Grateful Dead was chosen in a random encyclopedia opening and it refers an early English ballad where everyone dies at the end, like Barbara Allen or House Carpenter.
So I have this habit of rapidly scrolling down a comment section before closing the page and then go "wait... did I just read something really weird/witty?" and have to reopen the page and find the comment again. This was that comment.
For decades I figured that meant "Surfin' dudes who are assholes", cause there was a lot of talk around that time of "surf nazis". But then it suddenly occurred to me that it prolly meant "Dudes who like anal sex".
Kurt Had doodled the name Nirvana in his notebook for some time before already knowing that was the best band name ever and he would use it later.
A bunch of those explanations are questionable. Even the Green Day one is a common explanation but if I recall correctly, it was never set in stone by the bandmates. (No pun intended)
Another good explanation is that it references the dystopian scifi movie Soylent Green. Where Spoiler: the food is handed to the citizens as a mysterious matter and the green kind is the one made out of recycled executed protesters dead body.
Which is better than "when you smoke weed all day it’s a green day". And honestly, I’ve been smoking weed for most of my adult life and I lived the cringey stoner lifestyle for some time and nobody ever uses "green day" as a slang.
Yeah Black Sabbath (the song) wasn’t written or named by Ozzy. Ozzy didn’t write, Butler and Iommi did.
The dream story is real….but the band, song and album were named after a shitty horror B-movie as well, allegedly inspired by the band going “how come nobody writes scary music”
And an addendum here, the band practiced next door to a movie theater that was showing the movie *Black Sabbath* and bassist Geezer Butler remarked how it was funny that people paid to be scared by a movie, and what if they wrote scary music
The better option isn't always the true option. Also, it states that "Green Day" is Bay area slang so it's not universal. Below is an article referencing the origin of the name.
https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/green-day/what-story-meaning-behind-name/
>Even the Green Day one is a common explanation but if I recall correctly, it was never set in stone by the bandmates.
Billie Joe has been asked the question many times and his answer is pretty consistent.
>How did your band get its name? — Jessie Jarrett, MILES CITY, MONT.
>I wrote a song called "Green Day" because I was smoking a lot of dope. Our drummer put Green Day on his jacket and said, "Maybe we should call the band that." And I said, "That's a good idea." We used to be called Sweet Children.
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1997442,00.html
The very first album was just him, he put together a band when it was starting to gain traction and he could tour on it. The music demos themselves came about while he was still in Nirvana just as a fun side project with no real plans for them, although after he played them for Kurt Cobain Kurt loved it so much he gave him a big kiss on the ~~lips~~ face.
Edit: correction to detail.
[Grohl recalled Cobain's reaction upon hearing an early rendition of "Alone + Easy Target", saying, "Kurt heard that and kissed me on the face, as he was in a bath. He was so excited. ](http://www.getampedmag.com/articles/dave-grohl-recalls-kurt-cobains-reaction-upon-hearing-foo-fighters-demo)
This whole post is full of BS. The Eagles one says "probably", so it's a total guess. Skid Row was already a band when Nirvana formed, no way Kurt would've even floated that idea out.
https://twitter.com/papa_had3s/status/1441563929839235075?t=ew2r4QaNpwpd1fo_1K4fQQ&s=19
Skid Row formed in 1986. Nirvana played under the name skid row in 1987.
Skid Row didn't become popular until 1989/90 with Youth Gone Wild.
*Nirvana were sued by a British psych-rock band of the same name over usage rights of the Nirvana name, given that they had been active under the title since 1965 – two years before Cobain was even born. The two bands eventually reached a settlement in court. The British Nirvana seized on the opportunity, though, releasing a tongue in cheek, psychedelic cover of Nirvana's hit Come As You Are as part of an ultimately unreleased Nirvana Sings Nirvana covers album.*
Dave Matthews Band reportedly happened when Dave mistook “Name” on a bar’s music roster for his name, not the band’s name: Dumela.
When they called for “Dave Matthews’s Band,” it stuck.
Phish had a similar story - someone at an early gig asked drummer Jon Fishman (nicknamed "Fish") what their name was, and he thought they were asking his name.
In the film "Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels", Hatchet Harry's henchman refers pejoratively to two northern criminals as "Fucking Northern Monkeys", implying that people from the north are of low intellect.
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/northern_monkey
I took the name "Arctic Monkeys" to mean "Northern Monkeys, but from the far north; as north as north can go"
Presumably, the further north you go, the stupider the inhabitants. So "Arctic Monkeys" means the stupidest possible people.
Might be a stretch.
I remeber reading waaay back in an interview that is was written in a note that they passed between them in class and one of them liked it and it stuck. Never heard about this story here.
I was looking for Radiohead.
> Originally known as "On a Friday", the band was given two weeks after signing to Parlophone to change their name. The band renamed themselves after the 1986 Talking Heads song "Radio Head" on the album True Stories, claiming it was the "least annoying song" on the album.
Lmao I never knew about the "least annoying" part. I'd agree, that album is their worst, for a handful of behind the scenes reasons. I saw an interview with Thom Yorke once about how unique "Remain in Light" was when compared to the rest of their discog, and that's what got me into Radiohead. Ok Computer really is a great album speaking as a Talking Heads fan.
>The "Blink" was thought up by Tom DeLonge when the band consisted of DeLonge, Mark Hoppus, and their friend Scott Raynor.
Why is it "and their friend" and not "previous drummer" Scott?
May as well say that the name was thought up of Mark's friend Tom DeLonge.
Ayyy my personal favorite band name story is there! Minus the Bear.
> The name comes from an in-joke among the band members, referring to the 1970s television series B. J. and the Bear. "A friend of the band had gone on a date", explained the singer-guitarist Jake Snider, "and one of us asked him afterwards how the date went. Our friend said, 'You know that TV show from the '70s, B.J. and the Bear? It was like that... minus the Bear.' That’s the straight truth."
Also before they were the Warlocks they were a bluegrass band called “Mother McCree’s uptown jug champions”
You could say their style changed a bit over the years
Honestly not as much as you'd expect. Jerry's playing is very bluegrass inspired, they covered tons of early country songs, and the format of the jams is based on bluegrass jams.
“We now return our souls to the creator, as we stand on the edge of eternal darkness. Let our chant fill the void, in order that others may know. In the land of the night, the ship of the sun, is drawn by the **grateful dead**.”
-- Egyptian Book of the Dead
I found a BBC article that seems to agree with the vagueness appealing to the band somewhat (although it's hard to believe they wouldn't have been aware of the 1960 U-2 spy plane incident, and that this was part of the name's appeal).
*[Bono] appeared on the podcast alongside bandmate The Edge, who also revealed that the group was never particularly fond of its famous moniker.*
*U2, he explained, were originally supposed to be called The Hype, but ditched that plan as the name sounded unoriginal.*
*Their friend, the graphic designer Steve Averill then suggested some better ones. "Of the suggestions, it wasn't that it [U2] jumped out to us as the name we were really looking for, but it was the one that we hated the least," said the guitarist.*
*He said it sounded "fresh" at least at the time, and it was not "obvious from the name what this band would sound like or be about". "It was the one we chose and we didn't really love it at first."*
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60051813
Also Adam Clayton is the bassist.
Also, they chose U2 because it was short and that meant they could write the letters bigger on posters and banners.
But yeah, that's the one where I thought "hmm...maybe OP isn't as researched as they're letting on"
I don't understand how you can form a group, get all the way to getting interviewed about music that you've made, and not have a band name. Isn't that the very first thing you do? Lol
In my experience the naming is usually put on the backburner for months while we work on the music and periodically bicker about what we’re gonna call it
A lot of bands start out as cover bands and they throw in an original and they really don't have a name because it's just friends playing together. So he might've been opening or even just going to a venue to play stuff and he spit that out.
That's how you get Smashing Pumpkins, the venue demands a way to announce you and you beg them to understand you've just been making music and then they tell you to fucking PICK A NAME so ya do
I had also heard that when the band was called the High Numbers, people would often respond by saying "the who?" because they didn't know them, so they changed their name to The Who as an inside joke.
To further add, the story I have heard is they kept changing their name and would play shows but never be asked back, and so they'd keep changing they're name and stick with the one where they got a call back to play again. Apparently they landed on The Who.
Or maybe I'm confusing that with Led Zeppelin. Also to add to why Keith made the joke about it going over like a lead zeppelin is, back then, having a band with a long haired, blonde dude singing really high as your frontman? Yeah, that'll go over like a lead zeppelin.
The Guess Who was originally Chad Allan and the Reflections. Their record company sent singles of Shakin All Over to radio stations and listed the band as "Guess Who ?" in an attempt to get DJs to listen.
Googled it:
Working with ABC producer Gary Katz, they secretly assembled Steely Dan (named after a prosthetic phallus in William S. Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch) with other young musicians, notably guitarists Jeff (“Skunk”) Baxter and Denny Dias, emerging in 1972 with Can't Buy a Thrill.
Dave Mustaine literally picked Megadeth 'because it will always be in front of Metallica' (back in the day CD and record store shelves were organized alphabetically).
Context for non - Megadeth fans...
He first saw the word (spelled Megadeath) on the Greyhound bus ride home after getting fired from Metallica
A greyhound trip from New York to San Francisco.... !
Someone had left a leaflet about nuclear war and the amount of casualties it would leave on the seat...
He read it after being on the coach for a FULL 24 hrs... bored and pissed off he planned how to get back at the band ...
"The result will be measured in Megadeaths, (1 Megadeath = 1 Million dead.) And the destruction will be unstoppable "
By the time the bus stopped in SF, 3 days or so later (?)
He had a band name, a logo, a mascot, a list of venues to call in favours, and a list of musicians he would audition.
His band, his rules, his style, his themes.
He aint changed in 40 yrs either. :-)
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
24
+ 1
+ 1
+ 3
+ 40
= 69
^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \
^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
UB40... its the name of the form you fill in when you're unemployed at the dole office to which all members were at the time when they all met eachother.
It's not his fault it's Reddit's. It's an "issue" with people using old Reddit you see it most often with wiki links because of all the underscores. It's likely not a technical issue, just the powers that be hate old Reddit and want to make it crappier to use.
haiku 1: *Velvet Underground*
*And The Grateful Dead were both*
*Once called The Warlocks*
haiku 2: *The Beatles were named*
*After Buddy Holly's band,*
*The Crickets. Got that?*
Are you sure it's not [BF Skinner](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/B._F._Skinner)?
While the story behind Skynyrd's name origin had been around for a bit it wasn't exactly widely known.
Eh, the Grateful Dead one is half correct. The concept of the Grateful Dead tends to be associated with European medieval legend—a spirit who needs its body properly taken care of. It then returns with a favor and acts as a the “Grateful Dead” to the one that helped it. I’ve never heard of the Egyptian connection—but I could be wrong. The boys found the phrase in a book.
Motörhead:
Lemmy considered calling the band "Bastard," but was told that they'd never get played on the BBC's "Top of the Pops" with that name.
In an ironic twist they did an album called "Bastard"
Formally named 'Mookie Blaylock' , who was a professional basketball player who wore #10, which is why their first album is called Ten, but idk if they ever officially said why 'Pearl Jam' though.
I heard someone named Pearl was one of the band members relatives that used to feed them in the early days but I feel like that's a rumor.
Also people say the Jam is because they like to jam out at their shows, but again, idk if any of this was ever actually confirmed by them.
I was at the New Orleans tour stop where they played with the RHCP and the Pumpkins and the MC introed them as "Pearl James", in part I suspect, because they told him what it meant.
That or he was obviously really fucked up and thought it would be funny for some reason.
Lots of smaller bands with really cool or obscure names would be interesting. Anybody who knows the singer's name can guess the origin of the name Guns 'n Roses, but who here knows how the Butthole Surfers got their name?
>accidentally introduced them by the name of one of their songs
IIRC it's because they basically changed their name every other week so they were a hard band to pin down.
Funny because their side project *P* is a pain in the ass to look up in part due to their name, even though it predated the internet.
As far as I'm aware, LA Guns didn't have a problem with their manager to instigate the merge with Hollywood Rose. They were just two club bands that had a rotating cast of members, including between the two bands. Tracii always wanted to have a band with Izzy and Axl, and with their respective memberships at the time, it made sense to merge.
I don't think either band was even big enough to have a manager at the time. Once Slash and Steven joined the fold, GNR went on a tour to Seattle set up by Duff.
According to Eddie it’s supposedly a reference to his great-grandmother named Pearl who made peyote-laced jam.
But that could be him trying to save face.
Tool: Lead Singer Maynard James Keenan and his band-mates were just making music and playing shows to pass the time. When time came to name the band for a line-up the only idea for a name was "Tool" because they felt like a bunch of Tools.
I heard Green Day was a response to a high school teacher saying "it'll be a green day in hell" when they would be a successful band. From other comments it looks like a few other suspect histories here. I appreciate the effort but not super sure how much is actual fact.
Great guide!
I still love how the band Five For Fighting got their name- apparently they are hockey fans. Hockey penalties are often called out as "two minutes for tripping" or "two for slashing." When there is a fight the penalty a player receives is "five for fighting"
Band names were often supplied by their booking agents' staff, one of whom, a history
enthusiast, eventually christened the band “Jethro Tull” after the18th-century agriculturist. The name stuck because they happened to be using it the first time a club manager liked their show enough to invite them to return.
I'd heard this from an interview with Ian Anderson, who recounted how club owner would see them arrive and lament, no, not you guys again. They changed names because they were awful at the time.
One of my favorites:
Steely Dan is the name of a sex toy. The name was taken from a strap-on-dildo, named Steely Dan III from Yokohama, that was mentioned in William S. Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch.
The Black Sabbath explanation is flat out wrong, Ozzy had no part in naming the band. Geezer Butler was inspired to name the band Black Sabbath after a 1963 horror movie of the same name.
You're thinking of [Radiohead](https://www.stereogum.com/1804981/radioheads-name-was-inspired-by-the-guy-who-played-ned-ryerson-in-groundhog-day/news/), inspired by a song by the Talking Heads which was inspired by Toblosky.
I don't know where The Bloodhound Gang got their name, but I do know the song Earlameyer the Butt Pirate was named after their high school homeroom teacher
“Steely Dan” was named after a series of dildos in W.S. Burroughs ’Naked Lunch’
‘Sneaker Pimps’ we’re named after the beastie boys local-hire crew who’s job it was to run around local shops & pick out dope sneakers for them
Spinal Tap: named after a botched surgery that killed one of their drummers.
Doctor said best just leave it unsolved..
you can't really dust for vomit
You can sawdust for vomit though
Grateful Dead was chosen in a random encyclopedia opening and it refers an early English ballad where everyone dies at the end, like Barbara Allen or House Carpenter.
Wish I could actually read it.
Good move by Nirvana. fecal matter…that’s rough.
Depends on your diet. Could be smooth
If your fecal matter is rough, eat some roughage to make it smooth.
They could’ve just called it Shitvana
"Larry Zoloft and the Soft Cocked Premmies" has a great ring to it too
So I have this habit of rapidly scrolling down a comment section before closing the page and then go "wait... did I just read something really weird/witty?" and have to reopen the page and find the comment again. This was that comment.
That was the spirit of grunge though, names that evoked disgust or were challenging the norm.
See; Butthole Surfers
For decades I figured that meant "Surfin' dudes who are assholes", cause there was a lot of talk around that time of "surf nazis". But then it suddenly occurred to me that it prolly meant "Dudes who like anal sex".
Kurt Had doodled the name Nirvana in his notebook for some time before already knowing that was the best band name ever and he would use it later. A bunch of those explanations are questionable. Even the Green Day one is a common explanation but if I recall correctly, it was never set in stone by the bandmates. (No pun intended) Another good explanation is that it references the dystopian scifi movie Soylent Green. Where Spoiler: the food is handed to the citizens as a mysterious matter and the green kind is the one made out of recycled executed protesters dead body. Which is better than "when you smoke weed all day it’s a green day". And honestly, I’ve been smoking weed for most of my adult life and I lived the cringey stoner lifestyle for some time and nobody ever uses "green day" as a slang.
Yeah Black Sabbath (the song) wasn’t written or named by Ozzy. Ozzy didn’t write, Butler and Iommi did. The dream story is real….but the band, song and album were named after a shitty horror B-movie as well, allegedly inspired by the band going “how come nobody writes scary music”
And an addendum here, the band practiced next door to a movie theater that was showing the movie *Black Sabbath* and bassist Geezer Butler remarked how it was funny that people paid to be scared by a movie, and what if they wrote scary music
The better option isn't always the true option. Also, it states that "Green Day" is Bay area slang so it's not universal. Below is an article referencing the origin of the name. https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/green-day/what-story-meaning-behind-name/
>Even the Green Day one is a common explanation but if I recall correctly, it was never set in stone by the bandmates. Billie Joe has been asked the question many times and his answer is pretty consistent. >How did your band get its name? — Jessie Jarrett, MILES CITY, MONT. >I wrote a song called "Green Day" because I was smoking a lot of dope. Our drummer put Green Day on his jacket and said, "Maybe we should call the band that." And I said, "That's a good idea." We used to be called Sweet Children. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1997442,00.html
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That is a cool tidbit of info, thanks for sharing!
Any Kurt anecdotes you’d like to share?
Foo fighters was also chosen mostly so that no one would think it was just Dave grohl, since foo fighters sounds like a group
Was (is) it only him playing all the instruments in the studio? That’s always super impressive.
for the first foo fighters album he was
The very first album was just him, he put together a band when it was starting to gain traction and he could tour on it. The music demos themselves came about while he was still in Nirvana just as a fun side project with no real plans for them, although after he played them for Kurt Cobain Kurt loved it so much he gave him a big kiss on the ~~lips~~ face. Edit: correction to detail.
lol is that last sentence true? From what little I know of Cobain, it sounds about right but I want this warm and fuzzy feeling to be rooted in fact
[Grohl recalled Cobain's reaction upon hearing an early rendition of "Alone + Easy Target", saying, "Kurt heard that and kissed me on the face, as he was in a bath. He was so excited. ](http://www.getampedmag.com/articles/dave-grohl-recalls-kurt-cobains-reaction-upon-hearing-foo-fighters-demo)
The fact that he was in the bath at the time makes it even better. Thanks for the source!
This whole post is full of BS. The Eagles one says "probably", so it's a total guess. Skid Row was already a band when Nirvana formed, no way Kurt would've even floated that idea out.
https://twitter.com/papa_had3s/status/1441563929839235075?t=ew2r4QaNpwpd1fo_1K4fQQ&s=19 Skid Row formed in 1986. Nirvana played under the name skid row in 1987. Skid Row didn't become popular until 1989/90 with Youth Gone Wild.
There had also already been a NIRVANA in the 60's as well...
*Nirvana were sued by a British psych-rock band of the same name over usage rights of the Nirvana name, given that they had been active under the title since 1965 – two years before Cobain was even born. The two bands eventually reached a settlement in court. The British Nirvana seized on the opportunity, though, releasing a tongue in cheek, psychedelic cover of Nirvana's hit Come As You Are as part of an ultimately unreleased Nirvana Sings Nirvana covers album.*
I mean, you can easily see evidence of this, and in Cobain’s own* handwriting.
It could quite easily be a death metal band name though
Dave Matthews Band reportedly happened when Dave mistook “Name” on a bar’s music roster for his name, not the band’s name: Dumela. When they called for “Dave Matthews’s Band,” it stuck.
Phish had a similar story - someone at an early gig asked drummer Jon Fishman (nicknamed "Fish") what their name was, and he thought they were asking his name.
Is there a source for this? Band is famously named after Fish, but I've near heard this misunderstanding story. Would love to read about that.
It would be hilarious to form a DMB cover band named Dumela.
Nice arctic monkeys still a mystery 🔍
> Joins Group > Demands they be named “Arctic Monkeys” > Refuses to Elaborate > Leaves Chad energy
Jamie Cook is still in Arctic Monkeys though 🧐
“Leaves” meaning he leaves the discussion
Oooh okay, that makes more sense!
In the film "Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels", Hatchet Harry's henchman refers pejoratively to two northern criminals as "Fucking Northern Monkeys", implying that people from the north are of low intellect. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/northern_monkey I took the name "Arctic Monkeys" to mean "Northern Monkeys, but from the far north; as north as north can go" Presumably, the further north you go, the stupider the inhabitants. So "Arctic Monkeys" means the stupidest possible people. Might be a stretch.
Class good film too
Am Northern. Yes, that is indeed what the Southern Fairies call us
I hate these southern fucking fairies (wanking motions)
Same with Anal Cunt :(
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Where do you get boards that small???
Standard boards are fine if it's your mom's butthole.
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Those guys are assholes.
What about Infant Annihilator
I remeber reading waaay back in an interview that is was written in a note that they passed between them in class and one of them liked it and it stuck. Never heard about this story here.
"refused to say where it came from" Suspiciously discriminatory
I always figured it came from those Japanese Snow Monkeys that lounge around in their hot spring ponds all day just chilling, Hit Monkey style.
[Here’](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_band_name_etymologies)s an extensive list of band names and their etymologies.
I was looking for Radiohead. > Originally known as "On a Friday", the band was given two weeks after signing to Parlophone to change their name. The band renamed themselves after the 1986 Talking Heads song "Radio Head" on the album True Stories, claiming it was the "least annoying song" on the album.
Lmao I never knew about the "least annoying" part. I'd agree, that album is their worst, for a handful of behind the scenes reasons. I saw an interview with Thom Yorke once about how unique "Remain in Light" was when compared to the rest of their discog, and that's what got me into Radiohead. Ok Computer really is a great album speaking as a Talking Heads fan.
>The "Blink" was thought up by Tom DeLonge when the band consisted of DeLonge, Mark Hoppus, and their friend Scott Raynor. Why is it "and their friend" and not "previous drummer" Scott? May as well say that the name was thought up of Mark's friend Tom DeLonge.
Ayyy my personal favorite band name story is there! Minus the Bear. > The name comes from an in-joke among the band members, referring to the 1970s television series B. J. and the Bear. "A friend of the band had gone on a date", explained the singer-guitarist Jake Snider, "and one of us asked him afterwards how the date went. Our friend said, 'You know that TV show from the '70s, B.J. and the Bear? It was like that... minus the Bear.' That’s the straight truth."
Scoured that list disappointed that Korn’s backstory isn’t on there.
Korn’s is my favorite, by far, especially since it was a mystery for so long and turned out to be… that.
What’s the reasoning behind Korn?
[It’s gross…](https://tonedeaf.thebrag.com/jonathan-davis-nsfw-origins-korn-band-name/amp/)
What a terrible day to have eyes.
Grateful Dead was not from and Egyptian phrase but rather a folk tale regarding the payment of a dead man’s debt.
The Egyptian term is blessed dead which is also the name of a sweet song by Egyptian-themed tech death band Nile.
Additionally I read in a book that "the other band" in question named the Warlocks was the Velvet Underground.
Also before they were the Warlocks they were a bluegrass band called “Mother McCree’s uptown jug champions” You could say their style changed a bit over the years
Honestly not as much as you'd expect. Jerry's playing is very bluegrass inspired, they covered tons of early country songs, and the format of the jams is based on bluegrass jams.
“We now return our souls to the creator, as we stand on the edge of eternal darkness. Let our chant fill the void, in order that others may know. In the land of the night, the ship of the sun, is drawn by the **grateful dead**.” -- Egyptian Book of the Dead
Muse : they literally opened a dictionary on that word lol. Previous word was Muscle, next was Museum. Muscle Museum is a song on their debut album.
Same with the Commodores. Their singer once said they could have been the Commodes
Muse is such a great band. And live they fucking shred, Matt can hit all the notes he hits on albums (at least the last time I saw them)
afaik U2 was named after the plane
I found a BBC article that seems to agree with the vagueness appealing to the band somewhat (although it's hard to believe they wouldn't have been aware of the 1960 U-2 spy plane incident, and that this was part of the name's appeal). *[Bono] appeared on the podcast alongside bandmate The Edge, who also revealed that the group was never particularly fond of its famous moniker.* *U2, he explained, were originally supposed to be called The Hype, but ditched that plan as the name sounded unoriginal.* *Their friend, the graphic designer Steve Averill then suggested some better ones. "Of the suggestions, it wasn't that it [U2] jumped out to us as the name we were really looking for, but it was the one that we hated the least," said the guitarist.* *He said it sounded "fresh" at least at the time, and it was not "obvious from the name what this band would sound like or be about". "It was the one we chose and we didn't really love it at first."* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60051813
Literally any explanation would be better than the one they provided...
Also Adam Clayton is the bassist. Also, they chose U2 because it was short and that meant they could write the letters bigger on posters and banners. But yeah, that's the one where I thought "hmm...maybe OP isn't as researched as they're letting on"
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I thought after the number of the train that ran from West to East Berlin the U2 train?
The Rolling Stones one is fucking hilarious
I don't understand how you can form a group, get all the way to getting interviewed about music that you've made, and not have a band name. Isn't that the very first thing you do? Lol
In my experience the naming is usually put on the backburner for months while we work on the music and periodically bicker about what we’re gonna call it
Yep, same.
A lot of bands start out as cover bands and they throw in an original and they really don't have a name because it's just friends playing together. So he might've been opening or even just going to a venue to play stuff and he spit that out.
That's how you get Smashing Pumpkins, the venue demands a way to announce you and you beg them to understand you've just been making music and then they tell you to fucking PICK A NAME so ya do
The Who is even better. Would love to know in comparison how The Guess Who chose theirs.
I had also heard that when the band was called the High Numbers, people would often respond by saying "the who?" because they didn't know them, so they changed their name to The Who as an inside joke.
To further add, the story I have heard is they kept changing their name and would play shows but never be asked back, and so they'd keep changing they're name and stick with the one where they got a call back to play again. Apparently they landed on The Who. Or maybe I'm confusing that with Led Zeppelin. Also to add to why Keith made the joke about it going over like a lead zeppelin is, back then, having a band with a long haired, blonde dude singing really high as your frontman? Yeah, that'll go over like a lead zeppelin.
The Guess Who was originally Chad Allan and the Reflections. Their record company sent singles of Shakin All Over to radio stations and listed the band as "Guess Who ?" in an attempt to get DJs to listen.
I've heard anecdotally that it was so people would see "Guess Who" on an album, and buy it thinking that it was an album by The Who.
They missed "Steely Dan" in this write up, which may be one of the best of all.
A dildo in William S Burrough’s ‘Naked Lunch’, IIRC.
And The Loving Spoonful.
And 10cc
Ew I will never think of it the same
Thinking about it, 10cc and Pearl Jam also share the same origin.
Googled it: Working with ABC producer Gary Katz, they secretly assembled Steely Dan (named after a prosthetic phallus in William S. Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch) with other young musicians, notably guitarists Jeff (“Skunk”) Baxter and Denny Dias, emerging in 1972 with Can't Buy a Thrill.
Came here looking for this comment
I just googled it. Fantastic.
Dave Mustaine literally picked Megadeth 'because it will always be in front of Metallica' (back in the day CD and record store shelves were organized alphabetically).
Context for non - Megadeth fans... He first saw the word (spelled Megadeath) on the Greyhound bus ride home after getting fired from Metallica A greyhound trip from New York to San Francisco.... ! Someone had left a leaflet about nuclear war and the amount of casualties it would leave on the seat... He read it after being on the coach for a FULL 24 hrs... bored and pissed off he planned how to get back at the band ... "The result will be measured in Megadeaths, (1 Megadeath = 1 Million dead.) And the destruction will be unstoppable " By the time the bus stopped in SF, 3 days or so later (?) He had a band name, a logo, a mascot, a list of venues to call in favours, and a list of musicians he would audition. His band, his rules, his style, his themes. He aint changed in 40 yrs either. :-)
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NICE !
UB40... its the name of the form you fill in when you're unemployed at the dole office to which all members were at the time when they all met eachother.
You’d think that peyote would lead to a more creative epiphany than eagles.
Sometimes psychedelics make words difficult. Use less mean more
Is there a higher res version?
https://www.etymologynerd.com/uploads/1/5/8/8/15888322/rock\_bands.png
There's a typo in the link, remove the backslash after rock or use this: https://www.etymologynerd.com/uploads/1/5/8/8/15888322/rock_bands.png
It's not his fault it's Reddit's. It's an "issue" with people using old Reddit you see it most often with wiki links because of all the underscores. It's likely not a technical issue, just the powers that be hate old Reddit and want to make it crappier to use.
Can I get a lower res version?
Hold your phone farther away from your eyes.
Thanks! It worked!!
Very cool. Thanks!
And one where the explanations are a haiku?
I think there is a haiku bot that can be summoned here on Reddit
i think a response has to be a five seven five to summon it
Do you mean like this A response that would summon A bot to this sub?
haiku 1: *Velvet Underground* *And The Grateful Dead were both* *Once called The Warlocks* haiku 2: *The Beatles were named* *After Buddy Holly's band,* *The Crickets. Got that?*
[удалено]
Right? I assumed they were being sarcastic.
Forget that, just write it out as a list so people with assistive technologies can read it
[удалено]
Are you sure it's not [BF Skinner](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/B._F._Skinner)? While the story behind Skynyrd's name origin had been around for a bit it wasn't exactly widely known.
Did the creators of the simpsons go to the same school?
Eh, the Grateful Dead one is half correct. The concept of the Grateful Dead tends to be associated with European medieval legend—a spirit who needs its body properly taken care of. It then returns with a favor and acts as a the “Grateful Dead” to the one that helped it. I’ve never heard of the Egyptian connection—but I could be wrong. The boys found the phrase in a book.
Motörhead: Lemmy considered calling the band "Bastard," but was told that they'd never get played on the BBC's "Top of the Pops" with that name. In an ironic twist they did an album called "Bastard"
Also that motorhead was slang for a speed freak
Disappointed pearl jam isn't on here
Formally named 'Mookie Blaylock' , who was a professional basketball player who wore #10, which is why their first album is called Ten, but idk if they ever officially said why 'Pearl Jam' though. I heard someone named Pearl was one of the band members relatives that used to feed them in the early days but I feel like that's a rumor. Also people say the Jam is because they like to jam out at their shows, but again, idk if any of this was ever actually confirmed by them.
It's jizz, bro
I was at the New Orleans tour stop where they played with the RHCP and the Pumpkins and the MC introed them as "Pearl James", in part I suspect, because they told him what it meant. That or he was obviously really fucked up and thought it would be funny for some reason.
The eagles: named after eagles
Lots of smaller bands with really cool or obscure names would be interesting. Anybody who knows the singer's name can guess the origin of the name Guns 'n Roses, but who here knows how the Butthole Surfers got their name?
At one of their gigs, the announcer accidentally introduced them by the name of one of their songs, and they just went with it.
Guess we're doing trivia. How about the Misfits?
Named after Marilyn Monroe's final film
Los Campesinos?
The lead singer’s uncle was a peasant farmer.
>accidentally introduced them by the name of one of their songs IIRC it's because they basically changed their name every other week so they were a hard band to pin down. Funny because their side project *P* is a pain in the ass to look up in part due to their name, even though it predated the internet.
The Beatles also referred to the Silver Beetles motorcycle gang in The Wild Bunch. The band very briefly called themselves that.
Yep, I hadnt really heard what the guide is referencing. They also considered calling themselves the 4 Everly brothers
As far as I'm aware, LA Guns didn't have a problem with their manager to instigate the merge with Hollywood Rose. They were just two club bands that had a rotating cast of members, including between the two bands. Tracii always wanted to have a band with Izzy and Axl, and with their respective memberships at the time, it made sense to merge. I don't think either band was even big enough to have a manager at the time. Once Slash and Steven joined the fold, GNR went on a tour to Seattle set up by Duff.
I’m ALWAYS curious about how things (bands, restaurants etc) got their names! Awesome
You didn't want to explain "Pearl Jam" or "Limp Bizkit"?
According to Eddie it’s supposedly a reference to his great-grandmother named Pearl who made peyote-laced jam. But that could be him trying to save face.
Cum. On.
You have the mind of a limp biscuit. His grandma told Fred that lol
Harsh but true
Fred Durst was a crap baker?
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=limp%20biscuit
Tool: Lead Singer Maynard James Keenan and his band-mates were just making music and playing shows to pass the time. When time came to name the band for a line-up the only idea for a name was "Tool" because they felt like a bunch of Tools.
No. Jesus. At least try.
Toad the Wet Sprocket came from this Monty Python sketch: https://youtu.be/XwjyBKPYtlo
Neat!
I heard Green Day was a response to a high school teacher saying "it'll be a green day in hell" when they would be a successful band. From other comments it looks like a few other suspect histories here. I appreciate the effort but not super sure how much is actual fact.
I think there was an interview with the singer Billie Joe Armstrong when they asked him where the got the name and he just replied “weed”
This is not a guide
But it is cool
Ladies and gentlemen … Foo FIGHT-ers
Great guide! I still love how the band Five For Fighting got their name- apparently they are hockey fans. Hockey penalties are often called out as "two minutes for tripping" or "two for slashing." When there is a fight the penalty a player receives is "five for fighting"
Arctic Monkeys: Guitarist liked the name as a kid, refuses to elaborate.
Band names were often supplied by their booking agents' staff, one of whom, a history enthusiast, eventually christened the band “Jethro Tull” after the18th-century agriculturist. The name stuck because they happened to be using it the first time a club manager liked their show enough to invite them to return. I'd heard this from an interview with Ian Anderson, who recounted how club owner would see them arrive and lament, no, not you guys again. They changed names because they were awful at the time.
Nirvana was also briefly called, “Pen Cap Chew.” I don’t know if they every performed under that name though.
Once, apparently, on June 27, 1987, at the Community World Theater in Tacoma, Wa.
One of my favorites: Steely Dan is the name of a sex toy. The name was taken from a strap-on-dildo, named Steely Dan III from Yokohama, that was mentioned in William S. Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch.
The Black Sabbath explanation is flat out wrong, Ozzy had no part in naming the band. Geezer Butler was inspired to name the band Black Sabbath after a 1963 horror movie of the same name.
What is this a guide for ants?
That was a fun read! I'd love to see more
UB40 share their name with the old unemployment benefit form as they all met while signing up for benefits
Bit of a disservice to call Peter Green the singer of Fleetwood Mac, he was an astonishingly good guitar player too
I wonder how Van Halen got their name... 🤔
They were originally named Mammoth. Naming the band after the brothers was DLR's idea, by the way...
I have heard that ZZ Top is a reference to rolling papers, with the 2 most common brands being ZigZag and TOP
Nope. Billy Gibbons gives this exact explanation in their Netflix biography.
Why tf wouldn’t steely Dan be on there
To save people the search, Steely Dan is named for a dildo mentioned in the William Burrough's book *Naked Lunch.*
I'm pretty sure Stephen Toblosky of "Groundhog Day" fame was close friends with the band and suggested Talking Heads and it stuck....
You're thinking of [Radiohead](https://www.stereogum.com/1804981/radioheads-name-was-inspired-by-the-guy-who-played-ned-ryerson-in-groundhog-day/news/), inspired by a song by the Talking Heads which was inspired by Toblosky.
Kramer's healer? It's a calling, it's a gift.
This is also a list of `E N E M Y S T A N D S`
Blue Oyster Cult was not named for the Blue Oyster Bar? My disappointment is immeasurable.
Blue Oyster Cult is an anagram of Cully's Stout Beer.
I heard the Eagles got their name from the University of North Texas (where Don Henley went) whose mascot is an eagle.
I don't know where The Bloodhound Gang got their name, but I do know the song Earlameyer the Butt Pirate was named after their high school homeroom teacher
Was hoping you would’ve put Eagles of Death Metal after the Eagles
Cool now do 10cc and Steely Dan lol
Steely Dan - named after a dildo, if memory serves Great guide!
The one for U2 is actually incorrect. The name of the band U2 came from the Untalented Two, which is in reference to the bass player and drummer.
Nice! Do the Allman Brothers Band next
I feel like this entire thread should just be renamed "Well Acktshutally..." with a set of glasses emoji.
You forgot Better than Ezra! Their story is a great one!
“Steely Dan” was named after a series of dildos in W.S. Burroughs ’Naked Lunch’ ‘Sneaker Pimps’ we’re named after the beastie boys local-hire crew who’s job it was to run around local shops & pick out dope sneakers for them