There are some weird bands out there with some even weirder names. Here's a collection of bands and the story of how they came up with their titles. If you have any bands you're curious about, list them in the comments, I might do a part two of this article if you all like it.
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd was originally called "The Tea Set," but changed their moniker after finding a group of the same name was booked at a show they were scheduled to play. The band decided to change their name to "The Pink Floyd Sound" –later shortened to "Pink Floyd" -after seeing the names "Pink Anderson" and "Floyd Council" on the notes of a Blind Boy Fuller album. It’s likely all for the best, would you go and see a movie called “The Tea Set’s The Wall?” Source Image via Tea Set on Wikipedia
Black Sabbath
Ozzy’s band of mischief didn’t start off nearly as dark as it ended up. The group’s first name was "The Polka Tulk Blues Company," which was soon shortened to just “Polka Tulk.” After a while, they renamed themselves “Earth,” but had to change their name again when they found out there was another British band with that name. One day, bassist Geezer Butler saw a bunch of people lined up at the theater across the street from their rehearsal room. The movie showing was the Boris Karloff movie Black Sabbath. He noted how much money people spend to see scary films and used the film’s title for a song he wrote inspired by occult writer Dennis Wheatley. This song changed the entire music direction of the band and they started playing much darker songs than other musicians of the time. In 1969, the group decided to change their name to "Black Sabbath" to reflect their new decision to make the musical version of horror movies. Source | Image Via IMDB
Lynyrd Skynyrd
The original band was called “The Noble Five” and the year after it was changed to “My Backyard.” By 1970, it was obvious the group needed a new moniker. They decided on "Leonard Skinnerd," to make fun of their high school gym teacher Leonard Skinner, who frequently harassed boys to maintain the school dress code that banned long hair. They changed the spelling before they released their first album and the rest was history. Source
Motörhead
Before founding Motörhead, Lemmy Killmister was in a psychedelic rock group called Hawkwind. He was a heavy user of amphetamines and the last song he wrote for the band was called "Motorhead" –a British expression for a speed freak. Lemmy also held onto that song and it became a standard of the Motörhead lineup. The umlauts in the band name mean nothing -he just thought they sounded cool. Source
Joy Division
History buffs may know the term “joy division” to mean a prostitution division of a concentration camp, it was used to reward prisoners and guards alike. It’s interesting that a term this vile has lost most of its meaning, as most people merely associate it with the band, who adopted the name after reading the term in the 1955 novel The House of Dolls. Source
Duran Duran
Here’s a group that got the right name, right away. But where did “Duran Duran” come from? The villain in Barbarella, a really bad B-movie, was called “Dr. Durand Durand.” Source Image Via Barbarella on Wikipedia
Porno For Pyros
After leaving Jayne’s Addiction, band members Perry Farrell and Stephen Perkins wanted to start up a new project. Farrell was looking in a porno magazine where he saw an ad for fireworks. The name fits even better when you consider that right around the time of their inception, the LA Riots had just happened. Source
Gogol Bordello
The band was originally called "Hütz and the Béla Bartóks," but they decided to change it because, according to singer Eugene Hütz, no one in America knows about Béla Bartók (in case you don’t know, he is a Hungarian composer considered by many to be the best composer of the twentieth century). As a result, the group changed their name to Gogol Bordello. “Gogol” referencing writer Nikolai Gogol because the band considered him to have “smuggled” Ukranian culture into Russian society, which is similar to what the group wishes to do with their Eastern-styled music in America. Of course, I think you know what “bordello” means. Source
I used to have a t-shirt that said
Sex, Drugs and Béla Bartók
By B-movie standards, Barbarella is KING of the B-movies. It's the Citizen Kane of B-movies.
Feh.
The Tea Set just cracks me up.
Very interesting post. :)
In case you don't know, their only hit was "Incense and Peppermint"--real trippy, man.
Let's see, I probably have a couple. The Eels is pretty much just one guy who used to go by 'E' (because of his last name) but it was impractical and too hard to find his stuff so he arbitrarily started putting his stuff under The Eels.
The band Flogging Molly is named after a bar in LA that they played in their early days (and still play now sometimes) called Molly Malone's.
ZZ Top got there name from a place called the Pizza Stop. I'll let you guys which letters were illuminated (not 100% sure on this one, but I like it).
Pennywise is of course named after Pennywise the Clown from IT
Radiohead is named after a Talking Heads song
Neutral Milk Hotel... You got me, this name makes no sense.
Mudhoney took their name from the Russ Meyer movie of the same title.
Spandau Ballet got there name from a term coined in reference to the frequent suicides of Nazis being held for trial at the Spandau prison. A hanged person tends to jerk around and "dance" if the death is caused by strangulation (and not a snap) they say.
Sound Garden is named after an acoustic sculpture display in the Seattle area.
Anybody able to read this should know where The Doors got their name. I think I've heard or read that story more than any other band name origin.
Post more of these, please.
Also Barbarella is one of the great science fiction movies.
Also also, I completely am onside with the Porno For Pyros/LA Riots theory - when that was going on it seemed like a no-brainer though the younger readers may not reflect on it that way. Great post.
Also, the band 10cc (best known for the song "I'm Not In Love") got its name because that is 1 cc more than the average male ejaculation.
Come see what we got....
I've been listening to his lastest album for months now! never gets old! :)
Re: The Eels. Essentially true, but the Eels are a full band, not just Mark Oliver Everett, even though he is the mastermind behind it.
keith moon the drummer from the who said that