Funny, since that’s one of the few Neil Young songs I actually like.
Dude, you’ve just lost an argument with yourself. No, their sound didn’t change. But it became a lot less poppy and more adventurous.
I’ll just quietly step away from your internal debate.
At my school, we called them “Bargain-basement Bruce.” 
I was positive that Journey’s Feelin’ That Way/Anytime was a collaboration between Journey and Chicago. That other guy singing with Steve Perry was so totally Peter Cetera.
He’s certainly done more complex lyrics than those on “Heart of Gold.” But that’s neither here nor there, IMHO. There are few rock/pop songs of note that have lyrics that qualify as great poetry. Some successful pop songs are mostly about the words, some are mostly about the music, and most are about a blend of music and lyrics that is much more than either would be by itself.
For me, “Heart of Gold” is an emotionally powerful song. And the fact that if I pull out the lyrics and look at them as words on a page, I’d go “is that all there is?” doesn’t change that.
When I first heard Dear God, by XTC, I thought it was a Split Enz song.
ETA: Senses Working Overtime also has a Split Enz feel to it.
Here’s one where I got to be half-wrong in two different directions.
I’d thought for years that “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves” was an Aretha Franklin song.
Then awhile back, I followed someone’s link to a live performance where Annie Lennox was doing it solo. And she owned that song. OK, I was mistaken, I thought - that must’ve been Lennox, not Aretha, that recorded this song.
Wrong again: they did the original recording together.
When I was 9 or 10, I listened to my parents’ Buffalo Springfield greatest hits LP (Retrospective) quite a few times – but I must not have listened (or paid attention) to the whole thing, because decades later I found out that that cool soul song “Kind Woman” – surely by Marvin Gaye or someone like that – was actually Buffalo Springfield (really just Richie Furay, as the band was about to break up).
Recently I put that same old LP on my parents’ turntable. I went to take a shower, and heard “Kind Woman” playing in the living room! Who the heck had switched the hi-fi to radio or something?
Emerging from the shower, I was surprised to discover that the song had been on the LP the whole time. Such a different sound for them (not that they ever had an identifiable “sound” to begin with – probably why they never made it that big, but rather epitomized the word “seminal,” along with the Yardbirds).
I can easily see both of those. In fact, when I hear “All the Young Dudes”, I try to think of what Beatles song it reminds me of. Which is it? Maybe “Carry That Weight” a bit.
My misattribution is Twilight Zone by Golden Earring, I thought it was by Fleetwood Mac. Now that I know Fleetwood Mac better the vocals aren’t a match, but the tune definitely reminds me of a Fleetwood Mac song. I could easily imagine Stevie Nicks doing backup vocals/harmonies in it.
There is a song getting radio play now called “Superbad” that I thought was Michael Jackson the first dozen times I heard it. Turns out it is a young white kid named Jesse McCartney.
People often assume Foster Sylvers’ “Misdemeanor” is the Jackson 5, with a tween-aged Michael Jackson on lead vocals.
That’s not really true either. Post-Nash Hollies material was a mix of both, actually. Some songs were considerably more poppy that the more adventurous stuff they did with Nash, while other songs explored new ground (as did just about any material from an artist whose career spanned those particular years).
I have no debate with myself at all. I just don’t care for overly simplified statements when it comes to an artist I love, especially from someone who knows less about them than I do.
And some of The Osmonds’ early stuff was rather obviously patterned on The Jackson 5, and might have been easy to mistake if you didn’t listen carefully for the former’s more white-bread approach!
I always liked that Foster Sylvers song!
Dude.
Me too (except for the part about your sister). For the longest time I thought that Tom Petty was Bob Dylan.
DChord:
:D:D
Anybody remember Chris Montez? I thought it was a woman singing for the longest time, and was shocked when I finally saw an album cover and realized I was swooning over a guy.
First time I heard Stevie Ray, I thought somebody had found new Hendrix material.
I think you can be forgiven for that. I’m pretty sure he’d have considered it a great compliment.
RTFirefly, my great respect for WordMan has brought me up short, and I want to retract and apologize for the last statement I made to you, which was both harsh and unnecessary.
I’m passionate about the music I love, and that passion sometimes causes me to get carried away.
I do believe that my general point stands, however…that the careers of long-lived acts of that era can’t be summed up in a few simplistic statements. A thorough knowledge of those careers reveals a more complex reality. The business of Nash leaving The Hollies to do more “meaningful” work with CSN(Y) is one that has always stuck in my craw, and I say this as a tremendous admirer of what Nash did while a member of The Hollies. (I understand that this was Nash’s stated rationale for the move; I’m just saying that IMHO events didn’t prove out this way.)
While I’m at it, I want to clarify the statement I made earlier in the thread about casual music fans vs. music freaks. In no way did I mean to denigrate the casual music fan or assert my superiority because I don’t suffer from the misapprehensions that have been posted in this thread. I apologize again if it came off that way.
I was just trying to say that thinking for years that a song was by one artist when it was really by another is something that’s beyond my experience. Being fooled the first time you hear a song? Absolutely. But in my case, anyway, the misapprehension was soon put right.
Apology accepted. No prob.
I must say you jumped on the parenthetical with both feet. All I had intended was to acknowledge the existence of this one exception to the clustering of Hollies hits while Nash was with the group.
ETA: Also, please remember that where I started in this discussion of the Hollies and Graham Nash was with the continuity between Hollies hits like “Bus Stop” and CSN/CSNY hits like “Marrakesh Express” and “Our House.”
I thought Kenny Loggins’ “I’m All Right” (the song from “Caddyshack”) was a Fleetwood Mac song for a long time.
That reminds me, I thought Dire Strait’s “Walk of Life” was Bruce Springsteen.