ABBA ? Abba is ?father? in Hebrew but the band claims that to be unintentional ? rather it is an acronym for the first names of the band members: Agnetha, Bj?rn, Benny and Anni-Frid (Frida).
AC/DC ? 1) It is said that one of the band member saw it on an appliance and thought it had something to do with power. (It does mean ?alternating current / direct current?.) The band used it not realizing it was also slang for a bisexual- the band claims NOT to be bisexual.
2) In the vogue of other anti-everything bands it stands for Against Christ/Devil?s Children.
ALICE IN CHAINS ? a funny rumor is that they were named after a lost episode from The Brady Bunch series!
AMBOY DUKES ? Ted Nugent?s original band ? taken from the title of a 1940?s book about street gangs by Irving Shulman.
ANTHRAX ? A dangerous bacteria that used to infect many cattle in Europe & could be used for terrorism.
ASPHALT BALLET ? The name came from a motorcycle accident Julius was in where the motion of the bike rolling over on the asphalt road was termed an ?Asphalt Ballet.?
AQUA ? suggested by a Danish AQUArium poster that was hanging in their recording studio.
BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY ? this neo-swing band takes its name from what legendary bluesman Albert King wrote as an autograph for the band?s leader, Scotty Morris? ?To the big bad voodoo daddy.?
B-52?s ? The beehive hairstyle popular in the 1950?s (worn by band members) was called a B-52 after a type of large US Air Force bomber plane with that designation.
BACKSTREET BOYS ? The Backstreet Market was a store in Florida where the guys used to hang out.
BAD COMPANY ? A 1972 modern cowboy movie starring Jeff Bridges.
BAD ENGLISH ? One day the band members were playing pool and thinking about a name for the
band. John Waite went to take a shot and missed. Someone made a comment on how bad his ?English? was ? English referring to the spin you put on a ball according to where on the ball your stick hits.
BAUHAUS ? an artsy name, after a style of graphic design and famous school of architecture.
BEASTIE BOYS ? According to Michael Diamond, BEASTIE stands for Boys Entering Anarchistic
Stages Towards Internal Excellence.
THE BEATLES ? 1) original member Stuart Sutcliffe came up with THE BEETLES , as a play on Buddy Holly?s group THE CRICKETS who they loved. They were using the name THE QUARRYMEN and sometimes THE SILVER BEETLES ? later it became THE BEATLES emphasizing the BEAT aspect of music (and poetry?). 2) Lennon lists the influence of the film ?The Wild One?, which featured a motorcycle gang called the Beetles (unconfirmed). John Lennon is generally credited with combining Beetles and Beat to come up with THE BEATLES spelling. Lennon was also fond of saying he had a vision as a child of a flaming pie in the sky that said ?You are Beatles with an ?A?
JOHN CAFFERTY and the BEAVER BROWN BAND ? did the classic soundtrack to the movie Eddie and the Cruisers. The band from the Cranston Rhode Island area was practicing in one of
the band member?s garages when they saw a Dutch Boy paint can that was called Beaver Brown.
THE BEE GEES ? the 60?s soft-rockers now best known for disco. ?Saturday Night Fever? ? some say the BG comes from ?Brothers Gibb? since they were brothers named Gibb? however an article on the group suggests that they used the names of 2 friends that helped them get started: Bill Goode and a DJ named Bill Gates? I?ll go with the first version.
BELLE and SEBASTIAN ? was a French T.V. series in the early seventies about a little boy and his dog, a Saint Bernard named Belle. Belle was put to sleep after she injured another child.
THE BLACK CROWES ? it was originally named Mr. Crowe?s Garden, after a favorite children?s book. They sang under that name until they signed with Def American Records in 1989. They renamed themselves at the suggestion of a producer.
BLACK SABBATH ? from a 1960?s cheap horror movie starring Boris Karloff , suggesting a holy day of witchcraft.
BLACK UHURU ? Uhuru is Swahili for freedom, therefore ?Black Freedom?.
BLIND MELON ? slang for an out-of-work hippie (Weren?t they all?) ? they were called that by Shannon H?s dad ? also recalls an old blues singer, Blind Lemon ? Melon being an anagram for Lemon.
BLINK 182 ? Blink 182 supposedly has NO meaning at all but the band fosters stories on origins. Sample: used to be just ?Blink? but was threatened by a lawsuit from a little known Irish band with the same name, so they added the 182 which is the number of times the f-word was said in one of the members favorite movies.
THE BLOODHOUND GANG ? was a segment on the PBS kid?s show 3-2-1 Contact! in the 80?s
about 3 kids who were detectives, solving mysteries and fighting crime and such.
BLOTTO ? source:
http://www.blotto.net/ ? ?Blotto actually began as the Star Spangled Washboard Band, a bluegrass combo with plenty of country corn. With their live show, ? Radar Beans ? and tracks like ?I Get a Charge Out of You? and the medley ?The Battle of New Orleans / Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor,? the Washboard Band received enough acclaim to appear twice on the televised Mike Douglas Show. Then the group folded. Four alumni from the Washboard Band continued their musical careers by performing monthly at the Saratoga club ?17 Maple Avenue?. They later added a bass player, a drummer and a female vocalist, and renamed their band Blotto, after the dog in the 1930?s novel Nightlife of the Gods.? 2) the word is also slang for being totally drunk.
BLUE CHEER ? 60?s nickname for high-quality LSD, and coincidentally a brand of laundry detergent (the band used the detergent idea on their album cover with ?New, Improved, Blue Cheer? ? surprised they didn?t get sued for it.
BON JOVI ? from the New Jersey bandleader Jon Bon Jovi, whose real name is John Bongiovi, Jr.
BOOKER T. & THE M.G.?S ? Booker T. led the band and M.G. stands for Memphis Group not the once-popular car.
DAVID BOWIE ? born David Jones, he changed his name to avoid confusion with David (Davy) Jones of THE MONKEES.
BUCK CHERRY ? possibly a goof on the often heard speaking disorder wherein the speaker will interchange the first letter{s} in two successive words i.e. ?I have just received a Blushing Crow
{crushing blow} Metallica uses such a device in their album entitled ?Cunning Stunts.? Buck Cherry would then equal Chuck Berry, famous classic rocker.
CHERRY POPPIN? DADDIES ? the leader of this modern big band, Steve Perry, says it comes from an old R&B record and that it ?sounded sexy.?
WENDY / WALTER CARLOS ? Walter Carlos was a synthesizer composer who had a big hit with ?Switched on Bach?, after getting a sex change operation, he became she and goes under the name Wendy.
http://www.wendycarlos.com/
CASSANDRA COMPLEX ? an allusion to Greek mythology; Cassandra had the gift of prophecy with the curse of no one ever believing her
CHEAP TRICK ? they say the band members asked a Ouija Board what they should call themselves.
CHICAGO ? Their first album was released as ?Chicago Transit Authority?, but the city of Chicago sued them because Chicago Transit Authority is the name of Chicago?s public transportation department so they shortened it. Don?t record companies check these things before they release them?
CHUBBY CHECKER ? the host of American Bandstand (once the most popular American music TV show) Dick Clark?s wife thought up the name as a take off on singer Fats Domino. Chubby ?invented? the dance called ?the twist?
CHUMBAWAMBA ? In a band member?s dream, he didn?t know which door to use in a public toilet because the signs said ?Chumba? and ?Wamba? instead of ?Men? and ?Women?
COLLECTIVE SOUL ? a term used in the popular novel ?The Fountainhead?, by Ayn Rand.
COLOR ME BADD ? Sam Watters said the name was an attempt to remove racial, sexual and musical overtones ? ?If you want to color us as anything, color us as badd.? Originally called TAKE 1 (but another group was using the name), Jon Bon Jovi asked them to open a Bon Jovi / Skid Row concert with ?Daddy?s Home? sung a capella. Jon said, ?You guys think you?re pretty bad. Let?s see how bad you are in front of 15,000 people.?
COUNTING CROWS ? Comes from old English nursery rhyme which had to do with predicting the future from the numbers of birds seen. Originally the rhyme was about magpies, but as people came over to America, crows were used instead. From the song ?A Murder of One? one of the versions of the rhyme goes ?one for sorrow, two for joy, three for girls, four for boys, five for
silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told?? Adam Duritz liked the rhyme?
THE CRANBERRIES ? originally called Cranberries Saw Us ( a joke on Cranberries SAUCE) they changed it to the shorter form later.
CREED ? This popular Florida band was named after former bassist Brian Marshall?s
earlier band Mattox Creed.
www.creednet.com
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL ? unconfirmed origin: after Norvel Creedence, a friend of John Fogerty?s . His favorite beer was called Clearwater, after a brief absence from the marketplace it was re-introduced by another brewery ? hence Creedence Clearwater Revival.
THE CULT ? Goth/Rock band ?The Cult? were once known as ?The Sudden Death Cult?, then
shortened to ?Death Cult?, then finally just ?The Cult?.
DEACON BLUE ? took their name from a song of the same name by STEELY DAN.
DEF LEPPARD ? Joe Elliot, lead singer, wanted to use the idea provided by the band Led Zeppelin?s logo and transformed what he originally had as deaf leopard.
THE DEFTONES ? Because when they started out, people thought they were so bad
that they called them tone deaf ? transposed to def tones.
DEPECHE MODE ? from the name of a fashion magazine, meaning hurry up fashion
DEVO ? shortened form of ?de-evolution? ? the opposite of evolution ? expressing the band?s opinion on what the planet is going through.
DEXY?S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS ? named themselves after the slang term for a pep pill called DEXEDRINE even though the band themselves had a policy of no drink or drugs!
DION AND THE BELMONTS ? BELMONTS after a street in their Bronx, New York neighborhood where they would hang out & sing street corner harmonies.
DMX - Dark Man X
DOOBIE BROTHERS ? a doobie was 60?s slang for a marijuana joint.
THE DOORS ? Jim Morrison read poet William Blake who said ?if the doors of perception are cleansed, everything would appear to man as it truly is, infinite. ?He was also influenced by author Aldous Huxley who referred to the same line when he titled his book on drug experimentation The Doors of Perception. ?There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors? Official Doors web site is at
http://www.thedoors.com/
DURAN DURAN ? named after a character in the Jane Fonda movie Barbarella.
BOB DYLAN ? His real name is Robert Zimmerman ? he liked the poet Dylan Thomas.
DYNAMITE HACK- A line in the movie Caddyshack describing marijuana.
THE EAGLES ? originally called TEEN KING AND THE EMERGENCIES , they liked the American sound of Eagles and the way it was aligned with THE BYRDS who had a great influence on them.
ELTON JOHN ? Real name: Reginald Dwight. Created from two other British musicians: Elton Dean and Long John Baldry.
EMINEM ? from his real name Marshall Mathers he took M&M and rewrote it phonetically as Eminem.
EVERCLEAR ? Named after the ?Everclear? brand of 190 proof grain alcohol used to make dangerous alcoholic drinks.
EURYTHMICS ? a method of music instruction from the 1890?s that emphasizes physical response to the music..
EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL ? from an ad for a British clothing store that would sell you ?Everything but the Girl? that you saw in the ad.
EVE 6 ? a phrase they heard in an X FILES episode.
FASTBALL ? from a porno film the band saw ? Mike Zuniga says it was ?a typical porno movie but about baseball. It?s like a really raunchy Bull Durham.?
FOO FIGHTERS ? a term used by World War II pilots to describe strange flying fireballs they sometimes saw.
FLEETWOOD MAC ? a simple one. They just took the last name of drummer Mick Fleetwood and a form of bassist John McVie?s last name.
FAITH NO MORE ? named after a race horse they saw listed on a racing form.
FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE ? the name of a garden center on Route 46 in Wayne, New Jersey.
http://home.earthlink.net/~johncw/fo.../gen_info.html
GARBAGE ? Either lead singer Shirley Manson?s father yelled down to the band at one of their basement practice sessions, ?Play more quietly ? you sound like garbage.? or from a friend of Butch Vig (the drummer of Garbage), who said ?This stuff sounds like garbage!? check their site at
http://www.garbage.com/
GENESIS ? The first book in the Bible ? their first album?s title was ?From Genesis to Revelation?
GIN BLOSSOMS ? slang for the ?blossoms? (burst blood capillaries) on the face particularly the nose from drinking too much alcohol ? in the late 1800?s gin was a popular cheap alcoholic drink.
GODSMACK ? The metal band ?Godsmack? was much thought to be named after the Alice in
Chains song of the same name. But according to the band they arrived at the name after one band member made a particularly inappropriate comment and another remarked ?God will smack you for that one?. Hence forth one would receive a ?Godsmack? for bad behavior.
GO BETWEENS ? from a film directed by Joseph Losey.
GOO GOO DOLLS ? used to be called the Sex Maggots, and when they were told that local newspapers wouldn?t print that name, Jonny Rzeznik picked up a magazine from the early 60?s with an ad for a doll that cried Goo Goo when you turned it upside down.
GOLDFINGER ? after the James Bond movie.
GRAND FUNK RAILROAD ? a version of ?The Grand Trunk Railroad? ; a Michigan landmark.
THE GRATEFUL DEAD ? originally called The Warlocks, Jerry Garcia found out that another band had the same name. Supposedly, he looked in a reference book at random and found a folk tale about a troubled soul who is put to rest by a traveler. The spirit then helps the traveler with his own quest.
GREEN DAY ? 1) It may have come from the sci-fi movie Soylent Green when they said ?Tuesday is soylent green day.? Soylent green was a food produced by a corporation to feed the way overpopulated masses; turns out they were also making it from the masses! 2) Another story is that when they dropped out of school to be musicians, their principal said ?It?ll be a green day in hell before you make anything of yourselves?. 3) Some say that in drug slang ? if you smoked pot and goofed off all day, it was a ?Green Day.?
GUNS ?N? ROSES ? originally two bands L.A. GUNNS and HOLLYWOOD ROSES. Hollywood Roses was headed by Axl Rose, Tracii Guns headed the other band which also featured Slash. The two frequented clubs and played there and were friends.