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

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.

Jónsi Birgisson is one I thought was female on first hearing.

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.

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".

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."

I used to think Nellee Hooper was a woman.

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 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.

Also like many people, I assumed Nick Gilder was a woman when listening to "Hot Child in the City".

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!

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.

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").

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

None of my friends believe me that “goodbye horses” was sung by a woman.

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

Peter Hamill switched to his pure falsetto voice

My friend didn't believe that Hammill was doing the high background vocals on "Hemlock".

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

holy shit. i have seen many pictures of keith jarrett for many years and STILL thought he was black. i am in serious shock.

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.

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

That woman’s name: Zeze Topp

Alice Cooper