CathInfo.com

Like many people, I have to buy groceries. Unfortunately, I don't get to choose what they play over the loudspeaker. A few days ago I heard a very messed-up song being played, and I decided to look it up when I got home:

"Different Drum" is a classic song written by Mike Nesmith in the year 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 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.
The song reached a wider audience when 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 of 1966. Davy Jones mentions this during the commentary track on some DVDs of this episode.[1]
The song is best known for the yearning 1967 version performed by the Stone Poneys[2] featuring a young and upcoming singer named Linda Ronstadt. The song was Ronstadt's first hit single, reaching #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as #12 on the Cash Box magazine singles chart.[3] Ronstadt's version flips the gender references in Nesmith's original lyric, replacing "girl" with "boy" when referring to the person she's singing to. The Stone Poneys version is noted for the use of a harpsichord played in the baroque style, as well as the use of strings and guitar.
Nesmith later rerecorded the song for his 1972 LP And the Hits Just Keep on Comin'. His version contains four verses, as opposed to the three in Ronstadt's version.

Here are the lyrics:

Different Drum

written by Michael Nesmith
© Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc.  (BMI)          

You and I travel to the beat of a different drum
Oh can't you tell by the way I run
Every time you make eyes at me
Wo-oh

You cry and 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 knock it
It's just that I am not in the market
For a boy who wants to love only me

Yes, and I ain't saying you ain't pretty
All I'm saying is I'm not ready
For any person place or thing
To try and pull the reins in on me

So good-bye I'll be leaving
I see no sense in this crying and grieving
We'll both live a lot longer
If you live without me

Oh don't get me wrong
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

Yes, and I ain't saying you ain't pretty
All I'm saying is I'm not ready
For any person place or thing
To try and pull the reins in on me

So good-bye I'll be leaving
I see no sense in this crying and grieving
We'll both live a lot longer
If you live without me

So...

This song USED to be about a man attached to his independence, rejecting a woman who wanted to get married and settle down.

But Linda Ronstadt switched the roles!

Now it's a MAN who wants to love just one woman, and get settled down, and he's being rejected by a raging feminist who is addicted to independence and being totally free to roam.

How messed up is that?

Now it's a MAN who wants to love just one woman, and get settled down, and he's being rejected by a raging feminist who is addicted to independence and being totally free to roam.

How messed up is that?

Unfortunately, it seems that this is the reality of our current culture.  I've read that more divorces today are filed by women simply because they want to be free of their husbands than vice-versa.  The modern culture has reversed the gender roles except that women have taken only the negative aspects that used to be the domain of men while men have taken many of the positive aspects that used to be considered the domain of women.

Check the previews of movies and books today.  The hero today is generally the woman, though she can be just as ruthless and coniving as any man.  The Hunger Games seems to be a prime example.  The star isn't a hero because she's going to give up her life for her sister because she has no intention of dying and is absolutely intent on killing the other children in the Games to survive.  She's cast in a protective role over her sister by not killing the "bad guys"; instead, she's absolutely willing to kill other innocents.

I wonder what would happen if a movie company decided to release a film in which a man protects a helpless woman.  The critics would scream!

Yes, it is messed up.

A wise man should wisely pick his woman.  

Spiritual discernment opportunities abound!