Artistic misimpressions

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Dumarest

Dumarest

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Today being my birthday, I'm reminded of getting a Van Morrison "best of/greatest hits" album many years ago as a birthday present. The record, which I think was a double-LP but might be misremembering, had not a single photograph and I don't think it had any liner notes beyond songwriter credits, date of release, and album titles that each track was lifted from. It was a real bargain-basement job, but obviously it's what's in the record grooves that matters. Being pre-Internet, I had no way to learn more about this Van Morrison character at the time. So, judging from the sound of "Domino," "Moondance," "Warm Love," etc., I always figured he was some type of Al Green-George Benson-Jackie Wilson sort of black, American, jazzy soul guy from somewhere like Memphis. I assumed he looked something like so:
71-8e6XRRkL.png​
It wasn't until I got Astral Weeks, years later, that I got a glimpse of him. I never expected a belligerent, porcine dwarf from Ulster! WTF (as the kids say)?
409ac0101c2948c36a1c2fc22d37f0fc--van-morrison-rock-and.jpg​
So...anybody you had a totally incorrect impression of?
 
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Heh heh, this guy had the same experience.





I only learned today that Bobby Caldwell is a white guy.
 
Ceelo talks about as a young black kid he loved ‘Miss You’ and for the longest time thought the Rolling Stones were black.
 
Another guy I thought was black back in the old days when we didn't see an artist's face unless we bought his record (and sometimes not even then, depending on the album art): Michael McDonald

I knew of the Doobie Brothers but could not have named a single member of the group.
 
I only learned Dan Hartman was a white dude in the last few years. He managed to get respect on Soul Train.

The saxophone is so much better in place of the guitar solo on the recording.
 
Did anybody else think the Soul Survivors were black? I sure did for the longest time.

I still don't believe it but here they are just a few years ago:
 
The funky band Redbone were American Indians. The name should have been a giveaway, but it also means a light-skinned black person and I'd never seen them so I assumed that's what they were.

This live performance blows the single away:
 
Dumarest said:
The funky band Redbone were American Indians. The name should have been a giveaway, but it also means a light-skinned black person and I'd never seen them so I assumed that's what they were.

This live performance blows the single away:
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Mind. Blown.
 
Someone had recorded my copy of The Wall over a Best of Meatloaf album.

So for years I thought that Bat Out of Hell was by Pink Floyd. And even worked out a whole narration about how it was about Pink breaking out of the wall at the end of the album.
 
Black Leaf said:
Someone had recorded my copy of The Wall over a Best of Meatloaf album.

So for years I thought that Bat Out of Hell was by Pink Floyd. And even worked out a whole narration about how it was about Pink breaking out of the wall at the end of the album.
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Now I want to hear Pink Floyd's Bat Out of Hell. Sadly it will be lost forever much like Smile by the Beach Boys.
 
Still not sure I believe this singer is really a pasty, temperamental little Irish guy. Could just be decades-long Milli Vanilli-style hoax.


​

What an enormous talent he had.
 
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Hearing this on the radio back in '83, I was quite sure the lead singer was a woman.
 
How about Wild Cherry



The band

wild cherry.jpg


and then the classic example Rick Astley who became an internet sensation years after his one hit wonder status had been forgotten (rick rolling).

 
Despite MTV and music videos being a thing and much made of an all black rock band in the 80s, I'm sure Living Color have still surprised a few.

 
Toadmaster said:
[ . . . ]
and then the classic example Rick Astley who became an internet sensation years after his one hit wonder status had been forgotten (rick rolling).
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Good thing he never gave it up, wasn't it?
 
I was 100% certain this was Aaron Neville, the first dozen times I heard it. Was fascinated that "Aaron Neville" fit the notoriously not colour-blind Classic Rock radio format.

 
I long though Elton John was black.

Didn't help that I somehow confused him with Peabo Bryson, who actually was black. I think it's because I associated them with similar sounding Disney music in the mid-90s.





Also, for a while I had a hard time keeping Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves roles straight in my head.
 
Dahak said:
I was 100% certain this was Aaron Neville, the first dozen times I heard it. Was fascinated that "Aaron Neville" fit the notoriously not colour-blind Classic Rock radio format.

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So I stumbled upon this today. Now, I have heard this song dozens or scores of times without ever catching the title or the name of the artist. I always thought this was some soul or R&B band in the vein of the Spinners, the Isley Brothers, or the Commodores. Never would I have guessed this was a white dude from Texas. Crazy! I also finally learned the title of the song "Lido Shuffle."
 
Dumarest said:
So I stumbled upon this today. Now, I have heard this song dozens or scores of times without ever catching the title or the name of the artist. I always thought this was some soul or R&B band in the vein of the Spinners, the Isley Brothers, or the Commodores. Never would I have guessed this was a white dude from Texas. Crazy! I also finally learned the title of the song "Lido Shuffle."
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He was a guitar player in Steve Miller’s band in the late 60s as well.
 
No ethnic confusion, but Just yesterday I was watching some videos by Bryan Ferry/Roxy music.
I really knew nothing about the singer/group but I'd heard a few of the songs and liked them...
Visually, for me, Mr. Ferry clashed hard with whatever I'd gotten out of that music audibly. His physical performances were so melodramatic that they overcame any luster in his vocals and made him seem like a dork.
I'm sure it's just a 'me' thing, but I found myself disappointed.
 
Pre-pubescent sounding whiny nasal voices are all the rage among youngsters these days over here...

disgusted-cat-gif-7.gif
 
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In part because it's not the sort of thing I normally listen to - when I did hear it it was usually on in the background somewhere - but for years I thought this was a Bruce Springsteen song.

 
Tulpa Girl said:
In part because it's not the sort of thing I normally listen to - when I did hear it it was usually on in the background somewhere - but for years I thought this was a Bruce Springsteen song.

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John Cafferty does a much better Springsteen ripoff, taking emulation to a ridiculous extreme:



 
Eddie and the Cruisers, watched that a lot back in the 80’s on VHS.

Rob
 
Tulpa Girl said:
In part because it's not the sort of thing I normally listen to - when I did hear it it was usually on in the background somewhere - but for years I thought this was a Bruce Springsteen song.
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I can see that, particularly with the chorus... but I'm pretty ignorant about music and a lot of stuff sounds like a lot of other stuff, to me.
 
I always thought this was a black group

until I came across the single sleeve today! :shock:
ides-of-march-vehicle.jpg​
 
Heard this track on HBO's Mrs. Fletcher and thought the lead singer on this old school soul ballad was black.

 
I understand many thought these dudes were a black American soul group. They were actually a combo operating out of Britain and made up of some West Indians, some British, and a Sri Lankan.
 
I can’t express enough my relief that other people out there also thought Van Morrison was a black guy. I thought that I was alone etc...
 
I get a kick out of some of these "reaction videos." I love to see a young guy like this with an open mind trying out old music for the first time and having his mind blown.
 
The first few times I heard this on the radio I thought it was Elvis Presley.

(Elvis did record it as well.)
 
Dumarest said:
The first few times I heard this on the radio I thought it was Elvis Presley.

(Elvis did record it as well.)
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I totally thought that was Elvis as well.
 
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