Linda Ronstadt Detects “Fear and a Lack of Confidence” When Listening to This Early Hit of Hers

She became one of the most distinctive voices in pop music thanks to a series of smash albums in the 70s. But before all that, Linda Ronstadt was a singer in a band, and not even the lead singer.

That all changed with a 1967 single that introduced the world to Ronstadt’s magical way with a lyric. It’s just too bad that the singer herself didn’t think her performance was all that great.

A Showcase for Linda

Before he was a Monkee, Michael Nesmith was an up-and-coming musician and songwriter. He wrote the song “Different Drum” in 1964, thinking that he might record it himself one day. That never quite happened. (It was actually refused as a potential Monkees single.) But others quickly took to the song.

First up was a trio called The Greenbriar Boys, who recorded it in 1966. Around that time, Linda Ronstadt was getting a little impatient at simply singing harmonies in her group, The Stone Poneys. Bobby Kimmel handled most of the group’s lead vocals. Ronstadt wanted a song that could work for her.

When she heard The Greenbriar Boys’ version of “Different Drum,” she immediately thought of it as a showcase for her. She figured the group would sing it as a kind of folk ballad, a style that she knew well. What she didn’t realize was that she’d be out in front of an ornate arrangement when the song was recorded.

Something “Different”

Neither of the other two members of The Stone Poneys (Kimmel and Kenny Edwards) played on the group’s recording of “Different Drum”. Instead, session musicians handled the task. A string section and a harpsichord part played by Don Randi made for a musical setting with which Ronstadt was unfamiliar. She felt her vocal suffered as a result, as she made clear in an interview for the book Anatomy Of A Song:

“I’ll be honest – I was never happy with how I sounded. It took me ten years to learn how to sing before I had skill and craft. Today I will break my finger trying to get the record off when it’s on. Art wasn’t meant to be frozen in time like that. Everything hears something in the song – a breakup, the antiwar movement, women’s lib. I hear fear and a lack of confidence on my part.”

Needless to say, the public heard something much different in “Different Drum”. It hit No. 13 on the pop charts. And it opened people’s ears to Ronstadt’s singing talent, paving the way for her eventual solo success.

Behind the Lyrics of “A Different Drum”

The narrator of “A Different Drum” looks at relationships in a much different way than the boy who’s wooing her. “You and I,” she warns. “Travel to the beat of a different drum.” She needs to be free, while he wants something steady. “You can’t see the forest for the trees,” she tells him, suggesting he’s blinded by his passion for her.

“So don’t get me wrong,” she says. “It’s not that I knock it/It’s just that I am not in the market/For a boy who wants to love only me.” Later, she reiterates her point: “All I’m sayin’, I’m not ready/For any person, place or thing/To try and pull the reins in on me.” She decides to leave now and spare him the bigger hurt down the road.

Nesmith wrote a well-constructed song that was a little bit ahead of its time (when he wrote it). When Ronstadt sang it with The Stone Poneys, the message dovetailed with the era of free love. And she sang it brilliantly, even if she was her own harshest critic.

(Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images)