bands and how they got their names... (1 Viewer)

[Marvin]

Duran Duran - a character from Barbarella

Oh, and I thought it was the name of their favorite boxer, as opposed to, say, Hagler Hagler or Ali Ali.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Oh, and I thought it was the name of their favorite boxer, as opposed to, say, Hagler Hagler or Ali Ali.

No, but Liston Liston really RAWKED!

 

[Matt Birchall]

3.4 What does the name Pearl Jam come from?
It’s not known for sure. A few theories:

Vedder's grandmother's name was Pearl and she was married to a Native American that influenced her cooking style. She had a recipe for preserves that included a Native American hallucinogenic substance (Peyote), hence, Pearl Jam. This is widely thought of as BS that Ed told to Rolling Stone.

Another theory is that the members thought it would be funny to have frat boys wearing t-shirts that had the slang for, uh, a male bodily fluid on them.

The one we believe is this one, straight from Ed:

"I remember throwing words and meanings around for band names,..... I was writing songs daily and they seemed more important than the name of the band,.... I didn't grasp at the time how representative it may become,....not to mention we were just making a little record that few people would ever hear,......

so the words came, 2,... one of which was Pearl. The name of my great grandmother,..... married to a contortionist...... He used to fit himself into a suitcase.... One in a long line of peculiar individuals.

Pearl is also a surfing term when you go headfirst and eat it on the face of a wave....

Janis Joplins greatest record was called Pearl,..... And of course, Earl the Pearl Monroe who shared the court with Phil Jackson I believe,.... (I often tell people that it was Phils initials that led us to our name..... ) I thought that was much better than the rumor that Pearl Jam was some sort of slang for "ejaculated liquid"..... harsh,.....

No,..... I feel that the best justification for the name is in reference to the pearl itself,... and the natural process from which a pearl comes from,...... Basically, taking excrement or waste and turning it into something beautiful,...... This is how our band began,..... taking emotions that we wrestled with personally and letting them evolve into songs,..... In this way the songs became vehicles in which to deal with it all,..... Add the volume of loud instruments, amplified vocals,..... moving chord changes,.... And it wasn’t just shit anymore,.... It was kind of beautiful,.... powerful,,...... UNCULTURED! As Johnny Rotten would say later,

Anger is an Energy...... And Shit can be Beautiful. the proof is in the pearl."

 

[Keith Paynter]

Veruca Salt - character from Charlie & The Choclate Factory/Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Barenaked Ladies - One of the classic billboard 'joke' names (like 'Free Beer'), also in the context of a young person's perspective of the nude female form - got their biggest early publicity from the Mayor of Toronto cancelling their gig at City Hall because of the name.

 

[John Watson]

the mayors of Toronto are the joke!

Steppenwolf - from the Hesse character

I know what Talking Heads are Martin, very similar to meat puppets, what I wondered was why they called themselves that, if there is any reason?

and why would anyone call themselves 9" Nails. Were they crucified by the critics?

Pearl Jam - very interesting Matt. I always put the erotic connotation on the name

Most group names today are meaningless Garbage. Whoops, that ones already taken, hehe

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I always thought 9 inch nails referred to the custom of Chinese intellectuals to never trim their nails on the little fingers: proof that they did no manual labor.

 

[John Watson]

Interesting, would make it difficult to play guitar tho

 

[Mark Murphy]

I had always heard that Godsmack got their name from the Alice In Chains song. Also, didn't they start out an AIC cover band?

They claim they got the name as some Karma payback that resulted in one of the members getting a coldsore. I met them back in their bar room days and Sully could have passed for Layne Staley and they did cover some AIC as well some original stuff. I assumed that they took the name Godsmack as a tribute to AIC, seeing as its a song on Dirt.

 

[MikeH1]

got their biggest early publicity from the Mayor of Toronto cancelling their gig at City Hall because of the name.

I remember that. I believe it was the fall of 1991 and I'm not sure what album(s) they had out at that point, but they did have the great cover of Bruce Cockburns Lover's in a dangerous time.

I saw them in a interview and they said they got their name from when a boy see's his first "barenaked lady".

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Radiohead - from the name of a Talking Heads song.

 

[John Watson]

If that is the case, will they do an album called BNL UNPUGGED?

Tears for Fears - named for some psycho-babble cult

Guess Who - when this Canadian group in its early days, released their version of "Shakin' All Over", there was buzz about it being a Beatles record

Was Lead Zeppelin perhaps also inspired by Iron Butterfly?

Vanilla Fudge - pretentious sludge (I just made that up
)

 

[Craig: Mclaren]

Spandau Ballet (Spandau something was a German prison, ballet cause it sounded posh! )

Didn't The Beatles get their name from that Marlon Brando film shown in the Anthology. The one about the bikers.

 

[chris_clem]

Most group names today are meaningless Garbage. Whoops, that ones already taken, hehe

Thanks for the reminder!

Garbage- On MTV Shirly Manson said that the sound that they had was a mix of many different samples and effects that when you listen to it sounds just like garbage

 

[Tony-B]

Garbage- On MTV Shirly Manson said that the sound that they had was a mix of many different samples and effects that when you listen to it sounds just like garbage

I kinda like Garbage, but that comment is great.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Dido -- real name Dido Cloud Florian de Bouneville Armstrong (or something like that and I can't vouch for the spelling). Parents named her after a number of saints. So it's not a typo...

Spandau -- indeed a German prison, where Adolf's right-hand man Rudolf Hess, who fled to UK in 1944, lived out the rest of his life after being sentenced to life imprisonment. Towards the end, he was the sole occupant. IIRC, "Spandau Ballet" was graffiti which the band had seen in a washroom...

Were U2 in fact named after the US spyplane?

 

[MartinTeller]

Yes.

 

[Ted Lee]

are you sure about the U2 origin? i thought it could also have been some sort of government form? or that the band has never clearly said where it came from?

not sure...

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Talking Heads

From an interview in TV Guide according to Box Set materials.

By the way, the new remasters bury my old Heads redbooks. The new alternative version of "New Feeling" is incredible.

 

[John Watson]

TINY TIM Tim and URIAH HEEP are straight out of Charles Dickens.

Any chance STEELY DAN was also taken because it rhymed with STEEL-EYE SPAN ?

Glad to hear U2 wasn't just based on a Prince song.

So PARLIAMENT - what the hell was that about?

But the real mystery has got to be - where did THE BAND get that name from?

 

[MartinTeller]

Not sure exactly, but they were originally a doo-wop band called The Parliaments... which in my estimation was probably just chosen because it sounded kinda cool and classy.