Chocolate Watchband – I’m Not Like Everybody Else

My friend Greg sent me this band in a text message. I listened to it and some of their other songs; the lead singer sounds more like Jagger than Jagger does in some songs. I love the late sixties with the cool band names. The Incredible Grateful Shrinking Chocolate Marshmallows. Wow…if only it were still the late 60s! Little did I know when I heard this song that it has a KINKS connection.

This song was written by Ray Davies in 1966. The original version was sung by Dave Davies and released as a B-side to Sunday Afternoon in England. The Chocolate Watchband took the song and pushed it into rougher territory. It fit right in with the late 1960s garage scene where bands wanted fuzz guitars, attitude, and songs about not fitting in. The Watchband that mixed garage rock with psychedelia. This song became one of the tracks fans connected with because it sounded defiant without trying too hard.

This is really strange. The song was on the album The Inner Mystique, which had an odd history because producer Ed Cobb used session musicians and outside singers on the first side of the album. The actual band members mainly appeared on the second side, which included this song. The band had largely fractured and disintegrated. Taking advantage of this, their producer/manager Ed Cobb hired anonymous session musicians to record the instrumentals and other tracks to fulfill the record requirements.

The second side helped give those tracks more of the real Chocolate Watchband sound. Rough guitars. Garage rock energy. Less polished than what the label wanted.

I’m Not Like Everybody Else

I won’t take all that they hand me down
And make out a smile, though I wear a frown
‘Cause I’m not gonna take it all lying down
‘Cause once I get started, I go to town

‘Cause I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else

And I don’t want to walk about like everybody else
And I don’t want to live my life like everybody else
And I won’t say that I feel fine like everybody else
‘Cause I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else

But darling, you know that I love you true
Do anything that you want me to
Confess all my sins like you want me to
There’s one thing that I will say to you

I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else

And I don’t want to walk about like everybody else
And I don’t want to live my life like everybody else
And I won’t say that I feel fine like everybody else
‘Cause I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else

Like everybody else
Like everybody else
Like everybody else
Like everybody else

If you all want me to settle down
Slow up and stop all my running ’round
Do everything like you want me to
There’s one thing that I will say to you

I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else

And I don’t want to walk about like everybody else
And I don’t want to live my life like everybody else
And I don’t want to stay confined like everybody else
‘Cause I’m not like everybody else
I’m not like everybody else

Like everybody else (Like everybody else)
Like everybody else (Like everybody else)
Like everybody else (Like everybody else)
Like everybody else

Unknown's avatar

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

34 thoughts on “Chocolate Watchband – I’m Not Like Everybody Else”

  1. Pingback: Chocolate Watchband – I’m Not Like Everybody Else – MobsterTiger

      2. One of my favorite bands of all time. I was able to see them still in their prime…unlike The Stones, Who, or McCartney. When it gets down to it…for me…nothing beats the Beatles-Who-Stones-Kinks.

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Yeah, Clive got it…an ok song that Kinks did better. This version…if somehow it came on radio, might not change station but would not be one I’d think ‘ooh what was that? Gotta look that up!’

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I’ve listened to some more of their stuff…man he does Jagger well lol. It’s alright…I do like the Kinks version bettter…especially the live…but I’ve already had so many Kinks posts…I thought this would be different anyway.

        Like

  5. Great song that’s all new to me, Max. And, yes, the lead vocals sound very Jagger-ish. I also couldn’t agree more when it comes to band names, which generally were much more original in the ’60s than nowadays. The Chocolate Watchband is a cool name!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. U know how much I’m into the Kinks. Their version has an ominous vibe. dave on vocals and he sounds a little pissed off. A Kinks fave. Some very good live versions Give the Watchband marks for covering a cool song.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. Doesn’t hold a candle to the Kinks for me, since it’s one of my favorite songs of theirs. It was good that they covered it at a time when the Kinks were banned from performing in the U.S., and earned Ray some royalties too.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  11. I remember this band name but not the band. The live version seems more garage rock/proto-punk – nothing psychedelic about it. The light show and tie-dye seem like affectations to fit the time…as though they wanted to look like everybody else without sounding like them. (But then I see it’s from 2016, so not proto-anything.)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. Oh man, I haven’t seen these guys in decades! They were big in the Bay Area (or so I’m told, it was before I was born). My dad knew one or two of the guys from the band, either they went to high school together or they were in the same car club, I don’t recall… When I used to spend a LOT of time in used record stores, my dad told me to keep an eye out for their records, but I never actually found one. I’m gonna have to play this for him the next time I see him. Thanks for the flashback Max!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. This was the first time I ever posted on them. That is so cool that your dad knew a few of them! I don’t know much about him, but I’ve heard their name forever. They have some interesting music actually.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment