Comments on: Bands named after songs

Question: Bands named after songs

TiredStarling — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 06:52:20 -0800

I'm concocting a list of (musical) artists whose songs have inspired band names. For example: Muddy Waters (Rolling Stones), Brian Eno (A Certain Ratio, Burning Airlines). Preferably the song title is the band name, but I'll also consider things like: Beatles (Yeah Yeah Yeahs). All contributions welcome!

By: Aknaton

Aknaton — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 06:56:06 -0800

Big Country
Bad Company
Bo Diddley

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

By: the cuban

the cuban — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:01:12 -0800

Morrissey (Ordinary Boys)
The Smiths (Gene)

By: k8t

k8t — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:05:13 -0800

World Leader Pretend (REM)

By: soundofsuburbia

soundofsuburbia — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:11:07 -0800

Sonic Youth (Eric's Trip)
Syd Barrett (Gigolo Aunts)

By: thayerg

thayerg — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:13:45 -0800

Bonzo Dog Band (Death Cab for Cutie)

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:14:28 -0800

The Old Ceremony (Leonard Cohen, "New Skin for the Old Ceremony."

By: elisabeth r

elisabeth r — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:16:35 -0800

Pretty Girls Make Graves (Smiths)
Paint It Black (Rolling Stones)
None More Black (Spinal Tap, sort of)

By: Item

Item — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:33:26 -0800

A Roman Scandal (Brian Eno yet again)

By: anagrama

anagrama — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:35:54 -0800

Talking Heads (Radiohead)
Roxy Music (Ladytron)

By: handybitesize

handybitesize — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:37:10 -0800

Deacon Blue (Stealy Dan)
Radiohead (Talking Heads)

By: scratch

scratch — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:37:53 -0800

Syd Barrett (Gigolo Aunts)

And Baby Lemonade too.

By: handybitesize

handybitesize — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:39:46 -0800

Stealy Dan??? - I'm so sorry. Steely Dan of course

By: sid

sid — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:44:00 -0800

Sister Machine Gun (a lyric from Skinny Puppy's 'Tim Omen')

By: Otis

Otis — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:47:58 -0800

Madness, named after a Prince Buster song.
Mussolini Headkick, named after a Cabaret Voltaire song.
Negativeland, named after a Neu! song.

By: librarina

librarina — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:48:31 -0800

The Hollies and the Beatles are varying degrees of related to Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:51:53 -0800

Deep Purple - named after a Bing Crosby song called Deep Purple
Pretty Things - named after a Bo Diddley song called Pretty Thing
Boys Don't Cry - named after a Cure song

By: wackybrit

wackybrit — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:20:32 -0800

There's a newish band called Funeral For A Friend, also an Elton John track. No idea if it came from that though.

By: davey_darling

davey_darling — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:22:27 -0800

Rancid (Sick Boys)

By: togdon

togdon — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:26:11 -0800

The Mountain Goats - named after Screaming Jay Hawkins' "Big Yellow Coat"

By: dinah

dinah — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:39:25 -0800

Primal Scream (Velocity Girl)

By: Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:45:19 -0800

- Urge Overkill comes from a lyric in a Parliament song (it's on Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome, but I can't remember which song right now)
- the newish band Go-Kart Mozart takes its name from Springsteen's "Blinded by the Light," so far as I can tell

By: dobbs

dobbs — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:49:37 -0800

Just an FYI, there's no E in Negativland (the song or the band).

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:50:20 -0800

Bonzo Dog Band (Death Cab for Cutie)

Via The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour.

By: honeyx

honeyx — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:51:23 -0800

In My Eyes (Minor Threat)

By: saladin

saladin — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:57:20 -0800

Texas is the Reason is named after a Misfits song.

By: annathea

annathea — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 10:00:21 -0800

Leonard Cohen (Sisters of Mercy)

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 10:05:54 -0800

Umm. Toad the Wet Sprocket, named after a band in a Monty Python skit on a record (which is *like* a song...). Rex Stardust, lead electric triangle for Toad the Wet Sprocket...

By: dmo

dmo — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 10:19:11 -0800

Radio Birdman (from a song on the Stooges Fun House album)
The Shins was the name of a song on Flake Music's only album. But Flake Music turned into the Shins, so I don't know if that counts for your purposes.
Johnny Thunders took his name from a Kinks song (not exactly what you're looking for)

By: dmo

dmo — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 10:29:09 -0800

I just learned that "radio birdman" is probably a mishearing of "radio burnin". For what it's worth.

By: dmo

dmo — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 10:31:56 -0800

Also, googling for "bands named after songs" (without quotes) brought up a lot of promising looking results. That's all, I promise.

By: nylon

nylon — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 10:48:48 -0800

Cocteau Twins is a Simple Minds song.
Moonshake is a Can song.
Rip Rig & Panic is a Rahsaan Roland Kirk song (and album).
Kids Who Tell On Other Kids Are Dead Kids is a Nation of Ulysses song.
Interzone is a Joy Division song.
Sweet Exorcist is a Curtis Mayfield song.
Scott 4 are named after a Scott Walker album.
Slowdive are often thought to be named after a Siouxsie & the Banshees song, but they aren't.
Kylie Minogue is a SATANICPORNOCULTSHOP song.*

*ha ha, see what I'm doing there? I'm messing around with cause and effect. This one doesn't actually count at all.

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 10:55:56 -0800

Tragically Hip (Elvis Costello)

By: Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:00:11 -0800

- Ian Broudie's one-man band The Lightning Seeds took its name from a misheard lyric in Prince's "Raspberry Beret": "The thunder drowns out what the lightning sees."
- I seem to dimly recall the existence of a band called Ella Guru, named after the Beefheart song of the same name.

By: Item

Item — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:03:42 -0800

Motörhead / Hawkwind
Blonde Redhead / DNA
Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her / XTC
Warsaw - early name of Joy Division / variation of David Bowie's "Warszawa"
Radio 4 / PiL
Spoon / Can (and I would like to take this opportunity to exclaim that Spoon may just be the most overrated band of the last 20 years)

By: UKnowForKids

UKnowForKids — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:11:38 -0800

The Old 97's are named after "The Wreck of the Old 97." It's not a Johnny Cash-penned song, but they took their name from his version of it.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:12:35 -0800

I have heard that the Tragically Hip got their name from a Mike Nesmith (of the Monkees) song.

By: barjo

barjo — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:25:12 -0800

Back in the 1960's there was a band called Mystery Trend. They misheard Dylan's lyric about the "Mystery Tramp".

Also - The song "Funkentelechy" by Parliament features the phrase "Urge Overkill".

By: kenko

kenko — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:28:25 -0800

Henry Cow (Ruins)
Magma (Wiedorje, but "Wiedorje" the Magma song was written by the guy who left and founded Wiedorje the band)
King Crimson (Happy Family)
Captain Beefheart (Fast 'n' Bulbous, brass Beefheart cover band)

By: nylon

nylon — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:46:55 -0800

Dr. Wu reminds me of another:
Dali's Car, who I guess are named after the Captain Beefheart song.
(btw, Dr. Wu - Ella Guru is a band as well as a female solo artist - they're both named after the Beefheart track)

Also:
If Six Was Nine are named after the Jimi Hendrix song.
Mainliner is a High Rise song (as with Magma though, personnel are shared between the two bands).
I imagine that Transona Five were named after the Stereolab song, but I'm not certain.

By: weiailei

weiailei — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 12:05:58 -0800

John Wesley Harding aftery Dylan's John Wesley Harding.

By: .kobayashi.

.kobayashi. — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 12:24:38 -0800

The Sea & Cake were named after a misinterpretation of a Gastr De Sol song that was actually titled "The C in Cake"

By: themadjuggler

themadjuggler — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 13:39:25 -0800

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names is ripped out of the Silver Jews song "People."

Bonus: The name Silver Jews itself wasn't inspired by a song, but by two band names: the Silver Apples and the Silver Beatles.

By: stevil

stevil — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 13:45:56 -0800

I think Sky Cries Mary was a mishearing/remembering of Wind Cries Mary (Hedrix).

I think there's a band playing in SF these days (though they may not be local) called Aqua Lung (a Jethro Tull song)

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 13:50:25 -0800

I don't want to nitpick but wouldn't that be:

Traditional [as performed by Muddy Waters] (Rolling Stones)

Though I guess he did call the song "Rollin' Stone". Then again Robert Wilkins did put out the song "Rolling Stone" in 1928. Maybe it should be Robert Wilkins (Rolling Stones), they did make versions of his song "That's no way to get along" and called it Prodigal Son." I guess we should be glad they didn't call themselves the Mannish Boys.

By: Grangousier

Grangousier — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 14:17:56 -0800

Eno again - wasn't there a band called The Warm Jets?

By: Skyanth

Skyanth — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 22:42:49 -0800

Dr. Feelgood's song "Roxette" inspired... Roxette.

By: TiredStarling

TiredStarling — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:20:32 -0800

Great answers, folks! Thanks!

Pollomacho: I guess we should be glad they didn't call themselves the Mannish Boys

Oo-er! That reminds me! David Bowie/Jones's first band was the Mannish Boys.

By: kokogiak

kokogiak — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 19:22:50 -0800

Godsmack got their name from an Alice in Chains song, I believe.