[Ads-l] marching to the beat of a different drum

[Laurence Horn]

And now that I'm reminded by Nesmith's lyrics, "different" in the
Monkees/Stone Poneys context means different from each other, not (as for
Thoreau) different from the rest of the commonplace world:

You and I travel to the beat of a diff'rent drum.
Oh, can't you tell by the way I run
Ev'ry time you make eyes at me. Wo oh.
You cry and you moan and say it will work out.
But honey child I've got my doubts.
You can't see the forest for the trees.
Oh, don't get me wrong. It's not that I'm knockin'.
It's just that I'm not in the market
For a girl who wants to love only me.
Yes, and I ain't sayin' you ain't pretty.
All I'm sayin's I'm not ready for any person,
Place or thing to try and pull the reins in on me. [...]

[And yes, Ronstadt sings it as "I'm not in the market/For a boy who wants
to love only me", which always struck me as a bit odd, since she preserves
the "I ain't sayin' you ain't pretty" in the next line. No wonder, I
figured.]


On Thu, Nov 21, 2019 at 3:52 PM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 21, 2019 at 12:43:56PM -0800, James A. Landau wrote:
> >
> > I remember hearing a pop song with lyrics including "he marches to the
> beat of a different drum" but I cannot recall what or when the song was.
> >
>
> Presumably the 1967 Stone Poneys version, with Linda Ronstadt on lead
> vocals. Song written by Mike Nesmith of the Monkees.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org