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Posted in music | music history on October 13, 2006
Rock Band Name Origins
DURAN DURAN
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.
BEASTIE BOYS - According to Michael Diamond, BEASTIE stands for Boys Entering Anarchistic Stages Towards Internal Excellence.
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. (tour dates)
DAVID BOWIE - born David Jones, he changed his name to avoid confusion with David (Davy) Jones of THE MONKEES.
CREED - This popular Florida band was named after former bassist Brian Marshall's earlier band Mattox Creed.
DURAN DURAN - named after a character in the Jane Fonda movie Barbarella.
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 Izzy. The two frequented clubs and played there and were friends.
RADIOHEAD - Named after a Talking Heads' song called "Radio Head."
RAMONES - Paul McCartney used to call himself Paul Ramone. The Ramones all use the last name Ramone even though it's not their given name.
TALKING HEADS - probably from the video jargon for a camera shot showing only the head & shoulders of a person. Newscasters are usually shown this way and it makes for boring TV. Another story says they were inspired by a military experiment involving talking mannequin heads.
U2 - Three possibilities: 1) A type of spy plane used by the United States in the 1960's - made famous when Gary Powers' U2 plane was shot down over Russia and he was taken as a
prisoner during the Cold War. 2) U2 as in "you too" referring to the audience and its role in the musical experience 3) a U2 is an unemployment form in Ireland (see UB40)
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Those and more right here. (via)
Posted on October 13, 2006 2:23 PM
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Comments (13)
Not to split hairs, but Slash was never in L.A. Guns, it was Izzy Stradlin.
Posted by Yr Factchecking Cous' | October 13, 2006 2:46 PM
Not to split hairs, but Slash was never in L.A. Guns, it was Izzy Stradlin.
Posted by Yr Factchecking Cous' | October 13, 2006 2:48 PM
Not to split hairs, but Slash was never in L.A. Guns, it was Izzy Stradlin.
Posted by Yr Factchecking Cous' | October 13, 2006 2:49 PM
Not to split hairs, but Slash was never in L.A. Guns, it was Izzy Stradlin.
Posted by Anonymous | October 13, 2006 2:50 PM
And David Bowie decided on Bowie because he though that being named after a bowie knife was baddass. Pretty funny given his stage persona in those years...
Posted by matty | October 13, 2006 3:07 PM
the u2 spy plane was shotdown the day bono was born.
Posted by Anonymous | October 13, 2006 3:22 PM
the u2 spy plane was shotdown the day bono was born.
Posted by Anonymous | October 13, 2006 3:26 PM
all of the above are wrong.
Posted by Rob_C | October 13, 2006 3:37 PM
Given the convention for designating military planes, the spy plane was actually the U-2.
And the last name of frontiersman Jim (if I recall his first name correctly) Bowie, the namesake of the knife, is pronouned BOO-ee.
Posted by nitpicker | October 13, 2006 3:55 PM
Ben Folds' Five - Chosen because Ben Folds gives wicked awesome high fives.
Posted by Dave | October 13, 2006 3:56 PM
Fleetwood Mac - named because on the day of their first gig, there was a fleat of wooden mac trucks on the road that day.
get it...fleat...wooden...mac.....
So, anyway, a guy walks into a bar...
Posted by richard | October 16, 2006 4:52 PM
"The Ramones all use the last name Ramone even though it's not their given name."
Given names are first names. Surnames are last names.
Maybe you mean "The members of the Ramones use the last name 'Ramone,' even though it's not their actual surname."
Posted by none | October 16, 2006 10:27 PM
oh man, quoting from that page was the worst idea.
Posted by brooklynvegan | October 16, 2006 10:38 PM