"Different Drum": Most clichés in a song ?

[CarnalK]

@Telemark

Half of the phrases highlighted in the OP aren’t cliches or idioms, to my eye. They’re just prose.

“Can’t you tell by the way I run” - It doesn’t make the most sense to me but it’s not a cliche or idiom that I’m familiar with. How can “Can’t you tell” be anything but basic English sentence structure?

I agree. I was pretty confused by what the OP thought were cliches.

Anyway, the winner is Katy Perry’s “Roar”.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@peccavi

As long as “A Horse With No Name” exists, the record is safely high enough that songs like “Different Drum” are no threat.

That’s a song full of phrases that no one in the history of the English language had ever put together. You might as well call “Come Together” full of cliches.

[digs]

@peccavi

As long as “A Horse With No Name” exists…

My dad used to bust my chops (look! a confusing cliché, perfect for this post) about “Hippie Music”. The point at which I realized that would include anything left of Lawrence Welk is when the song Horse With No Name came on the car radio. “You call that music? Damn kids. You can’t honestly call that music!”

I remember thinking “Ok, there’s no reasoning with this old fart.” and "Thank god he’s not listening to the lyrics. How would I defend ‘There were plants and birds and rocks and things’?"…

Or ‘The heat was hot’?

[TriPolar]

@Acsenray

I love that song. And several of those things aren’t cliches but just regular ways of saying things.

I’m thinking you’re misinterpreting the song. She’s saying she isn’t interested in an exclusive relationship.

“Hooking up” would definitely be on the table (“I ain’t saying you ain’t pretty”) if she didn’t suspect that he would want her to be monogamous (“I’m not in the market for a boy who wants to love only me”).

I’m pretty sure they have ‘hooked’ up, now he wants to put a ring on it.

[Zyada]

@jaycat

Joe South’s “Rose Garden” contains the immortal line: “You better look before you leap, still waters run deep.” And yes, he’s a great songwriter (though that tune isn’t one of my favorites of his.)

You missed so many cliches in this one:
I never promised you a rose garden
There’s got to be a little rain sometimes
Live and let live
etc.

I first heard this when I was a kid, so it’s hard for me to say if some of the lines are cliches or came from the song, but I’m betting on the former.

[Acsenray]

@TriPolar

I’m pretty sure they have ‘hooked’ up, now he wants to put a ring on it.

I don’t think that contradicts anything I said.

[Sherrerd]

@TriPolar

I’m pretty sure they have ‘hooked’ up, now he wants to put a ring on it.

Yeah. Part of the appeal of the Ronstadt version is that she is singing lyrics you’d expect from a male (due to those lyrics having been, as mentioned earlier, written by the male Mr. Nesmith). She’s just not ready to settle down–she wants multiple partners. That’s very transgressive conduct for a female (though very “sixties”).

It’s role-reversal. Always a reliable attention-getter in matters artistic.
As for clichés: it will be tough to find a winner. So many songs are deliberately built on clichés that there are probably too many contenders to choose from. Ask Dan Fogelberg:

Longer than ther’ve been fishes in the ocean
Higher than any bird ever flew
Longer than there’ve been stars up in the heavens
I’ve been in love with you

[TriPolar]

@Acsenray

I don’t think that contradicts anything I said.

When you wrote ‘on the table’ i took that to mean a possibility, not that they did it on the table.

[digs]

@Sherrerd

As for clichés: it will be tough to find a winner. So many songs are deliberately built on clichés that there are probably too many contenders to choose from. Ask Dan Fogelberg:

Longer than ther’ve been fishes in the ocean
Higher than any bird ever flew
Longer than there’ve been stars up in the heavens
I’ve been in love with you

SO disappointing that the guy who delivered two great albums later devolved into saccharine-tinged drivel like that.

[Capn_Carl]

I was listening to this cover of Different Drum and remembered this thread. It deserves a listen.

The Lemonheads - Different Drum

[blondebear]

I have a soft spot for this version by Billy Roy Hotstetter:

The Monkees - "Different Drum" from "Too Many Girls"

[Happy_Lendervedder]

Kids Rock’s Cowboy sounds like a bunch of cliches strung together by a couple of 9th grade boys stoned on Colt 45 and ditch weed.

Kid Rock – Cowboy

[digs]

If anyone hasn’t clicked on Nesmith’s face up there (oops, I mean Billy Roy’s), do so! It’s only 45 seconds, but hilarious. And the fact that he’s doing this with one of his own songs is brilliant.

[Kent_Clark]

Doesn’t anyone remember the mass production music machine that was Motown? Feast on this classsic from the Temptations, written by Robert Rogers and William Robinson Jr.

You’ve got a smile so bright
You know you could have been a candle
I’m holding you so tight
You know you could have been a handle
The way you swept me off my feet
You know you could have been a broom
The way you smell so sweet
You know you could have been some perfume