Rock Bands Named After Classic Literature

Somewhere along the way it was decided that people who play in bands aren't very bright, then rock stars were further stigmatized as being drunk, dumb and on drugs because some big names glamorized this lushy lifestyle.

In actuality many of the most famous musicians in rock'n'roll history were extremely intelligent people, who showed off their brainy side with their brilliant lyrics and the very name of their band.

The Doors were named after Aldous Huxley's The Doors Of Perception, which is a line taken from William Blake's The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell:

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”

Stuart Murdoch got the name for his band Belle and Sebastian from French children's book Belle et Sébastien by Cécile Aubry, which was adapted into an awesome anime series in the 80s.

(YouTube Link)

Modest Mouse's lead singer Isaac Brock named the band after a passage from Virginia Woolf's The Mark on the Wall:

"I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises."

And last but not least we have Moby, the guy who was clearly named after Moby Dick, right?

Well, sorta- Moby was born Richard Melville Hall, and his parents started calling him "Moby" at a young age after telling young Richard Herman Melville is his "great-great-great-granduncle".

See 20 Bands Named After Classic Literature at Mental Floss


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