versions of the song in that the music interlude was different. This original version ran 2:45 instead of 2:38 or less. The compact disc pressings of Evergreen Vol 2 have the shortened 45 version. If anyone is interested in having this original version, I am providing the link below for a limited time. This is converted to mp3. If anyone would prefer a flac or wav version, let me know. Download link: we.tl/t-Y2iVRbr6sh
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Post by the Scribe on Aug 13, 2019 0:22:46 GMT -5
The original release of Different Drum on the first pressing of the LP differed in length from the 45 RPM version and all subsequently released versions of the song in that the music interlude was different. This original version ran 2:45 instead of 2:38 or less. The compact disc pressings of Evergreen Vol 2 have the shortened 45 version. If anyone is interested in having this original version, I am providing the link below for a limited time. This is converted to mp3. If anyone would prefer a flac or wav version, let me know. Download link: we.tl/t-Y2iVRbr6sh
Thanks!!
I guess the single version was reformatted for radio to be shorter.
Different Drum was one of those "magic" songs of the 60's. I was already primed for the harpsicord from the Addams Family among other baroque rock acts that used it. There was something special to those acts who mixed classical with rock.
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Post by Partridge on Aug 13, 2019 1:01:12 GMT -5
I tried to record the song from my original LP but the track was damaged severely. However, the instrumental part of the track was okay, so I got my sound engineer friend Kip to combine this with the version on the Just One Look collection to re-create the original track. Either that or I was going to have to track down another 1st pressing copy of the LP. He did a very good job.
That original instrumental part seems oddly out of place after many years of hearing the 45 version. I understand why Capitol made the change.
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Post by RLW on Jan 6, 2020 7:29:19 GMT -5
For what it's worth, I love Different Drum, and don't see how it could be any better, no matter what Linda thinks. It's too bad she can't enjoy her music the way we do, but I guess that is the price of being a perfectionist.
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Post by revin2go on May 27, 2021 11:51:05 GMT -5
Hello gang,
I'm sure this subject has been covered before on this forum, but I can't find it and I've been off for a while.
I was listening to Carrie Underwood sing Different Drum recently on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and it sounded so good! The arrangement was obviously updated yet retained the original integrity and urgency of the song. There have been a few other live versions floating around YouTube by Ronstadt tribute artists and they all sound really good as well. I wonder why Linda stopped singing it in concert. I have been seeing her live since 1978 and she never sung it once. Outside of that Bitter End clip, I don't recall ever hearing a live recording of the song. It certainly would have been a huge crowd-pleaser. Did she dislike it that much? It put her on the map after all and I'm sure she knew the fans wanted to hear it. It would be like Judy Collins leaving "Both Sides Now" at the curb. I don't get it. Any thoughts?
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Post by erik on May 27, 2021 12:22:28 GMT -5
Linda likely has her reasons for not doing "Different Drum", including perhaps the fact that she outgrew it very fast. I'm only guessing that she last did it probably in 1969 or 1970.
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Post by sliderocker on May 27, 2021 12:37:18 GMT -5
I've sometimes wondered why she stopped doing the song as well. My guess would be like every other recording she made that she dissed her performance of, she also dissed her performance of "Different Drum" as well. But, I think she had and has an affection for the song and the bands she put together, let's face it, were never able to successfully recreate the song's hit arrangement.
Linda's managers should have always stressed to her that fans expected to hear the song (and "Long, Long Time") and it should've been used as either an encore number or the next to last song or the last song performed before the encore. I believe "Different Drum" was Linda's biggest hit in the long term. It missed out on the Top 10 in Billboard but it has been on the radio continuously since its release in 1967. And although Michael Nesmith gets the songwriter royalties from radio airplay (Sirius/XM pays the artists as well as the songwriters on the songs), he has said the song belongs to Linda. That she was the one who made it immortal.
And although Linda has been dismissive of her singing on all of her recordings, again, maybe she felt she never had a band that was able to do justice to the song.
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Post by sliderocker on May 27, 2021 12:44:47 GMT -5
Also, another reason which occurred to me as I was typing the last of my previous post was that when she had a capable band that could've played the song (Kenny, Andrew. Dan, Waddy, et al), was that maybe she didn't do the song out of respect for Kenny. Kenny mentioned he and Bobby were not on the hit version, even though the musician credits does list Kenny on guitar, but not Bobby. There are no harmony vocals on the song, so it was just a solo by Linda. Perhaps what Kenny meant was not contributing more to the song than guitar. Would harmony vocals have helped its chart position? Maybe. However, would "Different Drum" have been the huge radio hit it became if harmony vocals had been added?
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Post by erik on May 27, 2021 13:06:32 GMT -5
I too think there's a special place in her heart for "Different Drum"; and all the speculation as to whether she could find a band up to the task of doing the song right and, failing that, she had to put it away is probably true as well.
It's amusing, incidentally, to think back on how enormously ambivalent she was for decades about the way the actual studio recording turned out, using a sizeable cadre of the Wrecking Crew (some of whose members likely also worked either with movie studio orchestras or with the Los Angeles Philharmonic itself), with Don Randi on harpsichord and all, totally unlike the thoroughly acoustic arrangement she had in mind, copying from the Greenbriar Boys' folk/bluegrass 1966 version. And then, as she recalls in a voiceover in THE SOUND OF MY VOICE, she says "Thank God they didn't listen to me" (they being producer Nick Venet and the arranger Jimmy Bond).
It's equally strange to think of how long Capitol sat on "Different Drum", seeing as how the second Stone Poneys album it was originally on came out in June 1967, and yet they didn't release it as a single until October. In fact, it was actually a #1 hit in Detroit and San Francisco first; and then it became a #1 hit here in L.A. thanks to KHJ AM 930, "Boss Radio", which was then the #1 radio station in town. Ironically, it was the very success of that song that led to the dissolution of the Stone Poneys as a group, forcing Linda into the very role she didn't think she was qualified for: a woman fronting a band of guys. It took years for her to really feel right in that role, but of course at the mid-point of the 1970's, the floodgates opened....
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Post by rick on May 27, 2021 13:52:32 GMT -5
I am 1000% certain this has been discussed before because I have said the following before. I first saw Linda perform in 1974 and would see her each year as “HLAW,” “PID,” “HDTW,” “SD,” and “LITUSA” were released. This was back when the Universal Amphitheatre was an outdoor venue and still existed. Linda would do multiple nights there. One year I saw her three out of the 10 nights she performed.
I saw Linda sing “Different Drum” live only once. I remember being both happy and surprised. My memory tells me it was closer to my earliest Linda concert-going. But she sang it.
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Post by rick on Jul 10, 2021 17:38:28 GMT -5
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Post by erik on Jul 10, 2021 21:17:42 GMT -5
Another wrinkle to the story of how this song fell into Linda's hands.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2021 5:36:21 GMT -5
I love this appraisal of Different Drum. Linda's cuteness factor should not and never be dismissed watching live performances.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2021 5:42:30 GMT -5
So glad Carrie Underwood sang DD at Linda's R&RHoF, a great tribute. How her backing band sounded may have been if Linda had continued to perform the song. Good that Waddy Wachtel was there!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2021 5:45:45 GMT -5
Quote by sliderocker: I believe that Linda tried to shoehorn "Desperado" into some of her sets in 1983-84 with Nelson Riddle and his orchestra, an attempt that she felt in the end wasn't very good. And I think she may have been right; it doesn't work alongside pre-rock standards like "What's New" or "I've Got A Crush On You." I could easily be dead wrong about "Long Long Time" not working in that fashion, but to my ears the original's arrangement already sounds orchestral in itself (neither the steel guitar or the fiddle sound anything like what they really are, and Linda articulates how that happened in her memoir). Linda actually used Desperado as her encore beginning with her very first show with Nelson at Radio City. The arrangement was stunning, the crowd loved it, it actually worked quite well next to the standards, and rather than the song not fitting in it actually made a strong statement that good music is just that....good music. I do not recall Linda ever saying that the attempt was not very good-but then again I may have missed her comment on that. Would love to see the actual interview.
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Post by PoP80 on Jul 11, 2021 7:49:08 GMT -5
I love this appraisal of Different Drum. Linda's cuteness factor should not and never be dismissed watching live performances. Not to mention how Beth highlights Linda's vocal style as exemplary for her "Vocal Coach 101" lesson. She was captivated by every note, even though this analysis would surely make Linda cringe.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2021 10:58:54 GMT -5
I love this appraisal of Different Drum. Linda's cuteness factor should not and never be dismissed watching live performances. Not to mention how Beth highlights Linda's vocal style as exemplary for her "Vocal Coach 101" lesson. She was captivated by every note, even though this analysis would surely make Linda cringe. Why would it make her cringe?
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