Different Drum by Linda Ronstadt (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

• Album name: Different Drum
• Artist name: Linda Ronstadt
• Year: 1974
• Number of discs: one
• Label: Capitol Records
• Collection: Selman
• Distinguishing characteristics: hole drilled through top right
• Buy it:
  • Amazon (Vinyl): $99.95
  • Amazon (CD): $29.99

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t know a lot about Linda Ronstadt, but my mother is a fan, and consequently there are a lot of Linda Ronstadt records are in my parents’ collection. The only time I really recall liking a Linda Ronstadt song was when I learned that she sang the backing vocals on Neil Young’s Heart of Gold, which was the first Neil Young song that I loved independently of my parents playing his music all the time.

What I expected

Country rock.

What it was actually like

So it turns out that the title track Different Drum on this record is the same Different Drum that I always associated with the Monkees. It also seems that Linda Ronstadt got famous as a member of the Stone Poneys, which is news to me because I assumed it was Heart of Gold that kicked off her career.

I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight was a rock-inspired country song with violin and definitely much more the kind of music that I have always associated with Linda Ronstadt, and Up To My Neck In High Muddy Water was similar, but others, like Hobo and Long Long Time were much more folk rock.

Besides Different Drum I also enjoyed Some Of Shelly’s Blues, which appears also to be a Monkees song, as well as her outstanding rock cover of the Shirelles’ Will You Love Me Tomorrow. What a nice surprise this record was!

Grade

5/5: love it