Adam Dolgins - The Big Book of Rock & Roll Names

As Spinal Taps David St. Hubbins so eloquently put it, Its such a fine line between stupid and clever. And that certainly holds true for the names of rock bands. Some are brilliant, some are terrible, and some are brilliantly terrible.

When researching the stories for this book, one thing became clear: its hard to come up with the perfect band name. Or, for some bands, any name at all. When Dennis DeYoung of Styx was asked how they chose their name, his short answer was, It was the name that no one in the band hated. Said Ed Rowland of Collective Soul, Thats basically the only name we could decide on.

Similarly Albert Hammond Jr. of the Strokes recalled, Wed come in with all these bad namesthe de Niros, the Rubber Bands, the Motels, Flattop Freddie and the Purple Canoesand no one would agree. One day were in the studio after practice and Julian said The Strokes. And everyone was like That sounds great!. It was that easy. Five guys agreeing.

Paul Stanley of KISS remembered, I was driving my 63 Plymouth Grand Fury on the Long Island Expressway, and the name suddenly came to me. I remember thinking to myself, God, I know this is the right name, I hope I dont get any grief from the other guys. I told them I thought the band should be called KISS and I held my breath, waiting for some sort of response, and everybody went, Yeah, that sounds pretty good.

Beyond the challenges inherent in any democracy, another hurdle for bands is coming up with something unique. As Susannah Hoffs of the Bangles observed, Thats one of the hardest things about being in a bandcoming up with a name... that hasnt been taken or used in some form already. Her band began as the Bangs, only to learn that another band was using the name, hence the change to the Bangles. For similar reasons, Dinosaur became Dinosaur Jr., the Beat became the English Beat, and Roxy became Roxy Music.

Back in the pre-internet days, the sudden arrival of a cease and desist notice was often a bands first inkling there was another band out there with the same name. Usually by that time the band was established enough to be playing shows and even putting out records, so a name change was inevitably traumatic.

Now, thanks to Google, fledgling bands can avoid such a fate with a thorough web search. But while the web may benefit bands as a research tool, it also holds pitfalls for those whose names are similar to other words or phrases. Chvrches was compelled to use a Roman V when they realized web search results would have them buried under local houses of worship. The Lumineers have been battling for search engine dominance with a company that makes dental veneers with the same name.

One phrase that youll find throughout this book is It just stuck. Or, in some cases, we were stuck with it. This is because many bands never expected to last as long as they did. As Tracey Thorn of Everything but the Girl recalled, We really thought wed just be making one single or something and we chose this throwaway, disposable name, and... were stuck with it.

Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons noted, Your name, you never really think about it when youre in the pub. Youve done your first rehearsal, youve written your first song, and someones like, You need a band name now. And were all, you know, young guns and didnt really think about it very much. And then of course your band name eventually starts preceding you... If Id known it was going to go this way, I would have wanted to call it anything other than my last name. Its a ball-ache. We thought about changing it, but its a bit late now.

I find these stories endlessly fascinating. Even names that on the surface seem pretty straightforward often have unexpected origins. Some, like the Rolling Stones and Cat Power, are hastily chosen when a show needs to be booked or a song distributed. Others have been in the works for years, like the Arctic Monkeys, Aerosmith, and Smashing Pumpkins, which were all the stuff of youthful daydreams.

For me, some of my favorite stories involve unintended consequences. Nikki Sixx recalled that Motley Cres unconventional use of umlauts caused confusion on their first German tour, where all the kids were going, Mutley Cruh! and we were going, Huh? Mike Score of A Flock of Seagulls lamented, Once wed used the name as a live band, people started making seagull noisesArh, arh, arhand things like that. When Jimmy Eat World chose their name, they didnt realize it would lead to headlines like the following: JEW Uses Live Set to Keep Fans Enlivened.

In the end, one cant help but wonder to what degree a bands name helps it succeed, or conversely holds it back in some way. Does the name make the band, or does the band make the name? One name that is mentioned most often by other bands is the Beatles. The Beatles is a puna deliberately misspelled reference to beat music, a style that was popular in the UK in the early 1960s. As John Wetton of the band Asia observed, The Beatles is probably one of the worst names anyone ever came up with, but as soon as you get used to it, it represents the best band thats ever been. What a grotesque pun. Its horrible, a horrible pun. But in fact, once you get past that, its OK. Its just become a symbol of those four people.

Speaking of Asia, why in the world would four white guys from the UK call themselves that? Read the book and find out.

A is for AC/DC
Est. 1973

ABBA The name of the Swedish pop group, which formed in Stockholm in 1972, is an acronym made up of the four members first initials: Agnetha, Bjrn, Benny, and Anni-Frid. ABBA was originally intended as a play on words, because its the name of a well-known fish-canning company in Sweden, Abba Seafood, which sells products like caviar and pickled herring. At the time, the groups manager figured the name would work internationally because Abba Seafood wasnt familiar outside of Sweden. Today many more people have heard of the company, thanks to the Swedish furniture giant IKEA, which sells Abba products in many of its food markets around the world. The company officially granted the group permission to share the name in 1974.

ABC The English pop band began in Sheffield in 1980 as Vice Versa and changed their name when vocalist Martin Fry joined the same year. Fry explains, I wanted a name that would put us first in the phone directory, or second if you count ABBA; a name that didnt tie us to any one form of music; something big, bold, brash, and vague. It stands for nothing and everythinglike the Band.

AC/DC When brothers Malcolm and Angus Young started the band in Sydney, Australia, in 1973, it was their sister Margaret who suggested the name AC/DC after seeing the initials (an abbreviation of alternating current and direct current) on a sewing machine. They liked the name because it fit their high-voltage sound, forgetting, as one bio put it, that the word was also slang for bisexual. This association dogged them for a time, leading publicists to play up the band members heterosexual adventures whenever possible. AC/DC is pronounced one letter at a time, although in Australia some fans refer to the band as Acca Dacca.

ACE OF BASE The Swedish group, best known for the hits All That She Wants, The Sign, and Dont Turn Around, had its origins in a band formed by Jonas Joker Berggren in 1987 in Gothenburg, Swedens second largest city. That band went through a series of names, including Tech Noir, after a nightclub in the movie The Terminator, when Ulf Ekberg joined them in 1989. The following year they changed their name to Ace of Base. It was rumored that the name was inspired by a subterranean practice room where the four members were aces of the base(ment). Berggren told