Different Drum

"Different Drum" is a song written by Mike Nesmith in 1965 (also copyrighted that year) and originally recorded by the northern bluegrass band the Greenbriar Boys and included on their 1966 album, Better Late than Never!. The song first became popular in 1967 when recorded by the Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt, who took their version of "Different Drum" to number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 1972, Nesmith recorded his own version of his song. "Different Drum" has since been covered by other artists over the years.

Mike Nesmith version

The song reached a wider audience when Mike Nesmith rushed through a version of it in a comedy bit while pretending to be Billy Roy Hodstetter, in the Monkees television show episode "Too Many Girls", which aired in December 1966. Davy Jones mentions this during the commentary track on some DVDs of this episode.

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. Its narrator is the lover who wants to remain free, telling the other that they "will both live a lot longer" if they part ways now.

Peter Gabriel

Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and humanitarian activist who rose to fame as the original lead singer and flautist of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career, with "Solsbury Hill" his first single. His 1986 album, So, is his most commercially successful, and is certified triple platinum in the UK and five times platinum in the U.S. The album's biggest hit, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, and it remains the most played music video in the history of MTV.

Gabriel has been a champion of world music for much of his career. He co-founded the WOMAD festival in 1982. He has continued to focus on producing and promoting world music through his Real World Records label. He has also pioneered digital distribution methods for music, co-founding OD2, one of the first online music download services. Gabriel has been involved in numerous humanitarian efforts. In 1980, he released the anti-apartheid single "Biko". He has participated in several human rights benefit concerts, including Amnesty International's Human Rights Now! tour in 1988, and co-founded the WITNESS human rights organisation in 1992. Gabriel developed The Elders with Richard Branson, which was launched by Nelson Mandela in 2007.

A Different Drum

A Different Drum was an independent record label and online store based in the US state of Utah, founded in 1991, specializing in synthpop and related genres. The label has released hundreds of albums, singles, and compilations, and was the biggest synthpop label in the U.S. The label is regularly credited with helping to keep the Synthpop genre progressing during in the grunge rock mid-1990s and into the early 2000s, particularly supporting American Synthpop Groups (Cosmicity, The Echoing Green, B! Machine and others) in their early years.

The label was also a big supporter of Synthpop bands that had Billboard chart hits during the 1980s but found themselves in need of a supportive label in the late 1990s, such as Alphaville (band), and Real Life (band), putting out releases for both bands during this time.

A selection of songs from the label's artists have been featured on various versions of Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series, including the arcade version of Dance Dance Revolution X.

Stone Poneys

The Stone Poneys were a folk-rock trio formed in Los Angeles, consisting of Linda Ronstadt on vocals, Bobby Kimmel on rhythm guitar and vocals, and Kenny Edwards on lead guitar. Their recordings include Ronstadt's first hit song, a cover of Mike Nesmith's "Different Drum". Even at this early stage, Ronstadt was already showcasing her performances of an eclectic mix of songs, often from under-appreciated songwriters, requiring a wide array of backing musicians.

As a testament to enduring interest in the trio, the band's three albums, The Stone Poneys, Evergreen, Volume 2, and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III, were released together as single CDs for the first time in the 1990s in the US (nearly 30 years after the music was recorded), with the first two albums reissued in Australia in 2008. Four additional songs from the band's third album could also be found on the Australian reissue.

History of the band

Early meetings

Linda Ronstadt first met Bobby Kimmel in 1960 while performing gigs in and around Tucson, Arizona with her older brother Peter and older sister Suzi (under the name "The Three Ronstadts", among others). The three Ronstadts joined with Kimmel and a local banjo player named Richard Saltus, performing locally as "The New Union Ramblers". Kimmel, who was six years older than Linda, was impressed with the strong voice and enthusiasm of the precocious fourteen-year-old. He relocated to Southern California around 1961 and wrote regularly to cajole Linda into joining him throughout her high school years at Catalina High. Kimmel had already met and befriended Kenny Edwards shortly before Linda's arrival in L.A., and they had started writing folk-rock songs together.

Linda Ronstadt

Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American popular music singer. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, and numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities.

In total, she has released over 30 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums. Ronstadt charted 38 Billboard Hot 100 singles, with 21 reaching the top 40, 10 in the top 10, three at number 2, and "You're No Good" at number 1. This success did not translate to the UK, with only her single "Blue Bayou" reaching the UK Top 40. Her duet with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much", peaked at number 2 in December 1989. In addition, she has charted 36 albums, 10 top-10 albums and three number 1 albums on the Billboard Pop Album Chart. Her autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, was released in September 2013. It debuted in the Top 10 on The New York Times Best Sellers List.