I downloaded this track off the Internet.

It’s a bootleg.

It says it’s “Prince with Miles Davis – Live at Paisley Park.”

Now, it’s definitely Prince. And it’s definitely live. But where’s Miles Davis? The hook in the beginning of the track is probably a keyboard, and the horn scat at the end is a tenor sax, not a trumpet.

I complained here once about downloading Al Green songs, only to discover that out of three tracks, not one of them was the Reverend Al Green. Two were Bill Withers, and one was some horrid community college choir covering a Gladys Knight & The Pips tune (which really freaked me out when it came up on my iPod one evening)!

We’re all familiar with memes – and how they grow. I just can’t help wondering what the impact of badly tagged MP3s will have on people’s understanding of music in general. Imagine: what if you had an MP3 on your computer that you thought was Miles Davis playing with Prince, and you believed that it was exactly that for years? I mean, in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter, but the idea of people walking around thinking Bill Withers is Al Green drives me nuts. Seriously. It’s just… wrong.

Believe you me: my freakin’ ID3 tags are CORRECT. ALL THE TIME.
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