If you're of a certain age, you probably know the song "Different Drum", it was a hit for the Stone Poneys [sic] in 1967 with Linda Ronstadt singing. It still gets played on what few oldies stations are still around. It's a great song but, not being a big Linda Ronstadt fan, I heard it for years and never bothered looking at the songwriting credit. For half my life I walked around not knowing that it was written by Mike Nesmith, pre-Monkees. He was the one with the ridiculous knit cap topped with a little pom-pom thing. He recorded the song a few years after the Stone Poneys. As good and heart-tweaking as the Stone Poneys' (Ronstadt's) version is, Nesmith's lean version is sadder. Sadder even than the other version he did. He recorded the song twice. Having found just the songs with no background info, one of his versions may be a demo, I've no clue. But the bare bones version has the more believable effect. As corny as this sounds, close your eyes and imagine you're on the porch, it's a hot and dusty afternoon, you're just tossing back a few while your buddy strums and does his lamenting thing.
Here's the Stone Poney's version and both Nesmith versions and a few more Nesmith cuts. Nesmith had a hit in 1970 with "Joanne", another plaintive hit, so that's down there. A couple others of note are covers. One is "She Thinks I Still Care", a song that was a hit for George Jones. Headscratcher of the night is a cover of Dave Dudley's "Six Days on the Road". If you're familiar with Dudley's original, you'll know why I'm certain that Nesmith was ten kinds of stoned when he recorded his version. It's more than twice as long as Dudley's and sounds like it was arranged by the Velvet Underground.
Stone Poneys - Different Drum mp3 at Internet Archive
Michael Nesmith - Different Drum mp3 at Internet Archive Sad version
Michael Nesmith - Different Drum mp3 at Internet Archive
Michael Nesmith - Joanne mp3 at Internet Archive
Michael Nesmith - She Thinks I Still Care mp3 at Internet Archive
Michael Nesmith - Six Days on the Road mp3 at Internet Archive
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