Band Name Origins

One of the members of Real Estate had his real estate license and had managed to sell a house or two, When his grandmother heard them rehearsing, she suggested they should all get real estate licenses.

 

Since "yardbird" is a colloquial slang term in the US for a chicken, (especially in the Southern US), that makes perfect sense.

 

Hmmmm.... first I've heard of that. Interesting.

 

ABBA = Anni-Frid + Björn + Benny + Agnetha

They started using the acronym officially with their second album in 1974.

Prior to that ....

first single together 1972

 

I thought it was a pun on their academic achievement at school or was that invented to be ironic about the name.
THought they had all left school with multiple O and A levels so they would be the direct opposite of zombies.
One of those invert name nickname thingies.

 

Dunno, I read different explanations. The Small Faces were a Mod band, and a leader in the Mod scene was labelled a "Face" (hence The Who's "I'm the Face"). Since all Small Faces members were rather short, they were called (or named themselves) The Small Faces.

 

Teardop Explodes came from a comic.

 

I heard it came from each of them being “faces” on the London scene as well as quite short.

EDIT: What RudolphS said two posts up.

 

Maybe I'm misremembering this, but Ivy from The Cramps said she came up with the name while listening to The Kinks during that time of month.

 

Three Dog Night

supposedly refers to Aboriginal Australians who'd sleep with their dogs on very cold nights.

 

The Waterboys came from Lou Reed's song "The Kids". The Church, originally the Church of Man, came from Bowie's "Moonage Daydream".

Cotton Mather was a Puritan minister and scientist who wrote a ton of pamphlets and books on (among other topics) plant hybridization and smallpox prevention, although he's "best" remembered for his involvement the Salem witch trials ("History is a cruel publicist"). Around 440 years after Cotton Mather was born, Robert Harrison and his brother were trying to cheer themselves up after their uncle's funeral by thinking up silly names for Robert's new avant-garde/art rock band. His brother suggested Cotton Mather - mocking Robert's college study of theology - and, after several hours of hysterical giggling, the name stuck. Eventually the more angular avant-garde edges were chipped away away by badass guitar rock that any self-respecting fan of John Lennon, Elvis Costello, and Big Star owes it to themselves to check out.

 

Does anyone know the story behind Porcupine Tree's name? The only info I have ever been able to find by Google searching ---- it is a private inside joke between Steven Wilson and his mates.

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd - how their gym teacher, Leonard Skinner pronounced his name

 

The GREAT Cleveland band Raspberries (NOT 'The') got their name apparently from the 1920s/30s short subject comedies 'Our Gang/Little Rascals', from one the kids in the films, 'Froggy', who used to exclaim in his weird hoarse voice 'aw, raspberries'......and Raspberries drummer Jim Bonfanti had the cartoon face from the Funny Face line of soft drink mixes, called 'Rootin' Tootin' Raspberry' flavor on his bass drum! Information for the next time you are asked on a quiz show!!!

 

And Pink Floyd, from two old Blues men: Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

 

Toad the Wet Sprocket, from a Monty Python sketch

 

There's a scene in the utterly crappy movie ' Armageddon ' where one of the characters is being analyzed by a doctor and he is asked what disturbs him.
He replies he gets upset when people don't realize Jethro Tull is not a person.
" Who is Jethro Tull ? " the doctor asks.

 

It comes from a story by John Lennon called “Being A Short Diversion On The Dubious Origins Of Beatles (Translated From The John Lennon)”, which was printed in Mersey Beat on July 6, 1961:

Once upon a time there were three little boys called John, George and Paul, by name christened. They decided to get together because they were the getting together type. When they were together they wondered what for after all, what for? So all of a sudden they grew guitars and fashioned a noise. Funnily enough, no one was interested, least of all the three little men. So-o-o-o on discovering a fourth little even littler man called Stuart Sutcliffe running about them they said, quite ‘Sonny get a bass guitar and you will be alright’ and he did – but he wasn’t alright because he couldn’t play it. So they sat on him with comfort ’til he could play. Still there was no beat, and a kindly old man said, quote ‘Thou hast not drums!’ We had no drums! they coffed. So a series of drums came and went and came.

Suddenly, in Scotland, touring with Johnny Gentle, the group (called the Beatles called) discovered they had not a very nice sound – because they had no amplifiers. They got some.

Many people ask what are Beatles? Why Beatles? Ugh, Beatles, how did the name arrive? So we will tell you. It came in a vision – a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them ‘From this day on you are Beatles with an ‘A’. Thank you, mister man, they said, thanking him.

And then a man with a beard cut off said – will you go to Germany (Hamburg) and play mighty rock for the peasants for money? And we said we would play mighty anything for money.

But before we could go we had to grow a drummer, so we grew one in West Derby in a club called Some Casbah and his trouble was Pete Best. we called ‘Hello Pete, come off to Germany!’ ‘Yes!’ Zooooom. After a few months, Peter and Paul (who is called McArtrey, son of Jim McArtrey, his father) lit a Kino (cinema) and the German police said ‘Bad Beatles, you must go home and light your English cinemas’. Zooooom, half a group. But before even this, the Gestapo had taken my friend little George Harrison (of speke) away because he was only twelve and too young to vote in Germany; but after two months in England he grew eighteen and the Gestapoes said ‘you can come’. So suddenly all back in Liverpool Village were many groups playing in grey suits and Jim said ‘Why have you no grey suits?’ ‘We don’t like them, Jim’ we said, speaking to Jim.

After playing in the clubs a bit, everyone said ‘Go to Germany!’ So we are. Zooooom Stuart gone. Zoom zoom John (of Woolton) George (of Speke) Peter and Paul zoom zoom. All of them gone. Thank you club members, from John and George (what are friends).

 

Atomic Rooster

Carl Palmer:
‘One evening in New York,’ he explains, ‘we went out together, with Vincent’s (Crane) girlfriend at the time, to this girl’s apartment. We took Vincent to see this girl because she was going to explain how bad acid was and that he should stop taking it, basically. The person she chose to talk about was the bass player in this group called Rhinoceros [who had] taken a lot of chemical substances and started calling himself ‘the atomic rooster’. I couldn’t help but laugh – it’s a great name. When we got back to England I said to Vincent, ‘Why don’t we call our band the Atomic Rooster? You’re never going to become it, but we could all be part of it.’’

 

In some article \ interview with a music magazine Lennon said a man on a flaming pie appeared to him and said they were to be called The Beatles " with an a ".
Also the inspiration for McCartney's fine album ' Flaming Pie '

And , speaking of The Beatles as a name , Paul Simon said he was in England when he first heard the name and thought it was ridiculous. But he admits they did quite well for themselves....

 

Pearl Jam, too.

 

Oops..I see someone beat me to the flaming pie story. And told it so much better!

 

An unknown band named The Pendletones had their first single released by Candix Records. Somebody at Candix didn't like the band's name and renamed them The Beach Boys without their knowledge or approval.

Thank goodness!

 

The first name of The Cranberries was The Cranberries saw us, doing a phonetic game to "The Cranberrie sauce". Yes, quite embarrassing. When Dolores became part of the band and was shocked by that horrific name and switched to The Cranberries. I imagine that the previous singer would have taken some prohibited substance to call the band The Cranberrie saw us.

 

I thought that somebody just didn't know the band's name and suggested 'Beach Boys' related to the song 'Surfin'.