I heard a Ray LaMontagne song on the radio the other day and thought it was a woman.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 11 November 2008 14:51 (fifteen years ago) link
Nat Hentoff is white?
― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Thursday, 28 January 2010 21:02 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― Sit 'N Creep (tremendoid), Thursday, 28 January 2010 21:11 (fourteen years ago) link
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).
― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Thursday, 28 January 2010 21:16 (fourteen years ago) link
short for "Natalie" iirc
― what of the fuck you talkie bout (Pancakes Hackman), Thursday, 28 January 2010 21:51 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Treblekicker, Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:20 (fourteen years ago) link
I'd sort of pictured Hentoff as an Ishmael Reed/Cornel West kind of dude.
― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:29 (fourteen years ago) link
I knew a girl in school who, based on their name alone, thought Pearl Jam were a black female vocal duo.
― BTW, I'm frightfully middle-class (chap), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:31 (fourteen years ago) link
Also I thought Sting was black first time I heard a Police record. I must've been about five.
― BTW, I'm frightfully middle-class (chap), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:32 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Robert Necrofrost, Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:48 (fourteen years ago) link
damn
― ('_') (omar little), Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:49 (fourteen years ago) link
fwiw from some pictures he could def. pass as light-skinned, when placed next to an article about jazz ;)
― Sit 'N Creep (tremendoid), Friday, 29 January 2010 01:24 (fourteen years ago) link
Chaka Khan... is this person a man, a woman, black, white, Middle Eastern? Who knows.
― Melvin van Osterlow, Jr. (res), Friday, 29 January 2010 03:45 (fourteen years ago) link
one of the biggest disappointments in my life was finding out Todd Edwards is white
this was a shock to me as well!
― one time gaffled 'em up (one time), Friday, 29 January 2010 04:20 (fourteen years ago) link
Does it count if you forget someone is black? In that case, Chris Matthews to thread.
― Hideous Lump, Friday, 29 January 2010 04:33 (fourteen years ago) link
Was totally thrown off when I found out Edan was white.
― Evan, Friday, 29 January 2010 04:42 (fourteen years ago) link
I only knew “Cover of the Rolling Stone”, but I thought until very recently that Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show were black.
― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 21 May 2022 00:01 (two years ago) link
I first thought both Babe Ruth and Amon Duul II were fronted by men singing in Plant/Anderson/Lee register.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Saturday, 21 May 2022 00:13 (two years ago) link
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
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 21 May 2022 00:30 (two years ago) link
I thought Chuck E. Cheese was a rat, but turns out he was retconned into a mouse.
― Bob Dylan's iconic Ray Ban sunglasses (morrisp), Saturday, 21 May 2022 02:36 (two years ago) link
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
― sarahell, Saturday, 21 May 2022 04:24 (two years ago) link
Thought Les Claypool was a tall weasel. Turns out he's just a human man.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Saturday, 21 May 2022 04:41 (two years ago) link
Had always assumed Alicia Bridges of I Love the Nightlife fame was black until I googled the video the other day.
― Zelda Zonk, Saturday, 21 May 2022 05:07 (two years ago) link
Jónsi Birgisson is one I thought was female on first hearing.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Saturday, 21 May 2022 11:10 (two years ago) link
Pre-internet, I had a song on tape by Chunky, Novi and Ernie with a completely androgynous lead vocal. The singer being named "Chunky" didn't provide a lot of guidance either.
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 21 May 2022 11:55 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4JQ37KsdAs
I would have seen this video in 1984, and apparently I thought it was more likely that a man would perform in a dress (and, um, have breasts) than that a woman would be "allowed" to sing a song about another woman being her "gal".
― Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 21 May 2022 12:08 (two years ago) link
Keith Jarrett tells a great story of how Ornette Coleman says to him "you just have to be black" and Jarrett replies, "I'm working on it."
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Saturday, 21 May 2022 12:43 (two years ago) link
I used to think Nellee Hooper was a woman.
― MarkoP, Saturday, 21 May 2022 14:22 (two years ago) link
I thought for the longest time that Sandy Denny's parts in "Battle of Evermore" were a second Plant track, and I still have a bit of difficulty not hearing it that way.
― jmm, Saturday, 21 May 2022 14:29 (two years ago) link
Also like many people, I assumed Nick Gilder was a woman when listening to "Hot Child in the City".
― MarkoP, Saturday, 21 May 2022 14:38 (two years ago) link
For many years, I thought Irene Cara was white, and while posting this I figured out I've been wrong for many years further in assuming she was black - she's biracial!
― Vinnie, Saturday, 21 May 2022 15:48 (two years ago) link
Haha I think I heard it that way until I read otherwise at 13 or so. It was a little disappointing; I'd been really impressed by how he could just flip into such a pure tone in that register. Conversely, my friend asked "who's the babe?" when Peter Hamill switched to his pure falsetto voice on "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" (ironically, first on the line "I am a lonely man").
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Saturday, 21 May 2022 15:54 (two years ago) link
lol Sund4r ...
xp re kd lang : definitely heteronormativity probably plays a major role in some of this for when we were kids and mis-gendering based on lyrics
― sarahell, Saturday, 21 May 2022 18:09 (two years ago) link
None of my friends believe me that “goodbye horses” was sung by a woman.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 22 May 2022 02:42 (two years ago) link
Conversely, my friend asked "who's the babe?" when Peter Hamill switched to his pure falsetto voice on "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" (ironically, first on the line "I am a lonely man").
this part always confounds me too, his falsetto never sounds that uh...pure elsewhere
― frogbs, Sunday, 22 May 2022 02:46 (two years ago) link
Peter Hamill switched to his pure falsetto voice
My friend didn't believe that Hammill was doing the high background vocals on "Hemlock".
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 22 May 2022 02:48 (two years ago) link
Keith Jarrett tells a great story of how Ornette Coleman says to him "you just have to be black" and Jarrett replies, "I'm working on it."― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Saturday, May 21, 2022 8:43 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Saturday, May 21, 2022 8:43 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
holy shit. i have seen many pictures of keith jarrett for many years and STILL thought he was black. i am in serious shock.
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Sunday, 22 May 2022 14:10 (two years ago) link
I always thought the lead singer on the We Five version of "You Were On My Mind" was a man...but it was Beverly Bivens.
I still hear her voice on that song as "male" somehow.
― gjoon1, Sunday, 22 May 2022 21:24 (two years ago) link
Been listening a lot to an album by an artist with what seems like a normal woman’s first and last name. Just found out it’s a trio of dudes. The music is still excellent but can we stop doing this?— clipping. (@clppng) May 22, 2022
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 22 May 2022 21:28 (two years ago) link
That woman’s name: Zeze Topp
― Bob Dylan's iconic Ray Ban sunglasses (morrisp), Sunday, 22 May 2022 21:40 (two years ago) link
Alice Cooper
― Siegbran, Sunday, 22 May 2022 21:45 (two years ago) link