Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth For Christ Choir
LIke A Ship...(Without A Sail)
Ok, embarrassing revelation time. I have this record in my collection, filed away as an indication that I've listened to it.
Somehow I ended up with a second copy, probably due to the fact that both Light In The Attic and Numero Group have both reissued it over the years. Anway, I pulled it out to listen to, and I'd be goddamned if my immediate reaction wasn't "Wait...isn't this a Parliament song?"
As I pull at the thread further, what I've come to realize is that the title track has been played often over the years on the TMR turntable and beyond. I've heard it dozens of times, no doubt.
But I never really connected it with the Barrett LP. I thought it was George Clinton and company.
Nevertheless, the soulful vocals, the propulsive funk bass bottom and the magical spark in the air anytime you've got a youth choir and this record is IT. In addition to many other dream hypotheticals, a perfect world is one wherein there's a thousand different albums just like this, just as good. I can only imagine...
And since I've got two copies, one can be yours.
Post your best story, truthful or fiction, that explains a song you mis-attributed to the wrong artist, in good faith, because of how much they sounded alike. Except for "Lies" by the Knickerbockers sounding like the Beatles. You can't post that story because I lived that one too.
Get your words up here before midnight January 30th and the winner, as chosen by me, will get this delicious LP mailed straight to their doorstep, or failing that, PO box.
When I was young I used to always mix up the song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel, with Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark.”
I can’t really tell you why those two were so interchangeable at any given time, but it still sticks with me to this day. I can not and will not hear one of those songs and not be thinking of the other.
Mistaking a Billy Squier sing for a Led Zeppelin tune. 😔
Back in 2001 I was a young college kid working at a college radio station and we got the infamous first blast 3 song Strokes promo from Rough Trade (I think?) and it was played non-stop. Being relatively cheap and budget conscious I used to lug my computer up to the radio station to rip CDs to my hard drive from the thousands deep catalog, there wasn’t internet so any CD that went in my disc drive was generically labeled “artist – track 01” etc unless I typed it in but I was lazy about it as I was often on-air at the time. There also a few months later was a 1 or 2 song demo cdr by a band called Conner. I ripped it untitled. Then after forgetting about it and playing shuffle on my MP3’s I was certain it was a Strokes song, like dead certain so I labeled it as such while also joining Napster, Kazaa and Soulseek etc. I hate to say I falsely contributed one of those infamous files that circled the internet, I think I even put demo on it or something and I’d guess many people were thinking they’d found a lost unreleased Strokes track much like I believed I had.
Here’s the song in question. Later officially released by Conner on their debut album the next year.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FvWFjmA_oZI
Oh man. Kinda embarrassed, but we’ve all done it. In my early punk rock days I thought The Clash’s Train in Vain was Cavern Club era Beatles. Has a Lennon vibe. Oops
The record I misheard was I’ve Got The Best Of You by Jimmie Walker. I assumed it was Gary Puckett under an alias since it was written by Jerry Fuller who also wrote his big hit. I even asked Gary Puckett about it and he said it wasn’t him but one of the Walker Brothers. I later found out that Jimmie Walker wasn’t a Walker Brother but a later member of the Righteous Brothers.
In high school a friend made me a Led Zeppelin mix tape and threw in “House of Broken Love” by Great White. I was convinced it was a Zep song for years, until the internet became a thing and I realized I’d been duped.
There was this time my then-girlfriend and I were in a McDonald’s and The Beatles’ “Got to Get You Into My Life” was playing…my girlfriend turned up her nose and said, “I like the original version better.”
Not wanting to be a jerk, I asked, “Who did the original version?”
She responded, “Earth, Wind & Fire.” She thought their version from the Sgt Pepper film was the original version and didn’t realize THEIR version was a Beatles cover.
It wasn’t until I was in high school that I realized my earliest musical memories were a lie. My neighbor had a Beatles record that I would go over to listen to almost every day. I don’t think I was even five years old yet. Probably tired of me knocking on the door to listen to it, she finally gave it to me. I listened to “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” “She Loves You,” and the other staples more times than I could try to count. As I got older, I remember also sitting through some instrumentals that I didn’t hear in other Beatles work as I got older. That made me wonder if she gave me a rare Beatles record that had some instrumentals they didn’t publish in future pressings. I got super excited and went back looking for the record. I found it, and it was actually a Beatles imitation group called The Bearcuts. I had proudly told everyone that my earliest introduction to music was the Beatles, and it was actually just covers by imitators. I was slightly devastated to have been the victim of such chicanery. Just recently found the album again and listened to it. After hearing it again, I was finally able to make my peace with the Bearcuts.
This story isnt a misidentified song by a different artist, but rather a misidentified artist thats a different artist.
It wasn’t until very recently (like 4 months ago, recently) that I learned Nicki Minaj and Cardi-B were 2 different people. I was having a conversation with my 14 year old daughter about stage names/acting names that celebrities have used. One of my examples ended with “… you know, like how Nicki Minaj uses her real name when she’s doing official showbiz things like a judge on American Idol but uses her stage name Cardi-B when she’s performing music.”
The look of horror and disapointment in my daughter’s face was equal to how I feel right now disclosing to the masses that I’m a fkn boomer
Way back in 1975 when KISS were a new band, I remember hearing Foghat’s “Slow Ride” on the radio and thinking to myself it was KISS. I was so convinced that I walked to my local record store asking them if the had “Slow Ride” by KISS.
I was just a kid, only 11 at the time, so please forgive my silly mistake. :D