that's not what I thought they looked like!

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Imagine my shock today when I found out today that Devendra Banhart is a young male hippie art graduate and not a forty-a-day whiskered old weirdy woman like i had so hoped and assumed.

When I was about nine or ten I used to listen to Run DMC and assumed that they were white for some reason.

More examples of this kind of thing? Has it affected your enjoyment of the music? In some ways, I have to readjust my hearing to take into account that Devendra is actually a guy. I was so wrapped up in this idea he/she was an old lady and that was half the fun. I don't think I'll stop listening though.

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 25 July 2004 19:40 (twenty-two years ago)

if it's any consolation, I've seen him in drag.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Sunday, 25 July 2004 19:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Kind of the opposite of what Dog Latin said, I used to think the singer out of Living in a Box (Richard Darbyshire) was black until I saw them on Top of the Pops.

The Young Black Teenagers *were* white of course!

― MarkH (MarkH), Sunday, 25 July 2004 19:57 (twenty-two years ago)

this has been said before, but I thought Rick Astley was black, and Billy Ocean was white. And Phil Collins was Inuit.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 25 July 2004 20:17 (twenty-two years ago)

oh my god the Devendra Banhart listening experience is improved so much if you imagine it's a 40-a-day whiskery old woman!

I thought Pink was black when I first heard "There You Go", but it didn't change my impression of the song. Also, Hanson to thread.

― The Lex (The Lex), Sunday, 25 July 2004 20:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Remember Summer Girls? That single by LFO? I was sure they were some slightly more urban (black) answer to all the boy bands running around. The single had scratching on it, you see.

In retrospect, the Larry Bird reference should have been a major tip off.

― minolta (minolta), Sunday, 25 July 2004 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought that Billie Myers was a man.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 25 July 2004 21:14 (twenty-two years ago)

i feel weird i've never been surprised, except once when i heard nina simone doing "tom thumb's.." and for a minute or two really could not place race/gender anything. perhaps a testament really

― duke gender, Sunday, 25 July 2004 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

i had a dubbed geraldine fibbers tape for a long time and knew nothing about it. i somehow assumed the singer was some sort of elf, presumably a male elf. whoops.

― mason butler, Sunday, 25 July 2004 21:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and Margaret Fiedler out of Laika. I assumed she was a mysterious, pale, possibly slightly gothy waif after hearing Sounds Of The Satellites... then I see her in PJ Harvey's band a few years later and find that she's a short, squat, cheery blonde girl in a zebra pattern top hat.

― The Lex (The Lex), Sunday, 25 July 2004 22:36 (twenty-two years ago)

oh my god the Devendra Banhart listening experience is improved so much if you imagine it's a 40-a-day whiskery old woman!

I know. I may just as well carry on pretending this. The fact s/he sings about having a beard makes it even acer!

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 25 July 2004 22:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Unfortunately I can't pretend any more, he performed on Jools Holland sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounded by incense candles mumbling into his beard and that image is etched permanently into my mind. I liked him before that.

― The Lex (The Lex), Sunday, 25 July 2004 23:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Devendra made it on Jools? My head hurts.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 25 July 2004 23:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I've said it elsewhere, but I did confuse Anastasia (Eurodiva they've been unsuccesfully trying to break in the US for ages) with Ed Kowalczyk of the band Live. On the radio, their voices are shockingly similar.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Sunday, 25 July 2004 23:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought Simply Red was a black woman.

― joshie (hammy), Sunday, 25 July 2004 23:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Not quite on topic, but after I first heard Placebo I was convinced the singer was a female who called "herself" Brian for whathever reason.

― j.lu (j.lu), Sunday, 25 July 2004 23:57 (twenty-two years ago)

i think everyone thought that j.lu. a schoolfriend once told me that his dad walked in when he was watching top of the pops and exclaimed "cor blimey! look at the pair on her!" or words to that effect.

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 25 July 2004 23:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I still don't 100% believe that the person singing the "I'll say anything" backing vocals on the Smithereens' "A Girl Like You" hit was a dude.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 26 July 2004 00:02 (twenty-two years ago)

When I was really really young my mum had to spend some time convincing me that Sting wasn't black. When I was just quite young my friend had a girlfriend who, before she had heard a note of their music, was convinced that Pearl Jam were a black female vocal duo.

― Wooden, Monday, 26 July 2004 01:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought Dan Hartman was black, but at least I can chalk it up to the video ruse.

― Joseph McCombs, Monday, 26 July 2004 03:03 (twenty-two years ago)

wooden, i can see how those would stand true.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 26 July 2004 05:44 (twenty-two years ago)

For awhile I thought Bob Seger was black when I first heard "Old Time Rock And Roll." (Yes, there was a time when that way-WAY-overplayed song was a new release, and even a time when it didn't exist yet. A wonderful, magical time.)

Also, I have ABSOLUTELY no idea why, but whenever I heard James Brown's "Get Up Offa That Thing" back in '76, I always had this weird impression that it was recorded by some kinda bike gang!

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 26 July 2004 07:07 (twenty-two years ago)

who was it on this thing whose sister was convinced that a Thompson Twins song was recorded by the devil.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 26 July 2004 07:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I have no idea who or where that was, dog latin, but without knowing, I'm still going to say that the song in question was "Lies". Am I close?

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 26 July 2004 12:52 (twenty-two years ago)

my wife was surprised when I showed her a picture of the delays and she finally was convinced the singer was a man. We've been arguing for weeks. She was convinced that it was a female.

― Velveteen Bingo (Chris V), Monday, 26 July 2004 12:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I know a girl who was convinced that the God-like Horrace Andy was a woman.

― Wooden, Monday, 26 July 2004 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't remember what I imagined the Pixies looked like when I first heard them, but I do recall being very surprised when I eventually saw a picture of the band.

― Graeme (Graeme), Monday, 26 July 2004 18:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember thinking that Eric from Sebadoh should have looked more like Tad Doyle (from, uh, Tad) instead of some small skinny dude. That last song on Seb 3 was scary shit when played in the early hours of the day.

― doug watson (solid air), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I had been listening to Tom Waits for four years before I discovered that, to my surprise, he was a white mang.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Not quite as extreme, but I always imagined Mike Heron as Robin Williamson and vice versa from the pictures on Incredible String Band records. Until I saw the Be Glad...dvd.

― Sean Witzman (trip maker), Monday, 26 July 2004 19:32 (twenty-two years ago)

i always thought the dudes from the righteous brothers were black. on the other hand, i saw j mascis in a record store a year ago, and he looked EXACTLY like i'd imagined. namely, he had orange shoes.

― drew, Monday, 26 July 2004 19:39 (twenty-two years ago)

When I got into the Pixies after hearing 'Doolittle' I thought Black Francis was some bad-ass hispanic cowboy type. Boy was I disappointed.

― rw, Monday, 26 July 2004 21:43 (twenty-two years ago)

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