I thought he/she was black/male/female/white etc..

Wait! also, I know! Brett Dennen! That dude is a chick, and I won't hear any different.

I also thought Boy George was a woman the first time I heard "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me," except in my case, I was watching the video. So I thought he was a particularly homely woman.

I may be dreaming, but I seem to remember some review of "Sign O the Times" where the reviewer didn't realize that Camille was Prince sped-up.

i know him and he does!
xxp

― fact checking cuz, Monday, November 10, 2008 6:36 PM (Yesterday)

wow, that worked out rather nicely

When I first heard Andy Bell I didn't just think he was a she, I thought he was Allison Moyet. (I think this mistake hinges on the particular early-ish track I heard, but I don't remember which one it was.)

I did too. On the other hand, I first thought that Alison Moyet was a guy, so go figure... :)

The first time I heard Michael Jackson was "The Girl Is Mine", whose lyrics kind of made it obvious that he must indeed have been a guy. But I still found it a bit puzzling.. I mean, he just couldn't be...?

Listening to the "Grafitti Bridge" soundtrack by Prince I also thought this Tevin Campbell must be a girl. Of course, mixing him up was a bit more logical as, at 14, he did indeed sound like a woman although it wouldn't last. :)

When I heard Milli Vanilli's "Girl I'm gonna miss you" I thought it was a girl.

Years later, found out I was right!

do you know how long fact checking cuz has been waiting for someone, anyone, to make that Geddy Lee joke???

tracy chapman yeah

think I've seen fcc feedline before

Keith Jarrett to thread

i thought beethoven was black for the longest time. turns out i was mixing him up with jesus christ.

Nah, Haydn was the brother

Listening to the "Grafitti Bridge" soundtrack by Prince I also thought this Tevin Campbell must be a girl. Of course, mixing him up was a bit more logical as, at 14, he did indeed sound like a woman although it wouldn't last. :)

I thought this too for a long time. His voice is (obviously) quite high, there's no picture of him in the record sleeve, and I had no idea "Tevin" is a male name.

tracy chapman yeah

― Funky Buddha Lounge (Curt1s Stephens), Tuesday, 11 November 2008 10:24

came on to say this (though she was a fella), somebody already did, ah well.

unless curt1s thought she was white, of course, in which case...

Dominique Leone's "Uncover yourself", I thought he'd got a female to sing, even though I can (just about) sing along to it myself...

turns out arthur russell was a white guy.

lol, of course, Dominque Leone!

Before I came across her solo album, I thought Rah Digga of The Flipmode Squad was a somewhat high-voiced man. I think this is because The Flipmode Squad had some male member with a similar voice to hers.

My wife thought Insane Clown Posse was black. (She also thought B Real from Cypress Hill was black.)

Maybe this is because B Real uses the word "nigga" quite often? (Is it okay for Latinos to use it?)

My friend thought Nina Simone was a man

When I first heard Antony and the Johnsons I thought he was Nina Simone.

Final, definitive word on Frank Zappa's heritage: "My ancestry is Sicilian, Greek, Arabic and French."

Weird, I thought he had some roots in Lithuania, because there's a statue of him in Vilnius.

I can't remember why, but up until Everything Is Wrong came out I used to think Moby was a bald woman.

When I first heard "Praise You", I thought it was The Eels, (i.e. Mark Edwards singing, not Cammille Yarbrough.)

I initially thought it was Len Barry of "1-2-3" fame.

(xxpost) Moby, that well known Persis Khambatta impersonator...

Weird, I thought he had some roots in Lithuania, because there's a statue of him in Vilnius.

He has fans there. Both his parents were Italian or of Italian stock, I think? That bit about Arabic and French and Greek seems a bit stereotypically American for Frank.

I have a vague recollection that the statue in vilnius was at least in part due to some work he did as a cultural envoy, or something else equally unlikely...

I think he was, or it was proposed that he be, Cultural Envoy in the Czech Republic?

I heard a Ray LaMontagne song on the radio the other day and thought it was a woman.

Nat Hentoff is white?

do you only know him from liner notes? i would say the vast majority of his articles i've come across have his picture beside them

I don't really know him much at all. I hate to say it, but I think I thought he was black because he writes about jazz and his name is Nat (viz. Turner, King Cole).

short for "Natalie" iirc

Someone seven years ago mentioned thinking Eminem was black. Me too - he sounded like Del Tha Funky Homosapien on My Name Is... to my ears then.

More recently when I heard the Memory Cassette singles I thought he was a she.

I'd sort of pictured Hentoff as an Ishmael Reed/Cornel West kind of dude.

I knew a girl in school who, based on their name alone, thought Pearl Jam were a black female vocal duo.

Also I thought Sting was black first time I heard a Police record. I must've been about five.

Someone upthread mentioned him before, but I used to think Bob Seger was black and more specifically I thought he was Sherman Helmsley. I would always picture Mr. Jefferson when "Night Moves" came on the radio when I was a kid.

damn

I'd sort of pictured Hentoff as an Ishmael Reed/Cornel West kind of dude.

fwiw from some pictures he could def. pass as light-skinned, when placed next to an article about jazz ;)

Chaka Khan... is this person a man, a woman, black, white, Middle Eastern? Who knows.

one of the biggest disappointments in my life was finding out Todd Edwards is white

this was a shock to me as well!

Does it count if you forget someone is black? In that case, Chris Matthews to thread.

Was totally thrown off when I found out Edan was white.

I only knew “Cover of the Rolling Stone”, but I thought until very recently that Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show were black.

I first thought both Babe Ruth and Amon Duul II were fronted by men singing in Plant/Anderson/Lee register.

I thought for the longest time that Chuck E. Weiss was black, based on the assumption he was the other guy on this album cover:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51scsNPYGmL.jpg

I thought Chuck E. Cheese was a rat, but turns out he was retconned into a mouse.

i really don't understand how people thought Tracy Chapman was a dude? Like ... her voice sounds totally feminine to me, idk. Same with Nina Simone.

I can understand thinking Allison Moyet is a dude if you confuse her with Andy Bell, which ok sure

some of y'all had some weird instincts in terms of what are or aren't women's voices

Thought Les Claypool was a tall weasel. Turns out he's just a human man.

Had always assumed Alicia Bridges of I Love the Nightlife fame was black until I googled the video the other day.