Ridiculously incorrect beliefs you had about music and musicians while growing up

Also that you needed to be able to write standard music notation in order to compose songs

I was somewhat older than I'd like to admit when I found out Sparks weren't British

I found this out this morning. I may have known at one point and forgotten it, though; that's increasingly common.

And, yeah, it obv makes sense that if you start learning from the Hal Leonard (or Mel Bay) books, you'd be writing your shit down on staff paper by the time you become a rock star.

I wasn't even that young - nearly an adult - when I believed that a band's lyrical output corresponded with their real-life behaviour and preoccupations, so a band whose lyrics dealt mostly with sexual matters must be raving priapists. I remember being concerned about a girl in high-school whose godfather was apparently [the Scottish lead singer of a famous Australian hard rock group]. Just on the basis of the words he sang, I pictured him walking into the room and treating every female he saw like Monty Python's Dirty Vicar.
Some of this prejudice remains in that I'm distrustful of acts whose lyricists focus obsessively on specific topics like cars, robots or corpse mutilation, in favour of those who explore more broad and diverse areas.

Not me, I was a jaded soul...but one summer I did tell my little sister that "the lady in Missing Persons" was going to be her 1st grade teacher and she was sorely disappointed when school started!

None of the shame you guys feel compares to the guilt I feel about my evil teenage self.

I thought all radio was freeform and disc jockeys always played whatever they felt like.

I was almost the opposite. I was a little surprised when it turned out that a lot of rock stars who sang about intoxication and casual promiscuity were in fact just drug and sex addicts. I'd sort of just assumed it was metaphor and imagination. (I mean, surely they were spending their time practising scales and writing down music.)xp

(I mean, surely they were spending their time practising scales and writing down music.)

Lol

This gets at an idea that's been rattling around in my head for a while now, which is that no artist has a richer or more exemplary relationship with the cultural shift of the last 30ish years from audiences needing to believe that artists are bad people to audiences needing to believe that artists are good people than Insane Clown Posse.

I assumed all musicians were always dressed immaculately, a drink in hand, looking out the floor to ceiling windows of their penthouse suite (they're in a big city of course... it's raining... neon signs, etc...). They spend all their time with interesting people only and talk about art and philosophy exclusively.

This was the effect of mainlining imagery and/or music from Japan, ABC, Roxy Music, etc... before my brain knew what to do with the information. Oh to be that innocent again...

I thought there were live drums on Endtroducing and drove myself crazy trying to figure out how to play like that.

This was the effect of mainlining imagery and/or music from Japan, ABC, Roxy Music, etc... before my brain knew what to do with the information. Oh to be that innocent again...

― mr.raffles, Wednesday, September 1, 2021 8:56 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

sometime on ilx someone called stuff in this vein "silk bathrobe music"

that scans

i thought macy gray was british for an embarrassingly long time b/c when the song was a hit here in the states someone i know who was from england mentioned that it had already been a hit over there

― dyl, Wednesday, September 1, 2021 7:41 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

The first time I saw Brad Mehldau live, sitting in the Village Vanguard before the show I said to the person I was with “I think he’s British” - then simultaneously realized it had come out way louder than I meant and that he was sitting two tables away in obvious earshot. Then shortly after he was on stage and spoke to the audience in a very clearly American accent.

That my classical music loving dad would be impressed with string-laden rock music like ELP and Moody Blues.

Haha, I remember playing Classic Yes for a friend who was really into classical piano in Grade 9 or 10. He didn't get it at all.

I was convinced that all the 60s/70s stars who had hits on MTV in the 80s were completely brand new, pretty much just putting out music for the first time, which was confusing because a lot of them seemed pretty old and not at all in tune with the synth pop styles of the day.

When I was a child I used to assume that people had simply stopped writing classical music years ago. I didn't realise there was such a thing as contemporary composers still writing in the same tradition.

I also thought Macy Gray was British until about a month ago, really not sure why.

As a small child I was watching a kids' tv show with a jazz band playing. At one point the trombonist had to stop and tip sand out of his horn (maybe they were playing on a beach, idk). For yeeears I thought trombones were filled with sand and that this was somehow integral to how they worked. In a music lesson at school when I was about 10 we were discussing how various instruments made their sound, and when we got to trombones I raised my hand and told the teacher about the sand.

Not my story, but my mother once told me about being a small child in Scotland, in the time before most households had TVs, but it was coming. So one day she was sitting there listening to a radio program, when her father said to her “You just watch! Someday soon there’s going to be moving pictures to go along with the sounds” and she misunderstood, took him literally and just stared the shit out of that radio for ages.

I thought Morrissey wasn't a cunt

Lock thread.

As a young boy, I couldn't work out how the TOTP singles chart was compiled; the concept of physical sales was totally foreign to me. So I concluded that it must have been done by polling all the cool and trendy people each week. Maybe they all sent postcards to Radio One.

I also thought that every pop group must be made up of best friends, who lived together and did everything together, like a family. I once convinced myself that I saw all of Middle Of The Road taking a stroll together along a canal towpath - this seemed entirely plausible.

I probably thought that video clips were a faithful representation of how stars spent their time in real life

I thought that the way rave music was represented on TOTP was how it was composed in real life,

eg; lively guys prodding keyboards and e-drums while a guy fusses with decks and a diva wails her one or 2 line vocal.

It was quite a shock to realise later that it was all made by sullen looking blokes chainsmoking while prodding at an Atari ST, and the onstage 'diva' was always their housemate miming to a nicked acapella sample.

I thought Morrissey wasn't a cunt

― pings and noodles (Noodle Vague)

I mean I always thought Morrissey was a cunt but I thought he was my cunt.

I thought that the way rave music was represented on TOTP was how it was composed in real life,

eg; lively guys prodding keyboards and e-drums while a guy fusses with decks and a diva wails her one or 2 line vocal.

I saw one of these recently and it was absolutely hilarious.

I also thought that every pop group must be made up of best friends, who lived together and did everything together

Well in Help, the Beatles all entered separate townhouse doors, but then it was revealed that the houses were all connected inside.

I vaguely remember seeing some CD insert art (Beastie Boys? Sugar Ray?) showing a drawing of an absurd fantasy lair where each band member had their own level, and there were like waterslides between the levels and a basketball court. Seemed like a pretty great way to live.

And I'm reasonably certain bands on shows like the Monkees and Josie and the Pussycats and the Bugaloos lived in big houses together, right? So it wasn't so much of a stretch, especially when you found out about the Band and the Dead, many of whom often did live together at times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWksvwqM3Ok

2) I thought rave mixtapes contained music made solely by the person who turned out to just be the dj. I also had no idea how the music was created.

I sort of thought this - I knew they were playing records most of the time, but sometimes when they would just play a short snippet of a track I thought they were just playing that live using a keyboard and drum machine as a segue into the next track, especially if it was a fairly simple line with no samples. I think having the MC freestyling stuff over the top made it seem "live"

I vaguely remember seeing some CD insert art (Beastie Boys? Sugar Ray?) showing a drawing of an absurd fantasy lair where each band member had their own level, and there were like waterslides between the levels and a basketball court. Seemed like a pretty great way to live.

Are you talking about the Space Station inside Hello Nasty?

https://live.staticflickr.com/4198/34843286476_b5f98058f0_b.jpg

I also thought every song was played live, particularly rock music. It’s very rockist to recommend an album or a band as “real music” which made me think all rock bands just went in the studio, recorded a couple of live takes all playing at the same time and picked the one they liked better. I was very impressed at some of them and couldn’t wrap my head around idk 4 musicians sounding like 10 sometimes.

Also didn’t really understand the concept of loops and sampling so thought electronic and hip hop music were also performed live with a band playing with insane precision the same thing over and over.

It’s very rockist to recommend an album or a band as “real music” which made me think all rock bands just went in the studio, recorded a couple of live takes all playing at the same time and picked the one they liked better.

I mean...before the early 1960s, that's exactly what they did. (And even after that; I have tons of Elvis compilations where he's coaching the entire band, backup singers and all, through take after take in the studio.)

Thanks, peace, man, that was it.

I mean...before the early 1960s, that's exactly what they did. (And even after that; I have tons of Elvis compilations where he's coaching the entire band, backup singers and all, through take after take in the studio.)

― but also fuck you (unperson)

Yeah! I think that’s were that attitude as rock being “more real” than other genres that were created and refined in the next decades comes from. I sort of started by listening to music in the mis 90’s and the oldest albums I owned -were given to me by “the cool uncle” and they were mostly 70’s records (led zep, pink floyd, yes, the who). Bands like Led Zep and The Who sounded “real” to me but had no idea how Pink Floyd or Yes created all those sounds live, assumed it was all the keyboard/synth dude doing them since it was the only instrument that seemed to provide endless possibilities of sound - which isn’t really that off tbh

By the way I'm pretty sure that I didn't REALLY believe that the Beastie Boys lived all together in a cool tricked-out space station. I was 27 years old when that album came out.

But it must have struck a chord in me, of all the childhood times I got lost in one of those oversized books with cutaway drawings (David Macaulay, Stephen Biesty, Richard Scarry) and of drawing my own secret lairs in my spiral notebooks.

That said: if the Beastie Boys HAD lived in an absurd fantasy space lair, that woulda been pretty fuckin cool.

As a small child I was watching a kids' tv show with a jazz band playing. At one point the trombonist had to stop and tip sand out of his horn (maybe they were playing on a beach, idk). For yeeears I thought trombones were filled with sand and that this was somehow integral to how they worked. In a music lesson at school when I was about 10 we were discussing how various instruments made their sound, and when we got to trombones I raised my hand and told the teacher about the sand.

― mahb, Thursday, September 2, 2021 3:03 AM bookmarkflaglink

this is great

Yeah, early Beatles stuff was live in the studio and ofc there still are plenty of bands that work that way. I'm pretty sure New Jersey and Permanent Vacation weren't, though. If you want to be sure you're most likely getting real musicians in real time, you can always stick to jazz and chamber music, which is not a bad policy.

Btw, Moka, Yes did recreate all the classic prog records live without backing tracks or session players, p much like you said, with banks of keyboards and effects pedals.

Xps

I think that sense of wonder of how they even designed those sounds is what really made me start obsessing about music.

this is an adult mistake but

until last year, I thought Real Life's "Send Me an Angel" was by the Scorpions. Not just because the Scorpions do have a song called "Send Me an Angel", but the vocals sounded to me like Klaus Meine.

I found out I was wrong last year after telling three people matter of factly that it was a Scorpions song.

I think even as a kid I did figure that Hysteria was done with a lot of studio processing tbf, though I still thought Rick Allen played his drum parts.

also when I was a kid I thought Floyd's "Have a Cigar" was Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train". had never heard Ozzy, and there's the line about the "gravy train" in Have a Cigar. I kept wondering why people raved about this song cos it sucked so bad.

By the way I'm pretty sure that I didn't REALLY believe that the Beastie Boys lived all together in a cool tricked-out space station. I was 27 years old when that album came out.

Look, I wasn't gonna ask! The Beasties did have G-Son studios though, in which they had a skate ramp and basketball court, iirc.

Plus lots of bands do start out living together, just not in glamourous conditions like the Monkees house.

Xpost: It sounds like I’m throwing shade at rock music for not “being real”, I was mirroring my experience with those of frogbs or peace upthread.

I didn’t really care if a song was actually being played live or not. I still don’t but I do find impressive when a musician manages to do things live that are too complex for most people (I mean, yeah it’s always inspiring to see people being the best at what they do, musicians or not) or when they find creative ways to overcome limitations.

I remembered another one:

When I first heard “Angel” by Robbie Williams on the radio, I misheard the artist as Robin Williams and 100% thought it was the actor singing it. I loved him as an actor and was seriously impressed at how good he was as a singer. Taped the song and obsessed with it until I found out it wasn’t actually Robin Williams singing it and lost plenty of its magic.

I still don’t but I do find impressive when a musician manages to do things live that are too complex for most people (I mean, yeah it’s always inspiring to see people being the best at what they do, musicians or not) or when they find creative ways to overcome limitations.

Agreed. The most extreme example of this for me was seeing Rush live and watching Geddy Lee sing and play bass while surrounded by keyboards which he'd also play (sometimes with foot pedals). Insanity.

I used to think Macy Gray was British. I'm not sure how I came to this conclusion.

gimme the breakbeats
and free my soul
I wanna get lost
in some neo-soul

I crashed into the amps and lay writhing and twitching on the floor, unable to let go of either my bass or the mic.

I'd always wondered what inspired the the couplet in "So It Goes", "He got fifty thousand watts / In a big acoustic tower". Now I know!

Ha, never made that connection before!

Neither had he, apparently

I also never knew Nick Lowe's main source of income is The Bodyguard soundtrack

<blockquote> Raven, where did you grow up that you knew sonata form before hearing any verse-chorus songs like "Jingle Bells" or "Oh Susanna"?

― Sequel to Sadness (Sund4r), Saturday, 11 September 2021 7:24 AM</blockquote>

I mean, I must have heard plenty of songs with verse/chorus before mustn't I?
I think I just didn't actually engage until a certain point, and I'd already learnt some kind of music theory.
I was naïve but I was also hella young. I was late to "pop music" and voraciously accelerated - Sting/The Police was the starting point of actual fandom I think.

<blockquote>Raven, where did you grow up that you knew sonata form before hearing any verse-chorus songs like "Jingle Bells" or "Oh Susanna"?

― Sequel to Sadness (Sund4r), Saturday, 11 September 2021 7:24 AM</blockquote>

I mean, I must have heard plenty of songs with verse/chorus before mustn't I?
I think I just didn't actually engage until a certain point, and I'd already learnt some kind of music theory.
I was naïve but I was also hella young. I was late to "pop music" and voraciously accelerated - Sting/The Police was the starting point of actual fandom I think.

Ugh forgot BBcode.

The Police were especially good at bringing out a strong contrast between verse and chorus tbf.

I remember conflating the various Van Zan(d)ts. Like, there was one who was dead, one or more who were alive. And somehow one played with Bruce Springsteen, presumably one of the alive ones.

I'm not sure at what point I heard of Townes Van Zandt, but I probably tried to fit him into the same overall Van Zystem.

I used to think that 'Trad. Arr.' on song credits was an actual person's name, or possibly a writing duo.

Or a pirate.

Led Zeppelin used to think songs that were written by 20th century musicians were 'standards'

(xp) sea shanties