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?

"Steely Dan" is from a Burrough's "Naked Lunch" (I think it's referring to a dildo) but that's pretty common knowledge.

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

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!

BleedingGum wrote: BaldFriede wrote: 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.

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

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

Here's some interesting excerpts:

http://www.spoonrecords.com/ - 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"

http://www.pinkfloyd.com/ - PINK FLOYD - Named after Georgia blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. They almost named themselves "Anderson Council" and "Megadeath".

http://www.steelydan.com/ - STEELY DAN - A steel dildo in the 1964 http://www.heathenworld.com/bandname/a-e.html#burroughs - 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.

 

-------------
https://awesomeprog.com/users/Mike" rel="nofollow">Recently listened to:

Here's an improved version for the Mothers:

MOTHERS OF INVENTION - Frank Zappa's highly experimental band was originally just called the Mothers, their record label asked them to change it (because it could be taken as an obscenity) and out of necessity they added "of Invention" since "Necessity is the mother of invention."

There was a band in the early eighties called Naked Lunch which proves that Burroughs provided sources for band names after the Prog Era,

Jefferson Airplane are named after a fictious blues musician called Blind Dog Jefferson Airplane..

Somebody mentioned Talking Heads, but what about the Brian Eno song called "Kings Lead Hat" which is an anagram of Talking Heads? On the new wave era, Joy Division were named after prostitution rings in WWII concentration camps, while New Order is a dodgy name when you think of it...

And here's another idea on ZZ Top:

BaldFriede wrote: 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"

It was the other way: the band wanted to be called "Genesis" (a name given by Jonathan King, their producer), but they discovered that there was a band from the U.S. called "Genesis", which released an album in Mercury Records in 1968 (they also had a female lead singer). So, they changed to "Revelation" for a short time, so the name of their first album was "From Genesis to Revelation". This is mentioned in the original inner sleeve notes of this album. See http://www.genesismuseum.com/ - http://www.genesismuseum.com/  , click on the "Vynil" section link, then click on the "From Genesis to Revelation" link.

Lyzarrd wrote: 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. Actually no it wasn't. If you check DTFAQ.com it mentions that Mike's father told them to use the name after a recently torn down theater with the name that was a bit of an icon to them. Also, there original name was Majesty but was changed when another band requested them to stop using it since they had already beaten them to it.

sorry dude, you are totally wrong there, it was definitely taken from a jackie collins novel - Uncle Portnoy told me.

Knights In Satan's Service  

Angel Child/Devil Child

spectral wrote: Lyzarrd wrote: 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. Actually no it wasn't. If you check DTFAQ.com it mentions that Mike's father told them to use the name after a recently torn down theater with the name that was a bit of an icon to them. Also, there original name was Majesty but was changed when another band requested them to stop using it since they had already beaten them to it. sorry dude, you are totally wrong there, it was definitely taken from a jackie collins novel - Uncle Portnoy told me.

You should tell your uncle to change the info on his website then

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.

I guess they were in a RUSH to find a name

Hatfield and The North - the name comes from a traffic sign indicating the motorway goes on to Hatfield and the north (country). I think this is correct.

riversdancing wrote: 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.

KISS

K knights I in S Satans S service

Apparently the name Hawkwind came from Nik Turners tendancy to clear his throat all the time, in a coarse, mucus producing manner (hawking) and his frequent breaking of wind. I dont think he was even in the band at the time, just a hanger on.

Citanul wrote: Shadow Gallery - From the Alan Moore comic/graphic novel V For Vendetta

You mean the V in Room V? I thought it was simply because it was their fifth album.

Citanul wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote: Citanul wrote: Shadow Gallery - From the Alan Moore comic/graphic novel V For Vendetta You mean the V in Room V? I thought it was simply because it was their fifth album. Sorry about that, maybe I should have been a little clearer.  The comic book is called V For Vendetta, and has a mention of a place called the Shadow Gallery, which is where the name comes from.

Ah, I see ...

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 Thanks for letting about their name! GENESIS was taken from the Bible But they were called Revelation first........... YES was taken from English Dictionary None of the band could spell affrimertiver, afirmytiv,  or waht ever....................

Hatfield & The North was indeed named after the first roadsign going north on the M1 motorway, just after you  come off the North Circular Road.

Pink Floyd after two obscure but favourite blues singers of the original band.

Rolling Stones from a Muddy Water tune

But why the Walker Brothers?????

BaldFriede wrote: BleedingGum wrote: GENESIS was taken from the Bible 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"

Nope Friedre, That wasn't the case of Genesis, even when it was similar:

Peter Gabriel  took a tape to a former student of Charterhouse School (Jonathon King), he liked the music and asked Peter for a band name and he said they hadn't decided yet (Genesis a History), so King decided to name the band Genesis, but the name was already taken by a psychedelic Prog' band from Los Angeles who released a very good album named "In the Beginning"

So Jonathon King decided not to use an artistic name in the first album and only named it "From Genesis to the Revelation" (The original art cover has no reference to a band), so the album was lumped into the religious stuff and nobody bought it.

After a few months Genesis USA disbanded and left the name, so Genesis UK took it.

Another names:

Uriah Heep: A character from Charles Dickens novel David Copperfieold, a guy who had a pronunciation problem and often said he was Very Eavy and Very Umble, a phrase that was used as the band's debut album.

Jethro Tull: Even when many people believes it's Ian's name, the one and only Jethro Tull invented the mechanical seed drill in 1701.

AC/DC: Means in fact After Christ, Devil Comes and not Anthi Christ, Devil Child.

STYX: According to the Divine Comedy by Dante, Styx is a swamp in hell, but according to The Odissey is the only river in hell.....Anyway it has relation with hell.

Vangelis: After deciding that Evengelios Odiseus Papathanatious was not a commercial name, he changed it for the simpler Vangelis.

Pavlov's Dog: A Russian Physiologist named Ivan Petrovich Pavlov conducted a series of experiments with dogs in the turn of the XX Century, given them fopod after riging a bell, after a while his dogs started to salivate at the sound of the bell, that's why the name of their second album.

Pendragon: According to British Mythology it's the frst Royal Dinasty of England, started with Uther Pendragon and ended with his bastard son Arthur Pendragon, known as King Arthur.

King Crimson: "King Crimson" was coined by Pete Sinfield as a poetic form  for  Beelzebub, the angel of music.

Ivàn

About Genesis ("From Genesis To Revelation" lyric sheet and text, which I printed from http://www.genesismuseum.com - www.genesismuseum.com for my personal "archives") :

"The group started as Genesis, biblical centuries ago. But fate intervened, other groups became Genesis and who were we to fight. So we changed our name in America to Revelation. Moments later up came another Revelation. Now we are the group without a name, but we have a record and we want to give it to you, name or not.

It was a hard sound to get together, conceived over a period of months, with rainbows of music colour filtering through the glass partition on to the sliding faders and echo knobs, searching for the pot of gold.

From Genesis to Revelation. Sporadic moments in between;" ....etc.

I tried to paste the link to that website, but in this moment  unfortunately it is not available. Maybe the webmaster is updating it. It is a very good website, IMO.

----------------------- -       -----------------------

"But....a few minutes later....the website is available again, and this is the link:

http://www.genesismuseum.com/vinyl/fgtr.htm - http://www.genesismuseum.com/vinyl/fgtr.htm    "

Good link Guillermo (some words are part from a letter of Genesis to King), it's interesting how the versions of Genesis and Jonathon King differ.

According to King he's the one who baptized the band (He says it in Genesis a History documental), and according to Genesis, they had the name already.

King appears in the documental and personally claims he asked Peter for the band's name and Peter answered "We have't got a  a name yet", so he decided to throw the first album without a band name, "a mistake I will never repeat" (he also said that).

But it's also interesting to find both agree in the point that From Genesis to the Revelation was released by a band with no name.

I believe it's the only case in history.

Ivàn

ivan_2068 wrote: Good link Guillermo (some words are part from a letter of Genesis to King), it's interesting how the versions of Genesis and Jonathon King differ. According to King he's the one who baptized the band (He says it in Genesis a History documental), and according to Genesis, they had the name already. King appears in the documental and personally claims he asked Peter for the band's name and Peter answered "We have't got a  a name yet", so he decided to throw the first album without a band name, "a mistake I will never repeat" (he also said that). But it's also interesting to find both agree in the point that From Genesis to the Revelation was released by a band with no name. I believe it's the only case in history. Ivàn

Yes, Iván. It`s incredible that King released an album of a band without name and that he thought that the album was going to have success anyway! I know (because I saw the "History" video) that he had a hit single (called "Everyone`s gone to the moon" or something like that) and maybe some albums too (I don`t remember well). So, he wasn`t without experience about the music business. I think that years later he learned from his "mistake", and since then he has licensed the album to many record labels, so in the market there are a lot of different versions of this album, as "the Genesis Museum" shows. In the Genesis Forum, I realized that he is not very well appreciated by Genesis` fans. In fact, many of them don`t like his personality, calling him "egocentric", and some of them say that he was booed in the "Six of the Best" 1982 reunion concert, when he introduced Genesis. So, now it is not a surprise for me that this man says that he gave the name to Genesis. He is or was  a very powerful man in the music industry in England. I think that he also was manager of 10cc. (he also says that he gave them the name of the band but I don`t know if this is true!), and he has or had a label called "UK" and 10cc. released some albums in that label. He also was recently in jail for some crimes which I don`t like to mention here, but he was released from jail 3 years after being sentenced, and he wasn`t in jail for the 7 years he originally received in the sentence. Like Michael Jackson and some politicians, he  is also free!

In late 1992, I was playing in a band with old friends and with my brother who is a guitarist. We played for some months only for fun really, and we only played covers. We also had an old friend who played in another band with us in 1985, and he was playing in a Bar with another band, so he invited us to play some songs in several occassions in that Bar.The first time we played there, we realized that we didn`t have a name for the band, so our lead singer introduced us as "Los Incógnitos" ("The Incognitos") as a last idea he had for the name of the band!

Where do people get half this tripe from? Godbotherers Anonymous perhaps. AC/DC came from the bottom of a sewing machine in Ma Young's livingroom.

As a resident crusty I'd like to enlighten the world - a tansad is a brand of seat for antique motorcycles.

ivan_2068 wrote: Jethro Tull: Even when many people believes it's Ian's name, the one and only Jethro Tull invented the mechanical seed drill in 1701.

There was another Ian Anderson already established in the UK folk scene, when JT was formed, so maybe that association of the JT name and their front man, was to avoid confusion at the beginning?????

The Strawbs as a shortened form of the Strawberry Hill Boys or Mob (Strawberry Hill is part of the Richmond/Twickenham area in west London - although Newbury town in Berkshire also has a Strawberry Hill)

Fairport Convention, after one band member's parent's house name where the band convened to practice.

The Doors from Aldous Huxley's Doors Of Perception book - British author Huxley moved to California and spent his last years there, indulging and writing about the early drug culture. It was said that he deliberately ingested LSD when he knew he had only a few hours left to live.

Anybody help with Wynder K Frog, the name taken by Mick 'Blue' Weaver for late 60's albums of Hammond organ covers of hits, before he was part of Strawbs, Taj Mahal's Phantom Blues Band, etc.?

Captain Beefheart

I recall there was an explanation for this in Frank Zappa's biography. "Captains" girlfriend was visiting Capt. during the time he still lived with his parents. His father made some remarks about his genitals to this girl, "Ahh, it's big as cow's beefheart!" Haha.

What was the guys real name after all? He's familiar to me mostly from Zappas "Rats" LP.

daeve69 wrote: Captain Beefheart's real name is Don Van Vliet, you can learn more at...  http://www.beefheart.com/ - http://www.beefheart.com/ .

According to Mike Barnes' excellent biog, Captain Beefheart's name was originally Don Vliet, the 'van' appeared just after the band turned pro.

ivan_2068 wrote: Uriah Heep: A character from Charles Dickens novel David Copperfieold, a guy who had a pronunciation problem and often said he was Very Eavy and Very Umble, a phrase that was used as the band's debut album.

Almost right, Uriah Heep never ever said "Veyr 'eavy" though, just "Very 'umble"

ivan_2068 wrote: AC/DC: Means in fact After Christ, Devil Comes and not Anthi Christ, Devil Child.

Somehow I doubt this one, surely its to do with electrical current?

Citanul wrote: Dick Heath wrote: ivan_2068 wrote: Jethro Tull: Even when many people believes it's Ian's name, the one and only Jethro Tull invented the mechanical seed drill in 1701.   There was another Ian Anderson already established in the UK folk scene, when JT was formed, so maybe that association of the JT name and their front man, was to avoid confusion at the beginning????? I stand to be corrected, but as I understand it when Tull were starting out, they weren't very good.  Therefore in order to get gigs they went through a lot of name changes so that people wouldn't realise it was the same band.  Eventually they did get asked to perform again.  At that time their name was Jethro Tull, and so they were stuck with it.

They first used the name Jethro TOE

Funny thing, not sure though if this was a mistake of the label.

Iván