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MikeEnRegalia View Drop Down
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Points: 21203 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 21 2005 at 15:24

Here's another page that has more prog rock band names than the one I posted earlier:

http://www.heathenworld.com/bandname/

Here's some interesting excerpts:

CAN - This was a great German band from the 70's.  Keyboard player Irmin Schmidt once defined CAN as an acronym for "Communist, Anarchism, Nihilism" 

GENTLE GIANT - Pantagruel and Panurge were two "gentle giants" in the satiric writing of Francois Rabelais.  Many of the band's songs are loosely based on his writings.

MOTHERS OF INVENTION - originally just called the Mothers (polite for Motherf**kers) - their label asked them to add "of Invention".

THE NICE - Keith Emerson was in this band before Emerson Lake & Palmer.  The band name comes from a SMALL FACES song about amphetamines called "Here Comes the Nice"

PINK FLOYD - Named after Georgia blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. They almost named themselves "Anderson Council" and "Megadeath".

RADIOHEAD - Named after a TALKING HEADS song called Radio Head.

RUSH - Two stories:  1- They named themselves after a product called "Rush" that was popular in head shops in the 70's.  "Rush" was similar to "poppers" and gave a quick head rush.  2- They were rushing to think up a name before their first gig, and John Rusty's older brother yelled, "Why don't you call your band RUSH?".  -- A silly Christian rumor says the band name means "Ruled Under Satan's Hand".

STEELY DAN - A steel dildo in the 1964 William Burroughs novel NAKED LUNCH.  According to the book:  an evil German bulldyke prostitute crushed the first STEELY DAN using her pussy, and the second STEELY DAN is still in use.

 
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BaldFriede View Drop Down
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Points: 10261 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 21 2005 at 15:24

Originally posted by BleedingGum BleedingGum wrote:

Originally posted by BaldFriede BaldFriede wrote:

Originally posted by BleedingGum BleedingGum wrote:

DURAN DURAN was taken from the movie Jane Fonda's Barbarella. I think it was the robot's name [?]

DJAM KARET is taken from Indonesian word, means: Rubber Time

GENESIS was taken from the Bible

YES was taken from English Dictionary




Genesis wanted to name themselves "Revelation" first, but another band had already taken that name (whatever became of them???). Hence their first album title.
The angel in Barbarella was named "Duran Duran", if I remember right.

You might be right on that angel name. I just do not recall it clearly.

Wasn't sure myself and looked it up, and I was wrong. See my corrected post.



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BleedingGum View Drop Down
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Points: 257 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 21 2005 at 15:16
Originally posted by BaldFriede BaldFriede wrote:

Originally posted by BleedingGum BleedingGum wrote:

DURAN DURAN was taken from the movie Jane Fonda's Barbarella. I think it was the robot's name [?]

DJAM KARET is taken from Indonesian word, means: Rubber Time

GENESIS was taken from the Bible

YES was taken from English Dictionary




Genesis wanted to name themselves "Revelation" first, but another band had already taken that name (whatever became of them???). Hence their first album title.
The angel in Barbarella was named "Duran Duran", if I remember right.

You might be right on that angel name. I just do not recall it clearly.
...this is called....BleedingGum ... !
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Points: 1422 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 21 2005 at 15:09

Dream Theater was taken from a book by jackie collins based on a teenage girl who gets lost in the woods near her home and has to survive on her dreams alone by pretending that her hands are in fact puppets on a broadway stage.

fits their music perfectly doesn't it!
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Points: 21203 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 21 2005 at 15:09

ZZ Top was chosen because they wanted to be the last entry in any alphabetical list (whyever on would want that I don't know).

I was sure that there's a website that lists band name origins ... and Google found it for me:

http://www.amiright.com/names/bandnameorigins.shtml

 
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BaldFriede View Drop Down
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Points: 10261 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 21 2005 at 15:08
Originally posted by BleedingGum BleedingGum wrote:

DURAN DURAN was taken from the movie Jane Fonda's Barbarella. I think it was the robot's name [?]

DJAM KARET is taken from Indonesian word, means: Rubber Time

GENESIS was taken from the Bible

YES was taken from English Dictionary




Genesis wanted to name themselves "Revelation" first, but another band had already taken that name (whatever became of them???). Hence their first album title.
The mad scientist in Barbarella was named "Duran Duran"


Edited by BaldFriede


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BleedingGum View Drop Down
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Points: 257 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 21 2005 at 15:02
DURAN DURAN was taken from the movie Jane Fonda's Barbarella. I think it was the robot's name [?]

DJAM KARET is taken from Indonesian word, means: Rubber Time

GENESIS was taken from the Bible

YES was taken from English Dictionary


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Points: 143 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 21 2005 at 14:55
Originally posted by Arsillus Arsillus wrote:

If I remember correctly, Rush was about to play at some coffee place (I dunno...) and they still didn't have a name. They were in the basement and some guy named them Rush.


Rush = Ruled Under Satan's Hand 


The name 'Marillion' comes from the famous book The Silmarillion written by J. R. R. Tolkien.
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Points: 7374 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 21 2005 at 14:51
If I remember correctly, Rush was about to play at some coffee place (I dunno...) and they still didn't have a name. They were in the basement and some guy named them Rush.
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Points: 814 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 21 2005 at 14:44
Procol Harum,as the "legend" says, was allegedly the name of a cat, of Guy Stevens` cat. Guy Stevens was a person who worked for Island Records, and it seems that he suggested the name to Gary Brooker and Keith Reid, the composers of the majority of the songs of the Procol Harum band. It seems that Procol Harum also means in Latin "Beyond these things", but it is badly spelled. For more information: www.procolharum.com
Avatar: Photo of Solar Eclipse, Mexico City, July 1991. A great experience to see. Maybe once in a lifetime.
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Points: 1383 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 21 2005 at 12:49

"Steely Dan" is from a Burrough's "Naked Lunch" (I think it's referring to a dildo) but that's pretty common knowledge.
"The red polygon's only desire / is to get to the blue triangle."
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Points: 10261 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 21 2005 at 12:42

Have you ever wondered where certain band names come from? Some band names are really strange. What is behind them?

I'll give a few examples (I could give more but want some in reserve):

Soft Machine are named after a novel by William Burroughs.
Matching Mole are a rip-off of Soft Machine, namewise. "Soft Machine" means "Machine Moll" in France, and they just anglicised the name. (Sounds like an idea after the 5th or 6th joint).
Hatfield and the North had always been a puzzle for me, until one day I drove from Dover to Leeds to attend a chess tournament and suddenly came across a road sign saying "Hatfield and the North". (They must have been 2 or 3 joints further ahead than Matching Mole).

Ok, those are some examples for you to spice your imagination. Where do other band names come from?


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