What it the provenance of "Thee" in Garage Rock band names?

.. and for that matter, who were the first to use it?

 

I don't know thee answer....

I have Thee Midniters from 1966 in my collection from a Teenage Shutdown comp as possibly my earliest "Thee" band

also just found Thee Sixpence (later to become Strawberry Alarm Clock) active in '66, too.

 

I think Thee Midnighters used the extra "e" to distinguish themselves from The Midnighters (with Hank Ballard).

 

True and I think they were actually Thee Midniters without the "gh" according to wiki.

"Thee Midniters adopted the unusual "Thee" to avoid the possibility of a legal challenge from the established R&B group of a somewhat earlier era, Hank Ballard & The Midnighters.[1] Thee Midniters' popularity and influence was such that a number of Eastside bands of the time adopted the "Thee" moniker, including Eddie Serrano and Thee Enchantments."

 

a quick search at Ugly Things comes up with a band just called Thee, that were from Hampstead England in 1965 and possibly earlier.

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002357.html

 

I don't know but Thee Oh Sees are awesome and carry on the tradition!

 

http://garagepunk.ning.com/forum/to...833623:Comment:947153&x=1#833623Comment947153

This thread says that Thee Midniters, a Chicano band in LA, used Thee as it was popular with gangs in their part of town. It's worth reading through and seems very plausible.

 

Another early Thee band:

http://pnwbands.com/theealaddins.html

Now maybe they had heard of Thee Midniters but that might be a stretch, as I can find no Thee Midniters release before '65 and these guys say they started before then. Maybe they had seen them tour...

 

Found a band called Thee Noblemen that started as The Silvertones and then The Noblemen in 1963. They changed their names somewhere in 1963-1964.

 

Wow really great question and thread.

 

The Jades were not hip with thee times.

 

story checks out

 

I just attempted an email to a former member of Thee Aladdins, so maybe we can hear where they came up with their Thee.

I've also been scouring the internet for maybe a movie that had a gang with Thee in their names in the late 50's or early 60's, as I imagine that could've been a source, but I've had no luck.

So Thee Midniters' "Land of 100 Dances" was released in 1964. This has to be it!

http://books.google.com/books?id=Oc...#v=onepage&q=thee midniters tour 1964&f=false

 

1000 Dances of course...

 

is that the lou reed related pickwick records 'the jades' ?

cheers,
rob

 

No idea, I found the poster on a Chicano rock website with tones of posters from LA in the 60's.

 

Hello!

Thee Oh Sees are my favorite music discovery this year. I love the energy and sound.

Robert

 

What about Thee Thee?

 

Definitely, not Lou Reed's Jades.
http://whitedoowopcollector.blogspot.com/2009/05/jadesso-blue.html

and I doubt it was any of those Jades from TX either. I think there was a female led Jades it might've been. With all of the bands named The Jades, it's a wonder I can't find any Thee Jades.

 

Playgirl by Thee Prophets got a fair bit of airplay around here in 1969.

 

I was wondering about this the other day when seemingly every other modern band name coming up on the Underground Garage had 'Thee' in it.

 

May I post a hypothesis? Completely unfounded?

Here goes, this pertains to the pronunciation of the word "the", of which there are two iterations: thē and thuh (imagine the shwah e for thuh, any linguists out there).

So when an object epitomizes the subject in a sentence, verbally, and in English, the speaker often emphasizes this fact with a long E sound in "the."

Imagine a countdown on the radio, DJ is announcing the number one song of the week and to give it some spice, she says "here it is, thē number one song this week..."

So I think this was a way for bands to build that hype into their name?... Anyone? Any takers? It's either that or a copyright/trademark issue, Bc the first time I remeber this was the headcoats/thee headcoatees? I think....

 

I always assumed it was a legal maneuver for bands where another existing band had the same name, but with "The" at the front.

If you went with "THEE" it was because you were either unwilling to part with the name, or maybe had built up enough of a following that it was worth it to keep it. At least when people talked about you, it would still SOUND the same, right?