Band Name Origins

People Like Us is also a Talking Heads song. Though, I don't think Vicki Bennett (the sole member of PLU) has ever mentioned if that's where she got the name from.

 

Didn't know about ' After The Goldrush '!
Now I 'll have to dig out the movie and check it out.
Such is the price of being a music nerd.

 

I thought I'd heard a story that they were looking for a name while tripping and words stood out from different parts of a page that were later seen to make sense when looked up in a dictionary of folklore or something to that effect.
Like there is a longstanding mythology of the grateful dead being individuals who died with unfinished business that a protagonist comes along and does for them and gets rewarded for. I t6hink it spans a few different cultures too.

 

It's got astrological connotations to at least several if not all the band being born under the signs Virgo and Gemini

Jim Murray and David Freiberg came up with the name. Me and Freiberg were born on the same day, and Gary and Greg were born on the same day, we were all Virgos and Murray was a Gemini. And Virgos and Geminis are all ruled by the planet Mercury. Another name for Mercury is Quicksilver. And then, Quicksilver is the messenger of the Gods, and Virgo is the servant, so Freiberg says "Oh, Quicksilver Messenger Service".

 

Wow!... Very cool origins story; so you were a founding member of QMS? Who are you? Your groups´¨Pride of Man¨ remains my favorite version of that Camp Classic!

 

Chosen at random from a folklore dictionary.

from wiki

Grateful dead (or grateful ghost) is a folktale present in many cultures throughout the world.

The most common story involves a traveler who encounters a corpse of someone who never received a proper burial, typically stemming from an unpaid debt. The traveler then either pays off the dead person's debt or pays for burial. The traveler is later rewarded or has their life saved by a person or animal who is actually the soul of the dead person; the grateful dead is a form of the donor. The grateful dead spirit may take many different physical forms including that of a guardian angel, animal, or fellow traveler. The traveler's encounter with the deceased comes near the end of the traveler's journey.

 

10,000 Maniacs from the slasher flick, "2,000 Maniacs"

 

Quicksilver = Mercury = Hermes: Hermes was the messenger of the gods.

 

Fairport Convention - named after Simon Nicol’s family home, “Fairport”. The band rehearsed there in the early days.

Whilst checking my facts I came across this site which may be of interest.

Band Name Origins

 

The 1975 - Matty Healy (lead singer) discovered the band name in the back of a beat-era book given to him at a yard sale. “In the back there were all these mental scribblings, it was almost suicidal, and it was dated at the bottom ‘1st June, The 1975’. The use of the word ‘The’ really stuck with me. It was the perfect band name.”

 

Psychedelic group NGC 4594 was named after a galaxy:

 

See post #154 above!

 

Great thread here...I'm learning a lot!

 

The Five Stairsteps-a family group, their mom thought they looked like stairsteps when standing together in order by age.

 

came in for this one!

 

should have bunged in some quotation marks earlier, sorry .
NOt sure who that quote was from
Its up on the Wikipedia entry though

 

Ah thanks, so Stuggy is not an OG QMS alumni retired to Ireland?--MY dream! Good to know...! Thanks for the enlightening info though!

 

inbetween touring and recording with the cure/the banshees, robert smith and steven severin made an album with singer jeanette landray under the name--the glove--referring to the giant glove character in the animated beatles/yellow submarine. the album title "blue sunshine" came from a horror film of the same name, about a fictional variety of LSD (blue sunshine) that causes those who took it to become pyschotic murderers 10 years after taking it.

as a cure/banshees fan, it's a treat
i even found a used copy of "blue sunshine" on VHS many years ago!

 

The Allman Brothers Band - Since Duane and Gregg Allman were in a band and they were brothers, they named it The Allman Brothers Band.

 

Jorma says a friend of his nicknamed him Blind Lemon Jefferson Airplane, so they named it Jefferson Airplane.

 

I was always amused to think that there were groups named Steely Dan and Steeleye Span, just Serendipity
Singers I guess...

 

Just discovered that A Flock Of Seagulls got the name from a Stranglers song Toiler On The Sea

I had a woman ship
I took her overseas
She left her hold unlocked
I had to find a dock
I was a toiler on the sea
I was a toiler on the sea

We didn't use cruel words
To navigate cruel seas
The wind was biting hard
At times I had to scream
I was a toiler on the sea
I was a toiler on the sea

And when we reached the land
We went aground on the rocks
Became a wreck in the sand
Became a home for a flock

We ventured overland
Fought with the aliens
The young ones used their hands
Pointed the way to a flock

A flock of seagulls
A flock of seagulls
A flock of seagulls

Then we retraced our steps
Rebuilt the woman ship
I took her back up north
I lost her in the fog
I was a toiler on the sea
I was a toiler on the sea

 

True. It was cool to read the book while I was studying Russian at university. At the back of Burgess's book there is a glossary of terms derived from Russian.

The name Rockpile came from a now-defunct Toronto concert venue.

 

Zappa changed the band name from the Soul Giants to the Muthers. After signing with Verve MGM the record company had them changed to the Mothers of Invention. The band didn’t care and I believe that the name fit them for the music they introduced.