Incredibly wrong answers to "Who is this artist?"

[Derek Trucks]

Have you ever had a time where you've said to a friend "Guess who this song is by" and they proceed to give a sincere but ridiculous & hilarious answer?

I realised I needed to get some new friends when I played a mate (who isn't really up with his music) Family Affair by Sly & TFS.  He thought about it for a few seconds and then in all seriousness said...Richard Marx.  Can anyone explain his thought process there?

[TotalNightmare]

I thought Hanson's Mmm Bop was by Amy Grant when i first heard it.

[Jemble Fred]

I still think the Scissor Sisters sound like Robbie Williams. The 'Take Yo Momma Out' one especially.

[cilamc]

I'd love to think your friend was taking the piss there.

His response seems to say that the whole notion of playing (and expecting the listener to guess the identity of) someone a hip and cred track like "Family Affair", under the cloak of some kind of anthropology of popular culture highlights the bias towards the supposedly "authentic" (i.e. Sly Stone) in discourses on popular culture. The whole project is based on either an expectancy that the guesser will be wrong and betray an ignorance of IMPORTANTmusic or a curiosity to see how hip and groovy the subject of the game's musical knowledge is. In pithily replying Richard Marx, one at once says "I am familiar with Richard Marx", "Richard Marx is (in)comparable with Sly Stone", "the game of guessing supposedly classic songs in inherently snobbish".

I slagged off The Wire here once and met with some incredulity from one or two posters here. But I'd love if someone being interviewed for that section of the magazine replied "Is it Richard Marx?" in response to being played Einsturzende Neubaten or something. Just to show them.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I still think the Scissor Sisters sound like Robbie Williams. The 'Take Yo Momma Out' one especially.

They have one that sounds like 'Faith' by George Michael too, it's pretty much identical bar the vocals.
Another one of theirs sounds like 70s Elton John
I can't stand them.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

A lot of what they do sounds like 70s Elton John. But then in the 70s he sounded like a lot of 60s soul musicians.

The other day, I listened to an old tape of Elton John's Ice on Fire by accident. I was expecting it to be really rather poor, but was alarmed to find that it seemed far better than I had remembered it to be.

The opening track- This Town is completely Scissor Sisters; in fact had the track been on their debut album, I doubt anyone would have noticed that it's not them.

[Bigflood]

I know it's not really the same the same thing, but whenever I'm at home, my mum keeps trying to connect with me by pretending to know who the artist on the radio is.  I love my mum, and she doesn't have to try to impress me, but she keeps saying stuff like "ooh, is this radiohead?" whenever some relatively new-sounding band comes on Radio Cumbria.  I know she's only trying to connect with me, but that's not what parents are for, is it?

[micanio]

I was convinced for years that "Come Up and See Me" By Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel was by T Rex. Have no idea why....

[phes]

I was convinced for some time that 'Guns of Brixton' was written by Paul Simon, having mis-read the sleave notes.

[Derek Trucks]

Based on a couple of listens of Big Seven, I assumed that Judge Dread was a Jamaican.

[Johnny Yesno]

I slagged off The Wire here once and met with some incredulity from one or two posters here. But I'd love if someone being interviewed for that section of the magazine replied "Is it Richard Marx?" in response to being played Einsturzende Neubaten or something. Just to show them.

As the "incredulous" posters said at the time, Invisible Jukebox is tailored to the interests of the artist being quizzed, so it's not quite the same thing as picking music out of the blue. It really is just an excuse to talk about the artist's favourite music (Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra, usually!).

[Bigflood]

Based on a couple of listens of Big Seven, I assumed that Judge Dread was a Jamaican.

I've only just this minute realised he wasn't.  I always assumed that even though he was white he came from somewhere around Jamaica.  He's still a dirty get though.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

The other day, I listened to an old tape of Elton John's Ice on Fire by accident.

Yeah, I hate it when that happens.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

I once played a friend 'Baby Snakes' by Frank Zappa and he said 'Is this ELO?'.

[the hum]

Thought for a long time for some reason that "Trampoline" by Julian Cope was in fact a Midnight Oil tune.

[Boss Mew]

I got Goldfrapp confused with Moloko
Or maybe it was the other way around
Either way I like them both

[Pepotamo1985]

The next person who says "God, I love Donovan"/"Is this Donovan?" when I put on a Nick Drake album is going to get it.

[Derek Trucks]

Great answers - I got another one, I can't have been the only person in the world to have thought America's A Horse with No Name was Neil Young.

[DJ One Record]

My auntie thought that Terrorvision's late 90s smash "Tequila" was actually by Engelbert Humperdinck.

[TJ]

I once taped a Lieutenant Pigeon album for someone who is now in a famous indie band whom I won't name, and told him it was by some members of The Magic Band (as in Captain Beefheart). I'm sorry to say he fell for it.

[DJ One Record]

D'you think it would sabotage his career for people to know this guy is incapable of telling Lieutenant Pigeon from Captain Beefheart then?

[Suttonpubcrawl]

Definitely. How could anyone, let alone a professional musician, recover from a revelation of such mindblowing ignorance?