How Bands Get Their Names
Posted on 25th March, 2008 by Albert T.Category: Musings on music
Chumbawamba: According to the bands official FAQ the name doesn’t mean anything. However, there have been several explanations about how the name came to be. One of them is (according to a Pop-Up Video on VH1) that “Chumbawamba” is derived from a dream that one of the members had, where doors of public toilet had signs which said “Chumba” and “Wamba” instead of “Men” and “Women”.
Goo Goo Dolls: The band was founded under the name “Sex Maggots” but a club owner who booked the band requested they change the name, because the local newspapers wouldn’t print that name. So, they picked a name out of a magazine ad for a doll that cried Goo Goo when you turned it upside down.
Jethro Tull: Named after an English agriculturist who invented the seed drill.
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Named after Leonard Skinner, who was an annoying gym teacher/coach some of the band members had in Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida.
Mothers Of Invention: Frank Zappa’s band started out as “The Soul Giants” and was later changed to “The Mothers” but their record label asked them to change it because it could be taken as an obscenity. So, out of necessity they added “of Invention” as “necessity is the mother of invention.”
Beastie Boys: “Beastie” is said to have originally stood as an acronym for “Boys Entering Anarchistic States Toward Internal Excellence”. However, according to Mike D and MCA on the Charlie Rose Show, August 28, 2007, this was an afterthought once the band was already named “Beastie Boys”.
The Doors: The band took their name from Aldous Huxley’s book “The Doors of Perception” which in turn was inspired by a line from William Blake’s poem: “If the doors of perception were to be cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite”.
Heaven 17: The name is taken from a fictional band mentioned in Anthony Burgess’s book “A Clockwork Orange”.
UB40: Took their name from a paper form “Unemployment Benefit, Form 40″ issued by the UK government’s Department of Health and Social Security which is now replaced by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and the form UB40 no longer exists.
Weezer: There’s a widespread belief that Rivers Cuomo was nicknamed Weezer in school because he made weezing sounds caused by his asthma. Actually he never had asthma. However, Weezer has been claimed to be a nickname of Rivers’. Actually, there doesn’t seem to be exact explanation what the name really means. Anyway, the band needed a name and Rivers came up with one. (According to the fansite Weezer101).
Led Zeppelin: After a concert Keith Moon, the drummer of The Who, said to Jimmy Page that his new band will fly like a lead zeppelin, in other words it will not survive. The “a” from “lead” was dropped so people woudn’t pronounce it as leed.
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March 25th, 2008
I really liked this! I’ve wondered how a few of the bands listed did get their names more than a few times in the past. And wtf @ Sex Maggots, lol… what a horrible name for a band!
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mike reply on April 26, 2008:
From: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Led-Zeppelin-501/history-led-zeppelin-NAME.htm
“In March 1967, Jeff Beck releases a solo single entitled “Hi Ho Silver Lining,” which is backed with a
Page composition entitled “Beck’s Bolero”. This song is recorded by Page, Beck, Nicky Hopkins, John Paul Jones, and Keith Moon. At this session Moon and John Entwistle, who are tired of The Who’s infighting, discuss forming a band with Page and Beck. It is here that Moon announces that they should call the group Lead Zeppelin, because, “…it’ll go over like a ***in’ lead balloon!”
(The “a” was later removed from “Lead” so that Americans would pronounce it correctly.) (John Entwistle claimed that it was he, not Moon, who invented the name. Entwistle, “Led Zeppelin is a good name, isn’t it? I made it up. Everybody says Keith Moon made it up, but he didn’t. About four years ago I was realy getting fed up with the Who…. And I was talking with a fellow who is the production manager for the Led Zeppelin now. I was talking to him down in a club in New York. And I
said, ‘Yeah, I’m thinking of leaving the group and forming my own group. I’m going to call the group Led Zeppelin. And I’m going to have a an LP cover with like the Hindenburg going down in flames, and, you know, this whole business.’ And like two months later he was working for Jimmy Page and, like, they were looking for a name, and so he suggested Led Zeppelin, and Page liked it, and they came out with the same LP cover that I’d planned.” (the production manager would have probably been Richard Cole)
I hope this helps to explain.
Jenyfer “
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March 26th, 2008
cool man
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March 26th, 2008
that’s pretty interesting. i’l have to share this with my hubby.
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March 26th, 2008
Chumbawumba, despite the bands protests that it has no meaning, is remarkably close to the Tibetan name of Mt. everest, Chomolungma. Interestingly, they note that in their dream the “wangma” refers to a woman; the “lungma” in “chomolungma” is generally translated as “mother.”
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March 26th, 2008
That’s some fascinating stuff! Jethro Tull, Lynyrd Skynyrd and UB40 had the most interesting stories.
You got my stumble.
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March 26th, 2008
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March 26th, 2008
according to ian anderson, jethro tull did not get “invited back” in the beginning–so they changed the band name often…and the first time they DID get invited back, jethro tull was the name they were using at the time, so they kept that one. (but jethro tull IS the name of the inventor of the seed drill, among other things)
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March 27th, 2008
The Smashing Pumpkins have said that they named the band “Smashing” as in good in English slang, pumpkins. and later realized that is was also a past time of Halloween ruffians.
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March 27th, 2008
Re: Led Zeppelin. Keith thought the band rocked but the name sucked because Page was going to call his new band “The New Yardbirds” and Keith, being Keith, said “Mate, that name’ll go over like a lead zeppelin…
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March 27th, 2008
Side note, Lynyrd Skynyrd modified the gym teachers name to include the “y”s as a tribute to the Byrds.
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March 28th, 2008
Re: Led Zeppelin. At one point around 1966 John Entwistle and Keith Moon were thinking of forming a band with Jimmy Page and (I think) John Paul Jones. I think it may have been Moonie who bemused that if they did it, the band would “go over like a lead balloon”. From that, Page was given his name.
Or at least that is the version I heard
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March 30th, 2008
I think it was something like “thick americans” not people (re. Led Zeppelin) hehe
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March 31st, 2008
PINK FLOYD: This may not be exact, but it’s close. Way back when (in the ’60’s) one of the founding members (maybe Syd Barrett?) was enamored with American bluesmen. He was crazy about a couple of bluesmen he heard from down Louisiana way. Their names were Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. That’s what I heard anyway.
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March 31st, 2008
“Steely Dan” took theirs from a dildo in a Burroughs novel “Naked Lunch”
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April 1st, 2008
The comment made for the origin of the Led Zeppelin name was not as previously posted this will go over like a lead zeppelin but was in-fact this will go down like a lead balloon.
(for more conformation of this see the jimmy Page diaries and the official Zeppelin biography)
Other than that good sight. thank you stumble
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April 3rd, 2008
I once read where Oingo Boingo got their name, but I soon afterward ate mushrooms and found the ever elusive willing woman and promptly forgot the meaning/origin.
Can you help enlighten us?
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Albert T. Wolf reply on April 3, 2008:
About Oingo Boingo: when they started out, they were called ‘The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo’, which was inspired by by a fictional secret society on the Amos ‘n’ Andy TV series called “The Mystic Knights of the Sea.”
They later shortened its name to ‘Oingo Boingo’.
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40riddim reply on April 8, 2008:
They had to shorten the name because when a club tried to put the name up on the marquis there wouldn’t be enough space or letters left over for the other bands.
They used to play at the old “Golden Bear” in Huntington Beach. I was fortunate to play in a band that opened for them.
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April 3rd, 2008
“Out of necessity, we are the Mothers of Invention.”
-Frank Zappa
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April 3rd, 2008
The Pink Floyd story is true.
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April 4th, 2008
Back in the 60’s we were naming our band. The Beatles was already taken so we named our band the Cockroaches. When the acid rock trend came on the scene we changed it to the Atomic Seaweed. Now you know the real story.
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April 9th, 2008
Hmm weird cause when I spoke with Ian Anderson after their concert in ‘04 [and as far as I know] Jethro Tull was a flutist and thats who Ian Anderson bases his flute sylings off of.
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April 9th, 2008
I have a chumbawumba in my pants, perhaps they named it after that!
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April 10th, 2008
Well I heard that Joy Division was the name of a Nazi sex shop. I think it’s in Control.
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April 11th, 2008
the Beastie Boys got their name from Bad Brains, well the initials at least, they were big fans of the hardcore punk band.
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April 12th, 2008
Joy Division was the name informally given
to areas where the Nazis had forced the local
women to “service” their troops.
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April 12th, 2008
AC/DC got their name after the lead singer and one of his friends looked on a…yes…you guessed it…AC/DC power adapter…fascinating huh?..yeah..
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April 15th, 2008
I’ve read the did Doors did get their name from Aldous Huxley’s book “The Doors of Perception” and that they took their name from this quote from the book. “There are things you know and things you don’t, and in between are the doors”
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April 19th, 2008
[...] NamesDid you know that jethro tull named after an English agriculturist who invented the seed drill?http://blog.wakeupvibes.com/2008/03/25/how-bands-get-their-names/Jethro Tull Music ArchiveEx-home of the &39SCC&39 discussion group. No longer actively maintained [...]
April 19th, 2008
Lovely to see such a wonderful site. Thank you
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April 20th, 2008
Good list. However, as mentioned above, Led Zeppelin is from the phrase “lead balloon”, rather than “lead Zeppelin”.
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April 22nd, 2008
I particularly like the UB40 explanation. Too funny….
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May 17th, 2008
I wonder how meatloaf got his name.
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